BANDELLO, MATTED (c. 148o-1562), Italian novelist, was born at Castelnuovo, near Tortona. He received a very care ful education, and entered the church, though he does not seem to have prosecuted his theological course with great zeal. For many years he resided at Mantua, and superintended the education of the celebrated Lucrezia Gonzaga, in whose honour he composed a long poem. The decisive battle of Pavia, which gave Lombardy into the hands of the emperor, compelled Bandello to fly; 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. In 15So he was raised to the bishopric of Agen, a town in which he resided for many years. Bandello wrote a number of poems, but his fame rests en tirely upon his collection of Novelle, or tales which belong to that species of literature of which Boccaccio's Decamer on is the best known example. Their principal source is to be found in the old French fabliaux, though some well-known tales are evidently Eastern, and others classical. Historically, Bandello's tales are of interest for the insight they afford into the social life of the period and for the important influence they exercised on the Elizabethan drama. The plots of many Elizabethan plays were derived from Bandello, probably through Bellef orest or Paynter.