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THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 
shaped site divided into plots, each slightly sunk from the level of the path and surrounded by 
pergolas upheld by seventy columns. The walks are paved, and around a central octagonal space 
were four small fountains with balustrades. 
The very remarkable and rare work of Francesco Colonna, printed by Aldus of Venice, in 
1499, known as ' Poliphili Hypnerotomachia,’ an allegorical romance, has important garden descrip¬ 
tions and many good woodcuts. In one of these is shown an arbour of woodwork supported by six 
columns, and seats on either side. Two of these woodcuts are reproduced here (on page 23), taken 
from a fine copy of the book in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. Other illustrations give designs 
for treillage, fountains, and parterres, in which the old classic idea of box inscriptions is frequently 
to be met with. 
Lorenzo de’ Medici, surnamed the Magnificent, the friend of Michael Angelo, and patron of 
all the arts in Florence, gave great impetus to the revival of the art of garden design towards 
the end of the fifteenth century by making his gardens decorative adjuncts to the house. The 
greatest artists of the day, as Michael Angelo, Giulio Romano, and Raphael, Michelozzi, Ammanati, 
and Buontalenti, were charged with the designing of these delightful gardens. Life continually 
became more and more pleasurable under the influence of the great Medici family, in whose country 
houses poets, artists, and learned men frequently met together and discussed with their wealthy 
patrons the art and literature of the day ; and the capital of Tuscany and its surroundings owe to 
them a number of sumptuous villas created during the period of their magnificence, when great 
progress was made in the art of garden design. Many of these creations have to-day disappeared 
in modern Florence, but one can easily find sufficient traces to show how much they had been 
inspired by their classic prototypes. 
In 1417 Cosimo de' Medici bought a country house at Careggi, which he considerably 
altered under the guidance of Michelozzo Michelozzi, rebuilding and fortifying the villa, placing the 
pleasure grounds within high walls, with oak woods crowning the neighbouring hills. Here 
Cosimo spent the last days of his life, seldom moving abroad, and here he died in 1464. 
According to Vasari, Michelozzi also designed for Cosimo the fortress villa at Cafaggiuolo; nothing 
remains of this garden at the present day. Ferdinand de’ Medici commissioned Bernardo 
Buontalenti to enlarge and improve the Villa della Petraja, near Florence, and he also erected the 
Villa dell’ Ambrogiana. In 1440 Luca Pitti caused Brunelleschi, the architect of the Duomo, to 
build the Pitti Palace. The Boboli Garden that we can still admire behind the palace was laid 
out at a later date under Cosimo I. by the architects II Tribolo and Buontalenti. 
The villas at the end of the fifteenth century were generally bound up with considerable 
agricultural surroundings. In Tuscany the ' podere ’ or farm, even to this day, invariably extends 
to the very garden wall, whilst the farm buildings are often included in the garden scheme. 
Poggio-a-Cajano, La Sforzesca, built by the Sforza family, in the environs of Vigevano, 
both served as model farms as well as country retreats. Poggio-a-Cajano was constructed by 
Lorenzo il Magnifico about the year 1485 from the designs of Giulio di San Gallo. It is situate 
