author
William A. Painter
Best known for The Palace of Pleasure, this 16th-century English writer and translator helped bring Italian and classical tales into English. His lively collection became a rich source for later Elizabethan drama, including stories that echoed through Shakespeare.
1 Audiobook
Metal Spinning
by C. Tuells, William A. Painter
About the author
An English author and translator of the Tudor period, William Painter is chiefly remembered for The Palace of Pleasure, a major collection of translated stories first published in 1566, with a second volume following in 1567. Drawing on writers such as Boccaccio, Bandello, and other European sources, he made popular continental tales available to English readers in an accessible form.
Painter was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, and was ordained before taking government work as clerk of the Ordnance at the Tower of London. Alongside his literary work, he also translated historical and moral texts, showing a wide interest in both storytelling and public affairs.
His lasting reputation comes from the influence of The Palace of Pleasure on Elizabethan literature. The book served as a story treasury for dramatists, and several of its tales are linked to plots later used by Shakespeare, which gives Painter an important place in the background of English Renaissance drama.