VILLA PALMIER!, FLORENCE 
PLATES 36, 37 
ND the Villa Palmieri is centred a great literary interest; for it is said to 
be the villa to which Boccaccio’s gay company of seven ‘ discrete, nobly 
descended, and perfectly accomplished’ ladies betook themselves in retreat, 
when the great plague had so devastated Florence that no less than one 
hundred thousand lives were lost between the months of March and July. 
The description which Boccaccio gives of the delightful garden has been 
already quoted. 1 One would wish that more effort had been made in later 
years to bring such an historical spot more into harmony with its earlier form ; for, beautiful 
though it still is, there is a lack of the 
quaintness of which Boccaccio tells. In the 
fifteenth century the villa was sold to Matteo 
Palmieri, and was rebuilt in 1670 by a 
descendant of his and called by its present 
name. A history of the villa is given in 
Mrs. Janet Ross’s interesting work on Flo¬ 
rentine villas. It is now the property of 
the Countess of Crawford. 
The principal feature of interest in 
the villa is the superb approach on the south 
side, now no longer used as the main en¬ 
trance, since the high road was diverted 
some thirty years ago. Two high gate-piers 
guard the entrance to an oval courtyard, 
whence a double-inclined ramp ascends to 
the wide bricked terrace above, with balustrade and delightful series of figures, looking out 
over the city of Florence. The Cathedral, with its marble campanile, and the domes and spires 
of Florence, are set out in a superb panorama, with the valley of the Arno before us. The villa 
was on two occasions visited by Queen Victoria. 
TERRACOTTA G1ARDIMIERA 
'fc.Quoted at length on page 22 , above (‘Historical Introduction’). 
( 75 ) 
Q 
