HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



21 



plncc of the walls fruit-trees be planted, if this be the sire's pleasure. Let them be such trees as 

 grow up easily, like cherry-trees or apple-trees. Or else, and it will be better, let them be willow- 

 trees or elm-trees. And, both with pruning and with props and poles and tw-igs, let their growth 

 for several years be well looked after, until the branches be turned into walls and roof. Rut much 

 easier and quicker it would be to build the aforesaid jxavilion or house of seasoned planks, plantin*'- 

 the \-ines round it so as to cover up the whole building. Nay, similar structures of dry wood can 

 be made all over the garden for the \'ines to grow over and cover them ; trees also may be turned 

 to this use. Much delight will be caused by \'arious and \\'ondcrful graftings of trees on trees, which 

 art ma)- be easily learned by the diligent cultivator of such a garden. . . . Moreover, let us remember 

 that great adornment to such a garden would be given by such trees as are never bared of f^reen 

 lea\es — pines, cypresses, citrons, palms even, if they can thrl\e there.' 



In the fourth chapter, Crescenzi treats 'of those things which can be built both for pleasure 

 and for strength in gardens and in courts.' 'Around courts and gardens ornaments can be made 

 of green trees trained to look like \\alls or palisades, or stockades with turrets, in this wise. ?Iavine 

 perfectly cleaned the banks .... there should be taken willow-trees, or poplars, or olives, and 

 planted very deep, a foot or less distant from one another and in a straight line .... A\''hen they 

 have sprung up, they are cut close to the ground ; and the next year let the shoots be set in line, 

 with poles four feet apart from each other : and let them be brought up straight from tlie ground 

 until they have grown eight or ten feet high. When they have reached that height, and become 

 somewhat sturdy, they must be cut. And let similar trees in a strip fi\e feet wide be planted near 

 this bower at the same time, also ten feet apart ; and when they have reached the same hei^-ht, let 

 their branches, with the aid of poles, be bent towards each other and entwined with the nei^hbourino- 

 trees, and let this be continued year after year until a strong scaffold of branches be made, stron^- 

 enough to support men safely. Afterwards let the other side of this structure grow up in a wall 

 through which holes can be easily cut to imitate battlements. And round such ornament, in the 

 corners or wherever else you like, you can even from the beginning plant four trees, and ha\-ino- 

 brouglU them up straight, bend their branches towards each other at a height of about ten feet, 

 so as to build a kind of platform or floor; and, having repeated the same thing higher up, let these 

 trees be at last bent over at the top like the roofs of houses. Such houses with green columns 

 can be very well built either in courts or gardens.* 



Upon the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa, one of the most beautiful bur)'ing-places in 

 the world, Andrea Orcagna (1315-1368) has painted in fresco a festive compan)- of ladies and gallants 

 apparently just returned from the chase. They sit singing and laughing under a group of oran-^c- 

 trees upon a raised bank barred and crossed with wood. In the same Campo is Pietro di Puccio's 

 fresco of the Garden of Eden, with a beautiful hexagonal basin with panels decorated with lion heads • 

 a pillar supporting a vase rises from the ^^■atcr basin, and the water issues through small garn-oylcs. 



The delightful account with which Boccaccio comnrences his introduction to the Third Day 



+ 



in the * Decameron ' stands alone as tlie most fascinating description of agarden of this period. Havinn- 



