ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



and the pleasant May-time. Folgore, the chivalrous 

 poet of San Gimignano " San Fina's town of the 

 beautiful towers " bade youths and maidens leave the 

 city for the villa with the first breath of June, and 

 whisper their secrets in the shady groves where roses 

 bloom and fountains keep the grass green through the 

 parching summer days. Lapo Gianni prayed that he 

 might spend his life with fair women in bowers where 

 the leaves are always green and the birds never cease 

 their songs. And Franco Sacchetti, the gayest singer 

 of them all, called on his company of pleasure-seekers 

 to fling care to the winds, and, leaving grave thoughts 

 within the city walls, escape to the olive-woods and the 

 hills, the villa and the gardens where the blessed Spring 

 awaited them. 



Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Piero 

 Crescenzi, a jurist of Bologna, wrote a Latin treatise on 

 Agriculture, which he dedicated to Charles II, King of 

 Naples, the son and successor of Charles of Anjou. 

 The eighth book of this work is devoted to pleasure- 

 gardens, which the author divides into three classes, 

 those of poor men, those of persons of moderate for- 

 tunes, and those of wealthy nobles and kings. " Each 

 of these," Piero writes, " should be adorned with sweet- 

 scented flowers, arbours of clipped trees, grassy lawns, 

 and, if possible, a sparkling fountain to lend joy and 

 brightness to the scene. A pergola of vines will afford 



