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Overview

Crane recounts a Venetian domestic spirit called Massariol through Bernoni’s final legend. A man returning from business at night finds a basket holding an infant and brings it home from the cold. His wife places the foundling beside their own child, but it disappears while the couple briefly leave the room. She wonders whether it was Massariol. On the balcony, the husband sees a figure that resembles a man without being one, clapping and laughing at him before vanishing. The identification of the apparently rescued child is suggested within the account, rather than supplied as an ordinary infant’s biography.

Further pranks include avoiding ferrymen’s charges, impersonating a baker’s boy to collect bread and leaving it in a public place, and moving drying washing so its owners must search. The woman who related the stories to Bernoni characterizes Massariol as a joker rather than a malicious being. She also says that the Holy Office has confined him with witches and other supernatural figures, admitting that she does not know where. That final assertion is preserved as her narrative explanation, not as documentary proof of an actual trial, imprisonment or historical eradication.

Apparently human disguiseDisappears suddenlyMoves domestic possessionsLaughs at deceived household
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Origins & earliest records

Crane, Italian Popular Tales (1885), Discussion following LXXI, p. 237; identified source: Bernoni’s ninth Venetian legend and narrator remarks.

02

Records & interpretation

The complete located selected account and its framing identify the supernatural visitor’s actions and ending. Oral narration, editorial condensation and comparative parallels are attributed to their particular witnesses.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Italian Popular Tales: Discussion following LXXI, p. 237

    Thomas Frederick Crane; source: Bernoni’s ninth Venetian legend and narrator remarks · 1885

    Complete located selected account and its attached framing; individual original collector’s text not separately collated here.

Family & connections

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References

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  1. Primary literary witnessCrane 1885: Discussion following LXXI, p. 237Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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