ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Poggio Gherardo and Villa Palmieri, near his home at 

 Settignano. In the introduction to the Decamerone, he 

 tells us how Pampinea led her joyous troop up the 

 little hill, far from the dusty highway, to a fair palace 

 surrounded by green lawns and spacious gardens, all 

 neatly kept, and full of such flowers as belonged to 

 the season. " Here," she said, " it is good and 

 pleasant to stay," and Filomena crowned her brow 

 with green laurel leaves, while a table decked with the 

 whitest of linen cloths, with boughs of yellow broom 

 and silver vessels, was set out in the court. On Sun- 

 day mornings the fair ladies descended from the 

 heights, and the Queen led the way along an un- 

 frequented lane, where some twenty nightingales sang, 

 and herbs and flowers were just opening to the rising 

 sun, to the Villa Schifanoia (Sans-Souci), afterwards 

 known as Villa Palmieri. Here they wondered at the 

 beauty of the gardens, at the broad alleys shaded by 

 pergolas, laden with purple grapes, and bordered with 

 red and white roses and jessamine, " that filled the air 

 with sweet scents and shut out the rays of the sun, not 

 only in the morning, but at noonday, so that one 

 could always walk there without fear." More delight- 

 ful than all was the lawn of the finest and greenest 

 grass, spangled with a thousand flowers and surrounded 

 by orange and citron trees, bearing ripe fruit and 



blossoms at the same time. In the centre stood a 



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