Italian romance of the 17th century is rich, interesting and completely unknown to the reader. Brancaleone is the first example of it to appear in Russian translation. It can be called a novel of education, only it is dedicated to the education of... a donkey. The main character, sold from his parents' stable in his youth, moves from one owner to another, listening to a myriad of stories that should teach him intelligence, while the author gives his adventures a moral and political interpretation to teach the reader. Plot basis - The Wanderings of the Intelligent Ass - taken from the novel by Apuleius; inserted short stories - from Aesop's fables, picaresque literature and other sources; This bizarre fusion of disparate elements places Brancaleone somewhere between a novel and a genre familiar to Italian literature—the framed collection of short stories.