facetia

Facetia (singular; plural: facetiae) is a European literary genre from the Renaissance consisting of short humorous stories, jokes, jests, witticisms or drollery, often obscene or coarse.

The first printed joke book is Facetiae (full title: Poggii Florentini Oratoris clarissimi facetiarum liber) by Poggio Bracciolini, first published in 1470 and reprinted many times, although earlier manuscripts of this type are known, e..g., Libellus de facetiis Rudolfi regis ("A Little Book with Facetiae about King Rudolph") by a Strasbourg clergyman , which contained anecdotes about Rudolf I of Germany (erroneously attributed to a certain Albertus Argentinensis). Since then many other authors printed collections of facetiae, in Latin, and later in other European languages.