ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



if they are honest they will have greater possessions 

 than they need, and if they are worthless they will 

 not remember my soul, and it will be better they should 

 have little than much, therefore I ask you for God's 

 sake to provide well for my soul and your own." 



Niccol6's resolve proved more sincere than most 

 pious intentions, and no sooner had he returned safely 

 from his crusade, than without a moment's delay he 

 applied himself to the execution of his plan. 



On the 8th of February 1342 the deed of gift was 

 drawn up by which he endowed the Carthusian monks 

 with all his lands in Val d'Ema ; and immediately 

 afterwards, or it may have been even before, the 

 foundations of the new monastery were laid on the 

 hill Monte Aguto, between the rivers Greve and 

 Ema. Convent-church and buildings were at once 

 begun on a large scale ; but the name of the architect 

 of the Certosa is still unknown. Tradition ascribes 

 this honour to Orgagna, but Vasari, in his life of this 

 artist, owns that the true architect has never been 

 discovered ; and it seems more probable that a Car- 

 thusian monk, Fra Jacopo Passavanti, to whom fre- 

 quent allusion is made in Niccol6's letters, furnished 

 the plans. While the walls of the Certosa were slowly 

 rising from the ground, public events occupied all the 

 founder's attention, and diverted his thoughts for a 



time from his favourite project. 



204 



