Matteo Bandello
Matteo Bandello (* around 1485 (1480?) In Castelnuovo Scrivia , Italy ; † 1561 (1565?) In Agen , France ) was an Italian poet .
Bandello became a Dominican , but led an eventful life: at times he also worked as an educator, diplomat and soldier. After a long stay in Milan he became tutor of the famous Lucrezia Gonzaga in Mantua , to whom he dedicated a detailed poem. Niccolò Machiavelli was one of his many acquaintances . During the conflict around Milan (1520-25) he was a supporter of the French party and lost his legacy. As a result, he fled to France. In 1550 he was finally appointed Bishop of Agen by King Henry II . There he spent his twilight years as a writer.
Bandello wrote 214 short stories based on the model of Giovanni Boccaccio . They reveal considerable poetic abilities and "are characterized by naive and drastic representation, but also partly by the great slipperiness of the content" (Meyers Konversationslexikon). With this, Bandello established a new trend in the literature of the late Renaissance , which strongly influenced his colleagues in France, Spain and England in the following decades. The first three volumes appeared in 1554, a fourth followed in 1573.
Some of his short stories were used by William Shakespeare as models for his plays. The best-known and most important template is the one about the tragic death of two unhappy lovers Romeo and Giulietta ( La sfortunata morte di due infelicissimi amanti , Novelle II, 9). Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night are also said to be based on Bandello's models.
A novella by Bandello served John Webster as inspiration for his tragedy The Duchess of Malfi .
Web links
- Literature by and about Matteo Bandello in the catalog of the German National Library
- Bandello's works : text, concordances and frequency lists
- Works by Matteo Bandello in the Gutenberg-DE project
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Jean de Lorraine-Guise |
Bishop of Agen 1550–1555 |
Janus Fregoso |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bandello, Matteo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1485 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Castelnuovo Scrivia , Italy |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 1562 |
| Place of death | Agen , France |