Prima dei Grimm, per madri e per bambini. Il romanzo "Genoveffa di Brabante" (1810) del canonico Christoph von Schmid (1768-1854) tra fiaba, leggenda, scuola e letteratura per l'infanzia

Christoph von Schmid was an important teacher and children’s writer in Bayern at the beginning of the XIX century. His literary opera was devoted, above all other motives, to school education and Christian edification of children and families: his novels and school texts had a real great diffusion among people of every European countries. And despite this ancient notoriety, at present the name and the works of Christoph von Schmid are almost completely forgotten. This article aims to examine the life, books and educational ideas of this German writer, mostly focusing on his novel Genovefa (Genevieve of Brabant) published in Germany in 1810, but very soon translated in a lot of other languages: for instance, this book was translated in Italian as early as 1813 and the story of Genoveva met in this country an incredible success for above a hundred years, especially among the poorest social classes. This article tries to identify new historical and pedagogical interpretations in order to define the influence of German educational ideas, starting from the Romantic Era, on children’s and adults’ imagery in Europe.