ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
“ Dear Giorgio,” the great man would say to Vasari, 
himself an Aretine by birth, “ if my mind is worth 
anything, I owe it to the fine air of your Arezzo 
country.” And, indeed, the roll of illustrious Aretines 
of all ages is a long one. In those ancient days when 
Arretium formed one of the twelve cities of the 
Etruscan confederation, it was the home of the power¬ 
ful Cilnii family, from which Maecenas descended. 
In mediaeval times the poet Petrarch, Guittone, the 
inventor of the sonnet; the artists, Margaritone and 
Spinello ; Guido, the improver of the musical system ; 
Pietro Aretino, the satirist, and many others, equally 
well known, first saw the light within the walls of 
Arezzo. 
The Aretines have shown a praiseworthy reverence 
for their great men from the time when they invited 
Petrarch to visit the house where he was born, during 
his father’s exile from Florence, and which had been 
preserved with religious care by the public magis¬ 
trates. The notes of the musical scale with which 
the name of the Benedictine monk, Guido, is for ever 
linked, are still to be seen painted outside the house, 
which was once his home ; and the number of com¬ 
memorative tablets on the walls has given rise to the 
common saying, that the stones still speak in Arezzo. 
From Etruscan days the coral-red jars manufac¬ 
tured at Arretium were held in high esteem, and have 
been celebrated both by Martial and Pliny. Speci- 
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