Angelo Decembrio

Who was Angelo Decembrio?

Angelo Decembrio was a Milanese humanist who began his career in Ferrara, where he arrived in 1430. The son of Uberto Decembrio, who was the first Renaissance translator of Plato's Republic, and outshone among his contemporaries by his brother Pier Candido, Angelo is known especially for the seven books of literary dialogues of De politiæ litterariæ, which provide a vivid record— though synthesized in retrospect— of literary life at the court of Leonello d'Este of Ferrara, Taking as its main concern the question of how to achieve and maintain the literary polish characteristic of the civilized man in a courtly environment, Decembrio’s unique dialogues elaborating aspects of this central idea take as personae his patron Leonello d'Este, who serves as the questioner, with the great teacher Guarino of Verona, Leonello's former tutor; the architect, theorist and humanist Leon Battista Alberti; the poet Tito Vespasiano Strozzi. They debate the comparative value of ancient and modern poetry, discuss the quality of works of art, examine the Egyptian obelisk that still stands in Vatican City in the Piazza S. Pietro; and describe the ideal renaissance library and how it should be organized.