WEBVTT - The Monstrefact: Monaciello

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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<v Speaker 2>Hi. My name is Robert Lamb and this is the

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<v Speaker 2>Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow

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<v Speaker 2>Your Mind, focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.

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<v Speaker 2>When I was a kid, my aunt gave me a

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<v Speaker 2>number of volumes from the Time Life Enchanted World book series,

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<v Speaker 2>which was originally published between the years nineteen eighty four

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<v Speaker 2>and nineteen eighty seven. I love these books growing up,

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<v Speaker 2>and in recent years I've been steadily accumulating the volumes

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<v Speaker 2>that I missed out on because I didn't have a

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<v Speaker 2>complete collection when I was a kid. Over Christmas, my

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<v Speaker 2>family gave me the nineteen eighty five volume Dwarves, and

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<v Speaker 2>it of course contains some excellent retellings of Norse mythology.

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<v Speaker 2>There's some tales of mining spirits, which we have of

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<v Speaker 2>course discussed on the show before, and like all volumes

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<v Speaker 2>of the world, Dwarves contains excellent artwork, including a number

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<v Speaker 2>of dwarf illustrations by the legendary Wayne Anderson. This is

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<v Speaker 2>the guy who illustrated the nineteen seventy nine book Flight

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<v Speaker 2>of Dragons, which was made into an animated film that

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<v Speaker 2>we've discussed on Weird House Cinema. There's a section in

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<v Speaker 2>the book titled a Sampling of Dwarf types, and this

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<v Speaker 2>is where we see multiple Wayne Anderson illustrations, and one

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<v Speaker 2>illustration and in particular, depicts a slightly mustachioed but otherwise

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<v Speaker 2>clean shaven dwarf dressed in red cardinal robes and a

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<v Speaker 2>wide brimmed grillo hat. He holds a staff and stands

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<v Speaker 2>beside an open treasure chest. This is the Munachello or

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<v Speaker 2>little Monk of Naples, Italy, as the art indicates. He

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<v Speaker 2>was said to guard hidden treasure and would part with

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<v Speaker 2>some of it only to reclaim his splendid hat should

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<v Speaker 2>someone be lucky or tricky enough to steal it from him.

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<v Speaker 2>He could also be a bit of a trickster himself,

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<v Speaker 2>wealth stealing a person's clothes or even pinching them, we're told. So,

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<v Speaker 2>having read this, and not being familiar with this particular spirit,

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<v Speaker 2>I wanted to learn more. So I turned to a

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<v Speaker 2>few different texts. I turned to eighteen ninety three's Folklore

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<v Speaker 2>Volume four, edited by Jacobs at All and published by

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<v Speaker 2>the Folklore Society. They cite the seventeenth century Neapolitan fairy

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<v Speaker 2>tale collection Pentemeroni by Italian poet Jean Bautista Basila as

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<v Speaker 2>a key resource. The authors mentioned that the whole house

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<v Speaker 2>could sometimes become abandoned due to the nuisance of the

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<v Speaker 2>occupying Monticello, and that these little people otherwise lived in

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<v Speaker 2>the ravines of coastal Sorrento. As translator Nancy L. Canepa

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<v Speaker 2>points out in her translation of Basila's text that Monticello

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<v Speaker 2>can largely be thought of as a household or kitchen spirit,

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<v Speaker 2>engaging in both assistance and mischief. On the assistant side,

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<v Speaker 2>the spirit might aid the ladies of the house with

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<v Speaker 2>warnings of disaster, cures for illness, lottery numbers, and even

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<v Speaker 2>the location of buried treasure. I guess the lottery number

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<v Speaker 2>is kind of an upgrade of the tradition of bury

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<v Speaker 2>treasure information. The men of the house, however, would experience

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<v Speaker 2>none of these benefits, and instead have to put up

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<v Speaker 2>with them on a cellow, occasionally sneaking into their wife's bed.

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<v Speaker 2>General household mischief was said to consist of water faucets

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<v Speaker 2>and stoves mysteriously turning on or off, disappearing objects, and

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<v Speaker 2>so forth. So in some tellings quite beneficial. In other tellings, however,

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<v Speaker 2>the entity takes on a darker nature. In twenty twenty

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<v Speaker 2>three's Souls of Naples Corporeal Ghosts and Spiritual Bodies in

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<v Speaker 2>Early Modern Naples by ottore Vari, the author classifies the

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<v Speaker 2>entity as a kind of anti clerical incubus, a male

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<v Speaker 2>sex demon closely aligned with dreams and the experience of

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<v Speaker 2>night terrors, and in this case said to be linked

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<v Speaker 2>to melancholy. Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster, Fact,

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<v Speaker 2>The Artifact, or Anomali Stupendium each week. As all ways.

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<v Speaker 2>You can email us at contact at Stuffdblow your Mind

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<v Speaker 2>dot com.

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

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