Andrea da Barberino

Who was Andrea da Barberino?

Andrea Mangiabotti, called Andrea da Barberino was an Italian writer and cantastorie of the Quattrocento Renaissance. He was born in Barberino Val d'Elsa, near Florence and lived in Florence. He is principally known for his prose romance Il Guerrin Meschino, his I Reali di Francia, a prose compilation of the Matter of France romance material concerning Charlemagne and Roland 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. 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, Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto.