ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
find expression, and which in Vasari’s time still hung 
on the villa walls. It was to Castello that Caterina 
Sforza, the heroic Madonna of Forli, came to end her 
days after her cruel captivity in Rome, while her little 
son, afterwards the great captain, Giovanni delle bande 
Nere, was kept in hiding and brought up in girl’s 
clothes by the good nuns of Annalena. Giovanni’s son 
Cosimo became the first Grand Duke of Florence, 
and employed Buontalenti and Tribolo to lay out the 
gardens of Castello on a grander scale and adorn them 
with the splendid fountains, the grottoes, and labyrinths 
which excited the admiration of Montaigne and Evelyn. 
The sister villa of Petraja, which stands a mile off 
at the other end of an ilex-wood, originally belonged 
to the Brunelleschi and Strozzi families, and still 
retains its ancient tower, but was confiscated by Cosimo 
de’ Medici after the rebellion of Filippo Strozzi, and 
became this prince’s favourite residence. Another 
house which, with its strong walls and towers, bears a 
marked resemblance to Careggi, is Villa Salviati. It 
was the residence of this family for three hundred and 
fifty years, and the lovely terraced gardens looking 
towards Fiesole were laid out by Jacopo Salviati, the 
son-in-law of Lorenzo de’ Medici, whose daughter 
Maria married Giovanni delle bande Nere , and became 
the mother of the first Tuscan Grand Duke. 
Another kinsman of the Medici, Giovanni Rucellai, 
22 
