A Fifteenth-Century Dialogue on Literary Taste: Angelo Decembrio's Account of Playwright Ugolino Pisani at the Court of Leonello d'Este

A short dialogue in Angelo Decembrio's De politia litteraria (1462) describes the reception accorded by Leonello d'Este and his courtly literary circle to Ugolino Pisani, writer, comedian, and wellknown entertainer in the 1430s and ‘40s. The dialogue is a unique and valuable resource. It is perhaps the earliest document of its kind to disclose so vividly how an eager dramatist of the time hoped his work would find favor with a discriminating and influential audience, and it dramatizes an encounter that we know actually took place between the writer and an audience whose patronage he sought, showing the audience's ideas and tastes on the spot and in motion, so to speak.