Italian writer of prose tales, was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia near Tortona, Piedmont (then in Lombard territory) about 1480 and was educated by the Dominicans at Milan and at the University of Pavia. He joined the Dominican Order, but after the death of his uncle, its general, he abandoned the church.
Background
Bandello ranks as the major Italian writer of tales in the sixteenth century, not only because of the large number which he wrote, but because of his influence and the fact that he raised the tale from a popular genre to a form of literature acceptable to the aristocracy and the learned. Three volumes, containing 186 tales in all, were published at Lucca in 1554. A fourth, containing 28 tales, appeared posthumously at Lyon in 1573.
Education
Matteo received a very careful education: he was educated at Milan and the University of Pavia.
Career
As a courtier, he served first the Bentivoglio family, then the Gonzagas and others, amidst the warfare and political strife which were rocking northern Italy. In 1529 he entered the service of Cesare Fregoso, remaining with him until his assassination in 1541. In 1542 he accompanied Fregoso's widow into southern France, where Francis I had provided a refuge for the family at Bassens.
Instead of using a conventional frame-story, Bandello introduces each of his tales with a letter dedicating it to a contemporary. In these letters he describes the circumstances in which he says he has heard the tales told, representing himself as having merely transcribed them. Originally taken at their face value, these accounts are now recognized to be wholly or largely fictional, although the characters are historical. They represent Bandello's original variation on the frame-story device and add much to the interest of his book, especially for their picture of contemporary society.
By means of the partial French translation by Boaistuau (1559), completed by Belleforest (1580), Bandello's tales reached England, where they were drawn on by Shakespeare and others. Most notably, it was Bandello's reworking of the tale of Romeo and Juliet by Da Porto that received currency in France and England and furnished the plot for Shakespeare's tragedy.