, a celebrated Italian novelist, was born at Castelnuovo in the
, a celebrated Italian novelist, was born at Castelnuovo in the district of Tortona,
where he remained for some years, under the patronage of
his uncle Vincenzio Bandello, general of the order, of Do^
minicans, with whom he also travelled through various parts
of Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, where it was the
4uty of the general to inspect the convents of his order.
After the death of his uncle, at the convent of Altomonte in
Calabria, in 1506, Bandello passed a considerable part of
his time at the court of Milan, where he had the honour of
instructing the celebrated Lucretia Gonzaga, in whose
praise he wrote an Italian, poem, which still remains, and
where he formed an intimacy with many eminent persons
of the age, as appears from the dedicatory epistles prefixed
to his novels. Having early enrolled himself in the order
of Dominicans, in a fraternity at Milan, he entered deeply
into the ecclesiastical and political affairs of the times, and
after various vicissitudes of fortune, obtained at length, in
1550, the bishopric of Agen in France, conferred on him
by Henry II. but being fond of the poets, ancient and
modern, addicted himself much more to the belles lettres
than to the government of his diocese. He filled the episcopal chair of Agen for several years, and died about 1561,
at the chateau de Bazens, the country seat of the bishops of
Agen. His monument was erected in the church of the
Jacobins du port St. Marie. He had resigned the bishopric
of Agen in 1555, when his successor, Janus Fregosa, son of
the unhappy Cæsar, assassinated by the marquis de Guast,
had attained his twenty-seventh year. Henry II. who had
a regard for the Fregosas, Jiad agreed with the pope, on the
death of the cardinal de Lorraine, bishop of Agen, to give,
by interim, this bishopric to Bandello, till Janus should
arrive at the age required. Bandello consented to this arrangement, and gave up the see according to promise.
The best edition of his novels is that of Lucca, 1554, 3
vols. 4to, to which belongs a fourth volume, printed at
Lyons in 1573, 8vo. This edition is scarce and dear.
Those of Milan, 1560, 3 vols. 8vo, and of Venice, 1566,
3 vols. 4to, are curtailed and little esteemed but that
of London, 1740, 4 vols. 4to, is conformable to the first.
Boaisteau and Belleforest translated a part of them into
French, Lyons, 1616, et seq. 7 vols. 16mo. It is entirely
without reason that some have pretended that these novels
are not by him, but were composed by a certain John Bandello, a Lucchese, since the author declares himself to be
of Lombardy, and even marks Castelnuovo as the place of
his nativity. On the other hand, Joseph Scaliger, his contemporary and his friend, who calls him Bandellus Insuber,.
positively asserts that he composed his novels at Agen.
Fontanini is likewise mistaken in making him the author of
a Latin translation of the history of Hegesippus, which he
confounds with the novel of Boccace entitled Sito e Gisippo, which Bandello did really translate into Latin. We
have by him likewise the collection of poems beforementioned, entitled “Canti xi. composti del Bandello,
ilelle lodi della signora Lucrezia Gonzaga,
” &c. printed
at Agen in