ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



painted by Giotto and Angelico, and a hundred other 

 artists, for the sake of Francis, La Vernia of which 

 Dante sang in the highest spheres of Paradise. 



" Nel crudo sasso intra Terete ed Arno 

 Da Cristo prese 1'ultimo sigillo 

 Che le sue membra du' anni portarno." 



Bibbiena itself, where we spent the night before 

 undertaking the steep ascent of Monte Alvernia, is a 

 flourishing little town in the heart of the Casentino, 

 standing in the midst of cornfields and chestnut 

 woods. Brown-faced children and dark-eyed maidens, 

 with smooth, long tresses and broad straw hats, 

 looked curiously at us from the door-steps as we passed, 

 and every roof and window of the quaint old wooden 

 houses was gay with heaps of orange-coloured maize 

 spread out to dry in the sun. 



The walls of Bibbiena were razed by the Florentines 

 in their anger with the inhabitants who received the 

 exiled Medici on their expulsion in 1509, but its chief 

 claim on public notice rests on the celebrity attained 

 by one of its natives, Bernardo Dovizi, better known 

 as Cardinal Bibbiena, the Secretary of Leo X, and the 

 friend and patron of Raphael. It is to the credit of 

 the worldly prelate and author of the Calandra 

 that in his busy Roman life, amidst all the honours 

 which the Pope showered upon him, he did not forget 

 his birthplace, but erected the church of S. Lorenzo 



