Andrea Mangiabotti,Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age''. Collection: La Pochothèque. (Paris: Fayard, 1992. ), pp. 62–63. called Andrea da Barberino ( 1370–1431''The Cambridge History of Italian Literature'', Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 168.) was an Italian writer and ''cantastorie'' ("storyteller")Ludovico Ariosto, ''Orlando Furioso'', translated with an introduction by Barbara Reynolds (London: Penguin Books, 1975), Part I, Introduction, p. 58. of the

Quattrocento The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento (, , ) from the Italian word for the number 400, in turn from , which is Italian for the year 1400. The Quattrocento encom ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

. He was born in Barberino Val d'Elsa, near

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

and lived in Florence. He is principally known for his prose romance epic ''

Il Guerrin Meschino ''Il Guerrin Meschino'' ("Wretched Guerrin") is an Italian prose chivalric romance with some elements of verisimilitude, written by the Italian ''cantastorie'', systematizer and translator from French Andrea da Barberino, who completed it abou ...

'', his ''I Reali di Francia'' ("The Royal House of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

"), a prose compilation (in the form of a chronicle) of the Matter of France epic material concerning

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...

and Roland (''Orlandino'') from various legends and chansons de geste, and for his ''Aspramonte'', a reworking of the chanson de geste '' Aspremont'', which also features the hero

Ruggiero Ruggiero () is an Italian spelling variant of the name Ruggero, a version of the Germanic name Roger, and may refer to: As a surname *Adamo Ruggiero (born 1986), Canadian actor * Angela Ruggiero (born 1980), American hockey player *Angelo Ruggie ...

. Many of his writings probably derive from Franco-Italian works, such as the ''Geste Francor'', that includes versions of the stories of ''Reali di Francia'' and dates to the first half of the fourteenth century.Pio Rajna, ''Ricerche intorno ai Reali di Francia''(Bologna,Romagnoli, 1872) His works, which circulated at first in manuscript, were extremely successful and popular, and were a key source of material for later Italian romance writers, such as Luigi Pulci (''

Morgante ''Morgante'' (sometimes also called , the name given to the complete 28-canto, 30,080-line edition published in 1483See Lèbano's introduction to the Tusiani translation, p. xxii.) is an Italian romantic epic by Luigi Pulci which appeared in ...

''),

Matteo Maria Boiardo Matteo Maria Boiardo (, ; 144019/20 December 1494) was an Italian Renaissance poet, best known for his epic poem ''Orlando innamorato''. Early life Boiardo was born in 1440,

(''

Orlando Innamorato ''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the " I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a rom ...

'') and Ludovico Ariosto ('' Orlando Furioso'').

Works

Andrea da Barberino wrote the following works: * ''

I Reali di Francia ''Attack of the Moors'' ( it, I Reali di Francia), also known as ''The Kings of France'', is a 1959 Italian adventure film directed by Mario Costa and starring Chelo Alonso, Rik Battaglia and Gérard Landry. Plot Cast * Chelo Alonso as ...

'' ("The Royal House of France") * ''

'' * ''Ajolfo del Barbicone'' (reworking of the French ''Aiol'') * ''Ugone d'Alvernia'' (adaptation of the Franco-Italian ''chanson de geste'' ''

Huon d'Auvergne ''Huon d'Auvergne'' is an early modern romance-epic written in Franco-Italian, a hybrid literary language. ''Huon d'Auvergne'' has remained largely unedited, with only selected segments appearing in print. Far better known is the Tuscan prose versio ...

'', with the first chapter of the final book alternating ''terza rima'' and prose in the published edition) * ''Storie Nerbonesi'' (prose adaptation on the Old French ''chanson de geste'' '' Narbonnais'' and eight other ''chansons'' concerning Aymeri de Narbonne and Guillaume d'Orange) * ''

e Storie d' E, or e, is the fifth Letter (alphabet), letter and the second vowel#Written vowels, vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worl ...

spramonte'' (adaptation of the Old French ''chanson de geste'' '' Aspremont'' * ''Ansuigi'' (possibly also by Andrea) Gloria Allaire, ''Andrea da Barberino and the Language of Chivalry'' (Gainesville, FL: UP of Florida, 1997).

References

External links

Further Bibliography
on ARLIMA

An abridged translation of Andrea's cycle by Max Wickert {{DEFAULTSORT:Barberino, Andrea da Italian poets Italian male poets Italian Renaissance writers 1370s births 1431 deaths People from Barberino Val d'Elsa 14th-century Italian writers 15th-century Italian writers 15th-century storytellers