| Summary: | The passions, the crimes and the terrible death of Bianca Maria, countess of Challant are reported in a chronicle, then related by Bandello in one of his novellas (1554) later translated into many languages. Once translated, the story changes. The writers moralize the original story, avoid every inexplicable event and give a providential and coherent explanation of Bianca Maria’s life. The goal of this article is to understand the reasons for these changes, through the analysis of the relation between fiction and ethics. It shows that the ethical use of fiction changes at the end of the sixteenth century, affecting narrative practices and the structure of novellas.
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