Othello in popular culture uncensored profanity. "Othello", an adaptation by Oscar Zárate, Oval Projects Ltd (1985). It was reprinted in 2005 by Can of Worms Press and includes the complete text of the play. In January 2009, a manga adaptation was published in the United Kingdom, with art by Ryuta Osada. It is part of the Manga Shakespeare series by Richard Appignanesi, and is set in Venice in carnival season. Christopher Moore combines "Othello" and "The Merchant of Venice" in his 2014 comic novel "The Serpent of Venice", in which he makes Portia (from "The Merchant of Venice") and Desdemona (from "Othello") sisters. All
Othello is the model for Shakespeare's Othello, but some researchers believe the poet also took inspiration from the several Moorish delegations from Morocco to Elizabethan England "circa" 1600. Another possible source was the "Description of Africa" by Leo Africanus. The book was an enormous success in Europe, and was translated into many other languages, remaining a definitive reference work for decades (and to some degree, centuries) afterwards. An English translation by John Pory appeared in 1600 under the title "A Geographical Historie of Africa, Written in Arabicke and Italian by Iohn Leo a More..." in which form Shakespeare may have seen