2go 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
1300, Francesco Alighieri sold his newly acquired possession at once, and the purchasers were 
Giovanni and Accerito Portinari, nephews of that Bice who was the inspiration of the divine poet. 
When, by a decree of the Duca de Atene, the act of confiscation against Dante was annulled 
and all other possessions restored to his heirs the legal sale of this villa was allowed to stand. 
In 1427 Bernardo di Giovanni Portinari, nephew of Giovanni, the buyer, possessed, among 
his other estates, a farm called Garofano, with “ a good gentleman’s house ” on it, situated in 
Camerata, in the abbey of Fiesole, and in the parish of San Bartolommeo. The boundaries have 
become somewhat changed, owing to deviations in the course of the torrential river Alugrone, 
and the property is sometimes described as in the parish of San Alarco, or even in that 
of San Gervasio ; but this was the only piece of lanci owned by the Portinari in Camerata. 
Names of villas always change at the caprice of their owners, and later on it is denominated 
Como. Portinari sold the villa to his cousin Giovanni di Guatteri and his wife Francesca 
Strozzi, and they sold it back to the Portinari in t454. It remained in this family till 1507, and 
then passed throtigh several other hands. Duke Salviati bought it in 1738, and then again it 
had various owners for short periods ; but every transfer is recorded, and we have the utmost 
certainty that this was really Dante’s house. The shield of the Portinari is carved on a wall 
not later than the second half of the fourteenth century. At the time Salviati bought it it is 
entered in the city annals as “ a villa in Camerata,” and must have been that of Dante, bought 
by the Portinari family. 
It is worth while tracing the history ot this villa minutely, because so much of the old house 
still retains its original aspect. One of the bedrooms goes by the name of “Dante’s room,” and may, 
indeed, well have been that of the master of the house. Its windows lead out on to a loggia 
from which there is a view over Florence, and it is hardlv going too far to assume that when 
the exile’s thoughts turned back to his beloved city he must often have pictured it as it appeared 
from the loggia of this, his own sweet home. It is one of the most perfect views, looking 
off to Vallombrosa on the one hand, and towards the mountain on which stands the village of 
Incontro, where tradition says that St. Francis and St. Dominic met, and on the other to where 
the sharp shafts of the Carrara mountains stand out against the horizon. 
The villa now belongs to Signor Bondi. E. M. P. 
The Villa Bondi lies on the slopes below San Domenico di Fiesole. Originally owned by- 
Dante about 1300, it was remodelled in the fifteenth century. The road runs up-hill between 
walls enlarging to a rough oval at the entrance, where two tall stone columns support iron 
gates. It has been carefully restored and decorated, and presents attractive features. The house is 
built round an open court, delightful in its quiet and sunlit brilliance. This is about fifteen 
yards by ten yards, having a wide brick paved balcony at the first-floor level. There is an end 
loggia overlooking the garden with its palm trees and modern lay-out at this same level of the 
first floor. This loggia has a decorated open timber roof. The faqade is interesting, with 
an end tower and a centre of two bold arches forming a loggia on the ground floor. Above is 
a columned belvedere of two oblong bays, now, unfortunately, built up. The right wing 
advances and a balanced composition is established without symmetry. A. T. B. 
The author of the immortal “ Decameron,” the founder of who can say how many modern 
novels, is believed to have been born by the river Mensola, near Settignano, in 1313. The Villa 
Palmieri, which belonged to his father, has been identified by a contract of sale existing in 
the archives of Florence and dated 1336, when Giovanni Boccaccio was twenty-three years 
old. This villa, now called Villa Boccaccio, still lies on the hill above Villa Palmieri. Some 
old frescoes were found lately in restoring it. All over this fertile land, which must have 
been almost as thickly studded with habitations in his day as it is now, the romancer 
wandered marrying fiction to reality. He wrote the famous volume of stories of the patient 
Griselda, of Romeo and Juliet, of Isabella and her pot of Basil ; stories from which 
Chaucer and Shakespeare and Keats — and who shall say how many others ? — have borrowed 
through the centuries. And, after more than five hundred years it is still possible to identify 
the scenes in w-hich he laid them. 
