Matteo Bandello was an Italian writer, soldier, monk, and later, a Bishop mostly known for his novellas.
Biography
Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona, 1480. He received a good education, and entered the church, but does not seem to have been very interested in theology. For many years he lived at Mantua and Castel Goffredo, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga, in whose honour he composed a long poem. The decisive Battle of Pavia, as a result of which Lombardy was taken by the emperor, compelled Bandello to flee; his house at Milan 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 on his extensive collection of Novelle, or tales, which have been extremely popular. They belong to the same genre as Boccaccio’s Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron. The common origin of them all is to be found in the old Frenchfabliaux, 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 based several of his plays were supplied by Bandello, probably through Belleforest and Pierre Boaistuau whose stories were later translated into English by William Paynter and included in his The Palace of Pleasure. Another of his stories includes "The countess of Cellant", a distortion of Challand, a northwest region of Italy.
The only nearly complete translation of Bandello's tales into English is "The novels of Matteo Bandello", translated by John Payne in 6 volumes, 1890. This edition is separated into 4 parts, containing 51, 43, 51, and 21 stories, respectively, for a total of 166, minus two, omitted because of their being almost identical to those of Marguerite the Navarre's Heptameron, respectively, though keeping Bandello's dedicatory preface. The Payne translation is a mixture of 19th and 16th century idioms. Examples of the latter include "an thou wilt" instead of "if you will", "wheneas" instead of "when", "methinketh" instead of "I think", "parlous" instead of "perilous". On most occasions, the language is clear and of fine literary value, but sometimes it is degraded with terms no one ever spoke or wrote. For example, instead of saying "Now I would gladly hear your advice on this matter", the duchess of Amalfi says: "Now I would fain hear from thee that which thou counsellest thereanent." There is a second book of Bandello in an English translation by Percy Pinkerton and containing twelve tales. This translation uses a more modern mode of expression.
