ITALIAN GARDENS OF 

 THE RENAISSANCE 



THE GARDENS OF FLORENTINE 

 HUMANISTS 



" P mi trovai, fanciulle, un bel mattino 

 Di mezzo Maggio, in un verde giardino." 



ANGELO POLIZIANO. 



THE Italian humanists of the Renaissance, like the 

 citizens of Utopia, set great store by their gardens. 

 The newly awakened delight in the beauty of nature 

 and the passionate interest in classical antiquity which 

 marked the age, early led scholars to follow the 

 example of the ancient Romans in this respect. They 

 read Quintilian and Varro, pondered over the pages 

 of Pliny and Columella, and turned their thoughts 

 once more to the long-lost art of gardening. In 

 Bacon's famous phrase, "they began first to build" 

 stately, then to garden finely." 



The love of fresh air and sunshine, the spirit of 

 independence, and taste for roving soon caused men 

 and women to seek the countryside. Tuscan poets 

 took up the strain and sang the joys of the open road 



