ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
and the pleasant May-time. Folgore, the chivalrous 
poet of San Gimignano—“ San Fina’s town of the 
beautiful towers ”—bade youths and maidens leave the 
city for the villa with the first breath of June, and 
whisper their secrets in the shady groves where roses 
bloom and fountains keep the grass green through the 
parching summer days. Lapo Gianni prayed that he 
might spend his life with fair women in bowers where 
the leaves are always green and the birds never cease 
their songs. And Franco Sacchetti, the gayest singer 
of them all, called on his company of pleasure-seekers 
to fling care to the winds, and, leaving grave thoughts 
within the city walls, escape to the olive-woods and the 
hills, the villa and the gardens where the blessed Spring 
awaited them. 
Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Piero 
Crescenzi, a jurist of Bologna, wrote a Latin treatise on 
Agriculture, which he dedicated to Charles II, King of 
Naples, the son and successor of Charles of Anjou. 
The eighth book of this work is devoted to pleasure- 
gardens, which the author divides into three classes, 
those of poor men, those of persons of moderate for¬ 
tunes, and those of wealthy nobles and kings. “ Each 
of these,” Piero writes, “ should be adorned with sweet- 
scented flowers, arbours of clipped trees, grassy lawns, 
and, if possible, a sparkling fountain to lend joy and 
brightness to the scene. A pergola of vines will afford 
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