ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
and students. Here Poliziano and Pico discoursed of 
classical myths and Greek ideals, and Botticelli and the 
young Michelangelo studied bas-reliefs and sarcophagi 
in the myrtle groves and cypress avenues under the 
shadow of San Marco. The members of the Academy 
often met in the Oricellari gardens, beyond Santa Maria 
Novella, where, in later days, Machiavelli fired the 
patriotic enthusiasm of the young Florentines with his 
lectures on Roman heroes, and Giovanni Rucellai’s play, 
Rosmunda , was acted in the presence of Pope Leo the 
Tenth. 
All over the hills near Florence villas sprang up, built 
by the friends and kinsfolk of the Medici on these 
delicious sites, “ where,” in Messer Agnolo’s words, “ the 
air is pure as crystal, and the views are divinely beautiful, 
where there are few fogs and no bitter winds, but all 
things are good and wholesome.” 1 The Tornabuoni 
had their country house at Chiasso Macerelli, between 
Careggi and Fiesole. Here Piero de’ Medici met and 
courted Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the admirable mother 
who was the object of the Magnifico’s love and reverence, 
and here one summer day in i486 young Lorenzo, the 
hope of the family, led home Giovanna degli Albizzi, 
the fairest maiden in Florence, as his bride. Ghirlandaio 
painted Giovanna’s portrait, and Botticelli decorated 
the plan nobile of the villa with two famous frescoes 
1 Del Cover no della Famiglia, 105. 
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