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THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 
where he also laid out fine gardens and cultivated many rare flowers and shrubs. The Villa di 
Castello, built by Pier Francesco de’ Medici, belonged to the Medici before they became Grand 
Dukes of Tuscany, and was always one of their favourite residences. The villa of Pratolino, 
some six miles from Florence, owes its existence to the Grand Duke Francesco I., who bought 
the estate in 1569, and squandered enormous sums upon the casino and the garden, which he 
adorned with statues, grottoes, and fountains of every description, causing great misery to the 
peasantry of all the countryside, by the amount of ground he threw out of cultivation in making 
his park. The garden of Pratolino was the wonder of all beholders. Montaigne visited it in 
1580, when it was in the height of its glory, and remarks that ‘The Grand Duke has used all his 
five senses to beautify it.’ He mentions a grotto wherein the movement of water made music 
and harmony, causing various statues to move and doors to shut, animals also plunge in to drink, 
