Bandello, Matteo

Bandello, Matteo

▪ Italian author and bishop
born 1485, Castelnuovo Scrivia, duchy of Milan [Italy]
died 1561, Agen, France

      Italian writer whose Novelle (stories) started a new trend in 16th-century narrative literature and had a wide influence in England, France, and Spain.

      A monk, diplomat, and soldier as well as a writer, Bandello was educated at Milan and the University of Pavia. He frequented the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and knew Niccolò Machiavelli. Bandello was entrusted with the education of Lucrezia Gonzaga, to whom he dedicated a long poem. The material for his Novelle was destroyed in the Spanish attack on Milan (1522), and he fled to France. In 1550 he was made bishop of Agen and spent the remainder of his life in France writing the stories on which his reputation rests.

      Bandello's 214 tales were published in four volumes between 1554 and 1573. They are frequently daring or sensual in the manner of Boccaccio's Decameron and provide valuable insights into the social intrigues of Renaissance Italy. Though his stories are rich in dramatic and romantic elements, Bandello, unlike his contemporaries, did not aim at classical dignity in narrative style.

      In the 1560s and '70s Bandello's stories were translated into both French and English, and the English translators took the liberty of adding a severe moral tone to the tales. The stories provided the themes for several important Elizabethan plays, notably Shakespeare's (Shakespeare, William) Romeo and Juliet (1594–95), Much Ado About Nothing (1598–99), and Twelfth Night (1601–02), and John Webster (Webster, John)'s The Duchess of Malfi (1613–14). Bandello's influence can also be discerned in French and Spanish literature.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • BANDELLO, Matteo — (1485 1561) Matteo Bandello was a Dominican priest and courtier whose life and novelle reveal the vicissitudes of the tumultuous political environment of sixteenth century Italy. Bandello, born in Castelnuovo Scrivia in Lombardy, was educated… …   Renaissance and Reformation 1500-1620: A Biographical Dictionary

  • Bandello, Matteo — (1485 1561)    Italian courtier and author, born in Lombardy. He entered the Dominican order at Genoa about 1504 but eventually abandoned his monastic vows and pursued a career as court poet at the princely courts of Ferrara and Mantua and in the …   Historical Dictionary of Renaissance

  • Matteo Bandello — (French: Mathieu Bandel) (c. 1480 – 1562) was an Italian writer. Biography Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona (current Piedmont), c. 1480 or 1485. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem… …   Wikipedia

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  • Matteo Bandello —     Matteo Bandello     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Matteo Bandello     Born at Castelnuovo di Scrivia in Piedmont, Italy, in 1480; died Bishop of Agen, France, in 1565. [According to other sources, he was born in 1485 and died in 1561. Ed.] He… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Bandello — Bandello, Matteo, ital. Novellist, geb. 1485 in Castelnuovo (Provinz Alessandria), gest. nach 1561, ward zu Rom Dominikaner, lebte eine Zeitlang in Mantua (1537) als Lehrer der Lucrezia Gonzaga, zu deren Preis er ein Gedicht in elf Gesängen… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Bandello — Bandello, Matteo, geb. um 1480 zu Castelnuovo im Piemontesischen; wurde Dominicanermönch; als Anhänger der französischen Partei ging er, als Karl V. siegte u. die Spanier sein Eigenthum zerstörten, nach Frankreich, ward 1550 Bischof zu Agen,… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Bandello — Bandello, Matteo, ital. Novellendichter, geb. 1480 zu Castelnuovo in Piemont, Dominikanermönch, 1550 Bischof zu Agen in Frankreich, gest. 1562; schrieb schlüpfrige »Novelle« (1554 73 u.ö.; deutsch 1818 19) …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Bandello — Bandello, Matteo, geb. 1480 zu Castelnuovo in Piemont, Dominikaner, Anhänger der Franzosen, floh vor Karl V. nach Frankreich, wo er Inhaber der Einkünste des Bisthums Agen wurde, st. 1582, Novellendichter, nach Bocaccio der beliebteste in Italien …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

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