ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



of our friend Plato De summo bono which I hope 

 you have by this time translated into Latin, for there is 

 nothing that I desire so ardently as to find out the 

 true road to happiness. Come then and fail not to 

 bring with you the lyre of Orpheus." * 



Here in April 1459, when Cosimo was too infirm to 

 leave the Via Larga, his sons entertained young 

 Galeazzo Maria Sforza, who was sent by his august 

 father, Francesco, Duke of Milan, to meet Pope 

 Pius II. 



" Yesterday," the boy wrote home to his parents, " I 

 went to Careggi, a most beautiful palace belonging 

 to Cosimo, and was shown all over the place, and was 

 no less delighted with the gardens, which are altogether 

 enchanting, than with the noble building, which is 

 certainly one of the finest houses in this city, when you 

 consider the halls, bedrooms, kitchens, and furniture." 2 



Galeazzo proceeds to describe the banquet at which 

 he was entertained by Piero de' Medici and the chief 

 members of his family, all saving Cosimo's handsome 

 son Giovanni, who refused to sit down, and himself 

 insisted on waiting on the guests. A young Tuscan 

 poet, Antonio Cammelli of Pistoja, chanted a poem in 

 praise of the Sforza's great deeds to the music of his 

 lute, after which the Medici ladies and Marietta Strozzi, 

 whose bust was carved by Desiderio da Settignano, and 



1 M. Ficini, Ep. i. I. 



2 Bibliotheque Nationale, Fonds italien, 1588. 



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