Matteo Bandello Twelve Stories

by Matteo Bandello, Percy Edward Pinkerton (Translator), Monika Weikel (Translator)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 ...her lover was downstairs, feigned sudden indisposition, and told all her servants to go to bed. Hereupon the men-servants all went out of the house to sleep, as it was Carnival-time, and their master was away, leaving only the old cellarer and two pages, lads of about fourteen years, at home. The women of the house went to their beds; and, when she knew that they were all sleeping, Camilla crept downstairs with the maid, as quietly as she could, to fetch Cornelio up to her chamber. While all this was going on, the watch happened to pass along the street. The head of the police at that time was a certain Monsignor Sandio, a very tall, big man, such as one seldom sees, who as his lieutenant had one Mombojero. Having heard of the fray (which was now over), and finding a groom in the service of Signor Galeazzo Sanseverino (Master of the Horse to his most Christian Majesty the King) half dead, and his body still warm, the captain of the watch called up the neighbours, and sought to know from them how the fight began. But these could tell nothing, save that they had heard a great outcry and clash of arms. Then one of them suddenly said that he had seen a tall fellow, sword in hand, go into Madonna Camilla's house, at whose threshold the dead groom lay. So the officer went thither, and, knocking loudly, called out in French, "What ho, there! Let me in!" At this the lovers were greatly terrified, as they believed that some spy had found out that Cornelio was there. Camilla had only just joined her gallant in the room below, and was about to give him an affectionate embrace, he doing likewise, when, lo and behold! the watch knocked at the door. Startled by the noise, Cornelio, quick as thought, clapped two stools one upon another, and, helped by Camilla an...

Genres: Renaissance

66 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 4, 2014

About the author

Matteo Bandello (c. 1480–1562) was an Italian writer, mostly known for his novellas.

Matteo Bandello was born at Castelnuovo Scrivia, near Tortona (current Piedmont), c. 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 (1554, 1573), 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 French fabliaux[citation needed], 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 (Much Ado about Nothing, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night in particular) 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.

French language record: Mathieu Bandel