ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
his labourers tie up the vines and dig the garden. 
And it impelled Buonaccorso Pitti, the father of the 
great Messer Luca, to buy a farm at Bogole, which 
afterwards became famous as the site of the Boboli 
gardens. This honest citizen took as much delight in 
his fruit-trees as. Petrarch, and kept a daily record of 
their growth and numbers. “ On this day, the 24th 
of April 1419,” he writes in his diary, “I counted all 
the trees that bear fruit in our gardens and vineyards, 
not including walnut-trees. I find 564 trees in all, 
60 olive, 164 fig, 106 peach, 58 cherry, 24 almond, 
5 pomegranate, 25 apple, 16 pear, 2 quince, and 4 
filbert-trees.” 1 
It was left for Leo Battista Alberti to paint the joys 
and virtue of country-life in his admirable treatise, 
Del Governo della Famiglia. The sentiments which he 
puts into the lips of Agnolo Pandolfini, the excellent 
wool-merchant, who, weary of trade and politics, has 
retired to his villa at Signa, are worthy of Ruskin 
himself. In his eyes the villa—that is to say, the 
country — stands for truth and righteousness, for 
all that is highest and holiest in public and private 
life. 
“ What man is there who does not find joy and 
happiness in the villa ? ” he asks. “ The villa is always 
gracious and faithful and true. If you govern her 
1 Cronica di Buonaccorso Pitti, p. 112. 
8 
