Matteo Bandello

Matteo Bandello (c. 1485 (1480 ) in Castelnuovo Scrivia, Italy;? † 1561 ( 1565) in Agen, France ) was an Italian poet.

Although Bandello was a Dominican monk, however, resulted in a changeful, little priestly life: he was at times also active as an educator, diplomat and soldier. After a long stay in Milan, he was in Mantua tutor to the famous Lucrezia Gonzaga - which he promptly dedicated a detailed poem. Among his numerous acquaintances proposals included Niccolò Machiavelli. During the discussions about Milan ( 1520-25 ), he was a supporter of the French party and lost his inheritance. As a result, he fled to France. In 1550 he was finally appointed by King Henry II appointed Bishop of Agen. There he spent his remaining years as a writer.

Bandello wrote 214 short stories modeled after Giovanni Boccaccio. Leave considerable poetic skills and recognize " distinguished by naive and dramatic acting representation, but partly also by large slipperiness of the contents of " ( Meyers encyclopedia ). This Bandello established in the literature of the late Renaissance a new trend in the following decades strongly influenced his colleagues in France, Spain and England. The first three volumes were published in 1554, followed by a fourth from 1573.

Some of his short stories were William Shakespeare as a template for his pieces. The best known and most important is the template for the tragic death of two unfortunate lovers Romeo and Juliet (La morte di sfortunata due infelicissimi amanti, novella II, 9). Even Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night should go back to templates Bandellos.

An amendment Bandellos John Webster served as inspiration for his tragedy The Duchess of Amalfi.