Francois de Belleforest wrote.
François de Belleforest ( 1530 -- 1 January 1583 ) was a prolific French author , poet and translator of the Renaissance . Belleforest wrote on cosmography , morals , literature and history , and he translated the works of Matteo Bandello , Boccaccio , Antonio de Guevara , Lodovico Guicciardini , Polydore Vergil , Saint Cyprian , Sebastian Münster , Achilles Tatius , Cicero and Demosthenes into French . He is also the author of the first French pastoral novel , La Pyrénée ( or La Pastorale amoureuse ) ( 1571 ) modeled on the Diana of Jorge de Montemayor . His most successful work was most likely his translation and adaptation of the `` histoires tragiques '' by the Italian Matteo Bandello , which built on the work of Pierre Boaistuau and eventually amounted to seven volumes ( 1564-1582 ) .