GARDENS OF FLORENTINE HUMANISTS 



so fast that they promise to shelter not only our 

 descendants but ourselves. . . . But why, oh why, do 

 I recall every detail of my villetta ? Never can I gaze 

 on the beauty of earth and sky without remembering 

 my villa and those with whom I long to spend my 

 few remaining days." n 



In his old age, Petrarch was fortunate enough to 

 find another home on Italian soil, at Arqua, in the 

 Euganean hills, where he built himself a villa " piccola^ 

 ma graziosa" and spent the last years of his life in the 

 peaceful enjoyment of the beautiful prospect and sweet, 

 wholesome air. The low white-walled house is still 

 standing in the olive-woods on the heights above 

 Arqua, and the garden, with its medlars and pome- 

 granates, its vines and acacias, is little altered since he 

 lived there. During centuries it has been the goal of 

 pilgrims from all lands, who, like Bembo and Niccolo 

 da Correggio, Byron and Shelley, have climbed the 

 hill to visit the poet's tomb near the church, and have 

 looked down from the loggia of Petrarch's home on 

 the " waveless plain of Lombardy " stretching far away 

 in the blue distance. 



While Petrarch was counting his fruit-trees and 

 defending his garden from the Naiads of the Sorgue, 

 another Florentine, Boccaccio, was writing those in- 

 imitable pages in which he describes the gardens of 



1 Lettere di F. Petrarca (G. Fracassetti), iv. 41. 



5 



