ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



Lorenzo made Poliziano tutor to his sons, bidding 

 him not only teach them Greek and Latin, but infuse 

 them with his own love of Nature. Accordingly he 

 set the boys themes on rural subjects, and took them 

 to visit all the gardens in the neighbourhood. But 

 the poet was not always easy to live with. When 

 Lorenzo was absent, and it rained every day at Careggi, 

 Messer Angelo fretted and fumed and quarrelled with 

 Madonna Clarice until she declared his presence to be 

 intolerable. Then Lorenzo sent him to Fiesole, where 

 he wrote his Rusticus, and consoled himself with the 

 company of Pico della Mirandola, the accomplished 

 youth whom Poliziano called " the Phoenix who nested 

 in the Medici laurel." Pico was often the guest of 

 the brothers Benivieni, whose villa " Le Querce " was 

 just across the valley, while Ficino spent much of his 

 time at the villa Marmigliana at Maiano and finished 

 his translation of Plato there in 1480. Together the 

 three humanists strolled along these pleasant hills, 

 visiting the home of Boccaccio, and the Valley of his 

 Fair Ladies, and hearing from Girolamo Benivieni of 

 his friend, the great Friar-preacher, who had persuaded 

 him to leave off writing carnival songs, and compose 

 hymns for the children of San Marco. 



There is a delightful letter, in which Poliziano 

 begs Marsilio Ficino to join him at the Medici 



villa. 



16 



