ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



are still standing. The charming frescoes on the walls 

 were painted by Andrea del Sarto and his scholars to 

 commemorate the gifts of parrots, apes, and other 

 animals that were presented to the Magnifico in 1488 

 by the Sultan of Babylon, and placed in the menagerie 

 at Poggio. Among these was a giraffe which excited 

 so much interest that it was sent round to the convents 

 to gratify the curiosity of the nuns. " The creature 

 will eat anything," writes Tribaldo de' Rossi. " It pokes 

 its nose into every peasant's basket, and is so gentle 

 that it will take an apple from a child's hand. But it 

 died on January 2, and everybody was sorry for the 

 beautiful spotted giraffe." ] 



The vast gardens which Lorenzo laid out on the 

 ground sloping down to the river, the orchards and 

 mulberry trees which he planted in order to encourage 

 the silk trade, and the woods which he stocked with 

 peacocks and pheasants, quails and waterfowl, have 

 been described by Michele Verini in prose and by 

 Poliziano in verse. But in spite of the strong dykes 

 that were built to protect the gardens from the winter 

 floods, one day the Ombrone broke its banks, and 

 swept away the islet which Lorenzo had planted with 

 rare herbs and trees. Like a true humanist, he con- 

 soled himself for this disaster by writing an Ovidian 

 poem, in which he describes how Ambra, the loveliest of 

 1 D. Salvi. (Domenici, 247.) 



18 



