ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



" Dear Giorgio," the great man would say to Vasari, 

 himself an Aretine by birth, " if my mind is worth 

 anything, I owe it to the fine air of your Arezzo 

 country." And, indeed, the roll of illustrious Aretines 

 of all ages is a long one. In those ancient days when 

 Arretium formed one of the twelve cities of the 

 Etruscan confederation, it was the home of the power- 

 ful Cilnii family, from which Maecenas descended. 

 In mediaeval times the poet Petrarch, Guittone, the 

 inventor of the sonnet ; the artists, Margaritone and 

 Spinello ; Guido, the improver of the musical system ; 

 Pietro Aretino, the satirist, and many others, equally 

 well known, first saw the light within the walls of 

 Arezzo. 



The Aretines have shown a praiseworthy reverence 

 for their great men from the time when they invited 

 Petrarch to visit the house where he was born, during 

 his father's exile from Florence, and which had been 

 preserved with religious care by the public magis- 

 trates. The notes of the musical scale with which 

 the name of the Benedictine monk, Guido, is for ever 

 linked, are still to be seen painted outside the house, 

 which was once his home ; and the number of com- 

 memorative tablets on the walls has given rise to the 

 common saying, that the stones still speak in Arezzo. 



From Etruscan days the coral-red jars manufac- 

 tured at Arretium were held in high esteem, and have 

 been celebrated both by Martial and Pliny. Speci- 



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