Serendipity language was by Horace Walpole in 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a (lost) painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari by reference to a Persian fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip". The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of". The name comes from "Serendip", an old name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), hence "Sarandib" by Arab traders. It is derived from the Sanskrit "Siṃhaladvīpaḥ" (Siṃhalaḥ, Sri Lanka + dvīpaḥ, island).
The Love for Three Oranges (fairy tale) The Love for Three Oranges (fairy tale) "The Love for Three Oranges" or "The Three Citrons" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the "Pentamerone". It is the concluding tale, and the one the heroine of the frame story uses to reveal that an imposter has taken her place. It is Aarne-Thompson type 408, and the oldest known variant of this tale. It was the basis for Carlo Gozzi's commedia dell'arte scenario by the same name, and for Sergei Prokofiev's opera, "The Love for Three Oranges". Italo Calvino included a variant The Love of the Three