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There’s anecdotal evidence of archives of bons mots and jokes being collected as early as the fourth century BC, and a Greek joke book called Philogelos, “The Laughter-Lover,” survives from the fourth or fifth century ad—just as facetiae were collected in the Renaissance and lists of off-the-rack jokes supposedly suitable for best man’s speeches proliferate on the Internet.

The troopers behind, too much occupied by their potations, and the facetiae of the attendants who administered them, saw not that little bit of shining steel, that, in the habile hands of the ex-footpad, was fast severing the cords that confined Henry Holtspur to his place.

Somewhat less outspoken than Balzac in his "Droll Stories," and less verbose than Boccaccio, Machen proves himself the peer of either in gay, irresponsible, diverting, unflagging invention, while his diction is lovelier than that of any of his forerunners, including the nameless authors of those rich Arabian tapestries which were the parent tales of all mediaeval and modern facetiae.

Andrea was something of a wit and is quoted in the Facetiae of Domenichi.

He was the most remarkable of a class of charlatans, others of whom bore the names of Gaultier-Garguille, Gros-Guillaume, etc., and the work which goes under his name is typical of a large mass of facetiae.