The Seventeenth century was characterized by numerous fights, uprisings and economic crisis. During that time, pestilence and famine affected the European continent as well as many other places. The Seventeenth century was extremely important for human beings as, in this period of time, due to the development of science and astronomy, people’s certainties collapsed. In fact, people understood they were not in the centre of the Universe, which brought them to see the world from a more mysterious point of view. As regards literature, the Seventeenth century was called “Baroque” by critics and reviewers from the Eighteenth century and it is characterized by the large use of metaphors and the desire to astonish and produce drama. But Baroque is not only the poetry of drama. It brings also to the development of the mock-heroic poem, of the commedia dell'arte, of treaty, of poem and of novellas written in dialect. The most important artist who wrote novellas in dialect was Giambattista Basile, a famous writer born in Naples in 1570. Basile started to publish his works at the beginning of the Seventeenth century, however he is remembered for his works written in Napolitan, the dialect spoken in Naples. Between his works it is important to mention: some letters, Le muse napoletane and his masterpiece, the Pentamerone. This work is the most important collection of folktales written during the Baroque period. Basile started to write it in 1615, but it was published posthumously, between 1634 and 1636. The Pentamerone contains fifty tales and the most relevant are: La Gatta cenerentola, Gagliuso, Petrosinella and Sole, Luna e Talia. Thanks to other authors, like Perrault, these tales became Cinderella, Puss in boots, Rapunzel and the Sleeping Beauty. This masterpiece has been translated in many languages and editions. The most important translation was written by Benedetto Croce, who translated the masterpiece from Napolitan to Italian. Basile’s Pentamerone recalls many features of Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron. In fact, both literary works consist in a collection of stories contained in a frame. The difference between them consists in the fact that the Pentamerone was written as a fairy-tale, whereas the Decameron presents more realistic features. Even though the Decameron includes ten -and not five- days and storytellers, all the stories begin in the same way. Due to the temporal distance between the two writers, the style of the two literary works is different, but their framework is very similar. As regards fairy tales, we must not forget to mention Vladimir Propp, a scholar who studied popular traditions and folklore. Propp analysed the framework of many fairy tales and identified seven main characters and thirty one functions covered by these characters. The most important Giambattista Basile’s fairy-tale is La Gatta cenerentola. This fairy-tale, as well as other fairy-tale, is structured as follows: summary of the story, comment of the previous tale, moralizing ideological openness, story and final proverb. If we summarize the story and analyse it accordingly to Propp’s theory, we can identify twenty two functions and the following characters: Zezolla, the two stepmothers, the servant, the doves, the father, the fairy, the king and the six stepsisters. All the characters are grouped according to Propp’s Fairytale’s morphology. In La Gatta cenerentola it is possible to observe two relevant psychological changes: Zezolla and the second stepmother turned from mean to good and vice versa. In all the stories, including those contained in the Pentamerone, there are magical elements, which can be represented as characters or objects and which role is to help the hero when he is in danger. In La Gatta cenerentola it is possible to identify the following magical elements: the talking dove, fairies of Sardinia, the broken promise, the blocked vessel, the date, the fairy, the magic formula, the coach, the clothes and the hero who is not recognized. Another very important element which is often present in fairy tales is the metamorphosis which could be temporary or permanent. Zezolla’s metamorphosis is temporary, whereas the metamorphosis of the date which turns into a fairy is permanent. The style used by Basile is typically Baroque, as he used exaggerated metaphors and Neapolitan dialect. In fact, his language is pompous, repetitive, full of contrasts and completely unnatural. La Gatta cenerentola is widespread throughout the world and, for this reason, its origins are varied. There are also several Italian versions of the story. Between them, we can mention the one in which Cinderella is a magic chicken or another one in which Cinderella is forced to marry the father. However, in all stories, the main character is always a female, whereas less importance is given to other characters.