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Walter Scott seems to have been particularly interested in the outlaw as a figure who might have led a happy life but is turned aside into a life of crime. It is likely that he was working on Bizarro when in residence at Rome, since there is an account from two sources of how he showed the incomplete story to a German visitor. Sir William Gell presents a consistent view of Scott as having little real interest in Italy and its Classical history. However, had he been able to read Bizarro, he would have found that the reality was rather different. The scenario constructed by Gell, in which Scott was largely impervious to what was going on, was distinctly misleading. Many of Scott's changes simply correct mistakes of which he became aware either as he wrote or later. Bizarro emerges as a worthy conclusion to Scott's long series of prose narratives.

Just before leaving Naples, Walter Scott resumed his Journal, which had been in abeyance for several weeks, and narrated the story which was to become the primary basis of his last piece of fiction, Bizarro. While Scott clearly based his novella on this oral account, he also incorporated into it another story told to him in Naples. Francesco Moscato, known as Il Bizzarro, was a real historical figure, who attracted his nickname by the ferocious extravagance of his character and behaviour. Scott retained the nickname for his fictional hero, but gave him a new Christian name and surname. At the time of Scott's visit to Naples in 1832, Francis' son, Ferdinand II, was king; born in 1810 and only recently ascended to the throne, he is the ‘present young king’ referred to in Bizarro.

The Siege of Malta and Bizarro by Walter Scott are preserved principally in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. Substantial extracts from The Siege of Malta were included in Donald Sultana's detailed description of the work and the circumstances of its composition, ‘The Siege of Malta’ Rediscovered. Unlike The Siege of Malta, Bizarro has remained wholly unpublished. The Siege of Malta and Bizarro are the last two products of the creative urge that so daunted Iain Crichton Smith in 1971. They are offered to scholars and general readers for their enlightenment and enjoyment, in the belief that the works will be found helpful as they seek to understand more fully the significances personal, national and international of the phenomenon that was and is Sir Walter Scott.

The chapters included in Bizarro are expounded in this chapter. Without attempting to arrange the history of Bizarro in its proper order, it relates one incident that bore deep upon Domenichino's character, and appears to have actually proved decisive of his fate. Wegweiser was at first regarded with some suspicion in the village and its vicinage. The chapter then addresses the scene in which the keeper Hubert Wegweiser is left wending homeward in conversation with his assistant Antonio, whom he had brought up, not without a view to his succeeding him in his office if he should after a certain time appear deserving of the situation. It would seem that the evilly disposed perpetrators had disturbed the old man by an entrance through the window of the store room, which had proved somewhat noisier than they had expected.

In this diplomatic transcription of Bizarro, the principles and practices outlined in the headnote to the transcription of The Siege of Malta apply, and the reader is referred to that headnote for further detail. The basic rule of thumb is that where the letters can be clearly distinguished, they are reproduced as they appear; and where they are not clearly distinguishable, but where Walter Scott's intention is clear, the word is given in its usual form. Scott seems to add an extra connecting stroke with certain letters such as ‘y’. The transcription attempts to present Scott's words as nearly as possible as they are written, even when it is very clear that the normal spelling would differ from what Scott uses. On the other hand, in the reading text, the editors present what they believe to have been Scott's underlying intentions for individual words, rather than what he actually wrote.