HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 27 



of the \-ilIa : tlic wonderful animals lurking in caves suddenly spouting water over the unwary 

 visitor; a shepherd piping to his flock, and other curiosities. 



Of all these marvels practically nothing now remains, save a few of the rare shrubs planted 

 by Francesco, who was a passionate botanist and collector of curious plants and animals. The 

 once magnificent park is now no more than a mass uf brushwood, in the midst of which John 

 of Bologna's colossal statue of the Apennines, built up of large blocks of stone reclines 

 discharging his horn into a marsh, almost the only remnant of the magnificence of Bianca 

 Capello's favourite villa. 



Some few years before Poggio-a-Cajano was built, Michelozzo Michelozzi erected for 

 Giovanni, son of Cosimu de' Medici, a 'magnificent and noble palace' at Fiesole, with fine 

 gardens laid out upon the hillside in terraces supported by immense buttresses. Vasari tells us 

 that 'the \-aults were so well constructed that, though high upon the hill, no crack has ever 



started.' 



Towards the end of the fifteenth century, the famous Orti Orecellari, at Florence, were 

 laid out by Bernardo Rucellai, kinsman of Lorenzo il Alagnifico. Here it was that the celebrated 

 Platonic Academy held its meetings and Nicole Machia\-clli read his discourses. The wardens, 



which were chiefly designed to please Bianca Capello, were made and re-made many times in 

 succeeding generations to suit the dictates of fashion, and in 1527 they were sacked by the 



populace. The Emperor Charles V. was entertained at luncheon here when on a visit to 

 Florence. From 1608 to 1640 the garden belonged to the Orsini family, and aftenvards to 

 Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, ^^■ho spent large sums in bringing \^■atcr by conduits from the Arno. 

 lie caused his architect, Antonio Xovelli, to make many fountains and w^atenvorks, and constructed 

 an artificial hill of stones beneath which was a large dome with an inner square apartment, 

 known as the Cave of Polyphemus. In the next century the garden was altered Lo the landscape 

 style, and now there is little but the site remaining of what \\-as one of the most famous wardens 

 in Florence. 



About the year 1516 Raphael commenced the Villa Madama, in the outskirts of Rome, 

 in conjunction \\ith San Gallo. The plan of the villa as designed by Raphael was conceived 

 upon a gigantic scale, of which the existing remains form but a very small ])art. Several 

 projects were presented for laying out the grounds, amongst them that of San Gallo, of which 

 we give a restoration made by Baron H. von Geymuller.' Besides these projects Raphael himself 

 made a complete scheme for laying out the grounds of the villa. The \'illa Madama was one 

 of the finest creations of its period. It was built over the ruins of the Baths of Agrippa. on the 

 declivity of Monte Mario, overlooking the Tiber, and even in its present ruinous and deserted 

 state presents a scene of great attraction, backed by dark groves of cypress and ilex. The villa 

 was never completed, for scarcely had the work attained to some degree of perfection when It was 

 sacrificed to the vengeance of Caixlinal Pompeo Colonna on Pope Clement VII. for the destruction 



' By kind pciiiiission of B:Lron Geymuller. See Raffaello Sanzio sluMaio come Archiktto, Milano, 1884, 



