Matteo Bandello

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Matteo Bandello

Matteo Bandello (c. 1480 – 1562) was an Italian writer.

eo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia

Castelnuovo Scrivia

Castelnuovo Scrivia is a comune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italy region Piedmont, located about 90 km east of Turin and about 20 km northeast of Alessandria....
, near Tortona

Tortona

*For the medieval scholar, see Marziano da TortonaTortona is a comune of Piemonte, in the Province of Alessandria, Italy. Tortona is sited on the right bank of the Scrivia between the plain of Marengo and the foothills of the Ligurian Apennines....
(current Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 Regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 km? and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital is Turin. The main local dialect is Piedmontese....
), about the year 1480 or 1485. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology

Theology

Theology is the study of the existence or attributes of a deity or gods, or more generally the study of religion or spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective , and religious studies as the study of religion from an external perspective....
. For many years he lived at Mantua

Mantua

Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the Province of Mantua of the same name.Mantua is surrounded on three sides by artificial lakes created during the 12th century....
, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga

Lucrezia Gonzaga

Lucrezia Gonzaga di Gazzuolo was a 16th century Italian noblewoman admired for her literary talents, and best-known for her association with Matteo Bandello....
, in whose honour he composed a long poem.

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Biography

Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia

Castelnuovo Scrivia

Castelnuovo Scrivia is a comune in the Province of Alessandria in the Italy region Piedmont, located about 90 km east of Turin and about 20 km northeast of Alessandria....
, near Tortona

Tortona

Piedmont

Theology

Mantua

Lucrezia Gonzaga

Battle of Pavia

The Battle of Pavia, fought on the morning of February 24, 1525, was the decisive engagement of the Italian War of 1521. A Spanish-Imperial army under the nominal command of Charles de Lannoy attacked the French army under the personal command of Francis I of France in the great hunting preserve of Mirabello outside the city walls....
, as a result of which Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region....
was taken by the emperor, compelled Bandello to flee; his house at Milan

Milan

Milan is the second largest city of Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. It is the capital in the Province of Milan, as well as the Regions of Italy capital of Lombardy....
was burnt and his property confiscated. He took refuge with Cesare Fregoso, an Italian general in the French service, whom he accompanied into France.

He was later raised to the bishopric of Agen, a town in which he resided for many years before his death in 1562. Bandello wrote a number of poems, but his fame rests entirely upon his extensive collection of Novelle, or tales (1554, 1573), which have been extremely popular. They belong to the same genre as Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italy author and poet, a friend and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanism and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular....
’s Decameron and Marguerite of Navarre’s Heptameron
Heptameron

The Heptameron is a collection of 72 short stories written in French language by Marguerite of Navarre . It has the form of a frame narrative and was inspired by the Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio....
. The common origin of them all is to be found in the old French fabliaux, though some well-known tales are evidently Eastern, and others classical. Bandello’s novellas are thought the best of those written in imitation of the Decameron, though Italian critics find fault with them for negligence and inelegance of style. The stories on which William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
based several of his plays (Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a Shakespearean tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young "Star-crossed" whose untimely deaths ultimately unite their feuding families....
and Twelfth Night in particular) were supplied by Bandello, probably through Belleforest

François de Belleforest

Fran?ois de Belleforest was a prolific France author, poet and translator of the French Renaissance. He was born in a poor family and his father was killed when he was seven....
or Paynter

William Painter

William Painter , English author, was a native of Kent. He matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge, in 1554. In 1561 he became clerk of the ordnance in the Tower of London, a position in which he appears to have amassed a fortune out of the public funds....
.

External links

of "Centro Studi Matteo bandello e la Cultura Rinascimentale" (Italian Language)
: text, concordances and frequency lists