GARDENS OF FLORENTINE HUMANISTS 



white marble fountain, marvellously carved, sending up 

 a jet of water, which, falling with delicious sound into 

 a crystal basin, was carried through little channels into 

 all parts of the garden, and finally poured down into 

 the valley with such force as to turn the wheels of two 

 mills, " much, as you may suppose, to the profit of the 

 owner." 



The mills on the Mugnone are still standing, and 

 the gardens where Boccaccio's ladies danced and feasted 

 and told their witty tales have been described by many 

 other eloquent pens. 



Both Petrarch and Boccaccio lived when the dawn 

 of the new learning was breaking in the sky, and in Sir 

 Philip Sidney's phrase, "the morning did strew roses 

 and violets on the heavenly floor, against the coming 

 of the sun." But, in the fifteenth century, when men 

 and women were bent on enjoying life in all its fulness 

 and individual expression had become a passionate 

 necessity there was a great outburst of garden- 

 making. The newborn love of nature penetrated 

 every phase of society. It stirred the heart of -^Eneas 

 Sylvius Piccolomini as he watched the changing lights 

 on the slopes of Monte Amiata and the gnarled stems 

 of the oaks that overshadow the ravines in the Volscian 

 country. It moved Ser Lapo Mazzei, that very 

 prosaic-minded notary of Prato, to ride out to his . 

 villa at Grignano, in the cool of the evening, and help 

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