ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



his labourers tie up the vines and dig the garden. 

 And it impelled Buonaccorso Pitti, the father of the 

 great Messer Luca, to buy a farm at Bogole, which 

 afterwards became famous as the site of the Boboli 

 gardens. This honest citizen took as much delight in 

 his fruit-trees as Petrarch, and kept a daily record of 

 their growth and numbers. " On this day, the 24th 

 of April 1419," he writes in his diary, "I counted all 

 the trees that bear fruit in our gardens and vineyards, 

 not including walnut-trees. I find 564 trees in all, 

 60 olive, 164 fig, 1 06 peach, 58 cherry, 24 almond, 

 5 pomegranate, 25 apple, 16 pear, 2 quince, and 4 

 filbert-trees." l 



It was left for Leo Battista Alberti to paint the joys 

 and virtue of country-life in his admirable treatise, 

 Del Governo della Famiglia. The sentiments which he 

 puts into the lips of Agnolo Pandolfini, the excellent 

 wool-merchant, who, weary of trade and politics, has 

 retired to his villa at Signa, are worthy of Ruskin 

 himself. In his eyes the villa that is to say, the 

 country stands for truth and righteousness, for 

 all that is highest and holiest in public and private 

 life. 



"What man is there who does not find joy and 

 happiness in the villa ? " he asks. " The villa is always 

 gracious and faithful and true. If you govern her 



1 Cronica di Buonaccorso Pitti, p. 112. 



8 



