BENEDETTO GERVASIO (1915-1990) WAS ARGUABLY the most famous and best puppet-master of the province of Bergamo. In the late 1940s, he and his wife, Giuseppina Cazzaniga, decided to commit themselves to the art of puppeteering, which occupied them until his death. In 1993, the Benedetto Gervasio Foundation was set up, and Museo del Burattino was eventually opened in 2019.

Benedetto was instrumental in breathing life into Ol Giopì, a mask traditional to Bergamo. The earliest evidence of Ol Giopì is a 14th-century painting recently discovered in a local church. His main characteristic is three goiters, which he flaunts as if they were jewels. Crafty and rough around the edges, Ol Giopì is a porter and a farmer by trade, professions that he does not practice, preferring occasional less tiring earnings.