La Villa 9780812203806

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L a V i ll a

Penn Studies in Landscape Architecture

John Dixon Hunt, Series Editor This series is dedicated to the study and promotion of a wide variety of approaches to landscape architecture, with special emphasis on connections between theory and practice. It includes monographs on key topics in history and theory, descriptions of projects by both established and rising designers, translations of major foreign-language texts, anthologies of theoretical and historical writings on classic issues, and critical writing by members of the profession of landscape architecture. The series was the recipient of the Award of Honor in Communications from the American Society of Landscape Architects, 2006.

L a V i ll a Bartolomeo Taegio

E di t e d a n d t r a nsl at e d by

Thomas E. Beck

u n i v e r si t y of pe n ns y lva n i a pr e s s phil adelphia

Copyright © 2011 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 1  3  5  7  9  10  8  6  4  2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Taegio, Bartolomeo, fl. 1550. [Villa. English & Italian] La villa / Bartolomeo Taegio ; edited and translated by Thomas E. Beck. — 1st ed. p. cm. — (Penn studies in landscape architecture) Italian text and English translation. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8122-4317-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Landscape architecture—Italy—Early works to 1800. 2. Agriculture—Italy—Early works to 1800. 3. Country life—Italy—Early works to 1800. 4. Gardens—Italy—Design—Early works to 1800. 5. Country homes—Italy—Early works to 1800. I. Beck, Thomas E. (Thomas Edward) II. Title. III. Series: Penn studies in landscape architecture. SB471.T34 2011 712.0945—dc22 2011002041

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contents

Note on This Edition and Translation Introduction

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La Villa

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Bibliography

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Index

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Acknowledgments

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note on this edition a n d t r a n sl a t i o n

This English translation of La Villa is the first to be published. The text that follows is presented side by side with my transcription of Taegio’s original Italian text published in Milan by Francesco Moscheni in 1559, and is augmented with notes, referred to by Arabic numerals inserted into the translation. The plates that illustrated Moscheni’s edition appear here in the same sequence and relationship to the text as they did originally. Each page of the Italian text bears its original page number, and wherever there was an error or omission in the original numbering of pages, the correct number appears in brackets. References to specific pages of La Villa in the notes to the translation, and in the Introduction, are to the correct page numbers.

Introduc tion

The idea of the villa has a persistent relevance. La Villa will be of interest to many who have been entrusted with the making of habitable spaces because, in his treatment of the idea of the villa, Bartolomeo Taegio articulated the purpose and meaningfulness that he associated with a particular kind of place. La Villa contains three elements that make it especially relevant for landscape architects. First, it reveals a Renaissance appreciation of land not only for its economic utility but also for its aesthetic value. Second, it is one of only two extant documents that articulate a theoretical formulation of the position of the garden on a hierarchical scale of landscape interventions in terms of the interaction of art and nature: “third nature.” Finally, it offers rare clues to the appearance of sixteenth-century Milanese gardens, and to their symbolic and metaphorical significance for their owners. When Taegio took up the idea of the villa as the topic for his dialogue, he brought into focus an idea that had been the subject of reflection by others before him, both in the Renaissance and in antiquity. La Villa appeared toward the end of a long tradition of villa literature in Italy, a verbal tradition that suffered a protracted and nearly complete interruption during the Middle Ages. This tradition originated in ancient Rome in the time of the Republic, and continued until the dissolution of the empire. Its recovery, which has been called a revival of villa literature, began in Florence in the fifteenth century and spread northward through the sixteenth century, with significant echoes well into the eighteenth century within and outside Italy.1 The common theme of this body of literature, to which La Villa belongs, is the idea of the villa. Taegio’s subject is the idea of the villa, not the villa as a type. Typology is an analytical tool, useful for defining categories of objects and spaces, but not very helpful for understanding the richness of symbolic and metaphorical associations that works of architecture and landscape architecture can have for the people who use them. Typology relates to form-making more than it does to place-

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making. Taegio never described or even mentioned an actual building in La Villa. Instead, he alluded to villas by rendering their gardens in language so poetical as to frustrate any attempt to reconstruct them. By virtually ignoring the typology of villas, Taegio’s treatise invites the reader to consider what is simultaneously both immaterial and essential about them. The form of the argument in La Villa, as in many “villa books” written before and after it, is dialogical. But unlike most sixteenth-century dialogues written in the Italian language it is not the kind scholars today call “documentary,” nor is it based on a Ciceronian model. Taegio’s dialogue does not include a scenesetting introduction, an essential feature of documentary dialogues; therefore it demonstrates what Cicero considered a “lack of decorum.” La Villa is properly called a “semifictional dialogue” because it is relatively “transparent”; that is, because readers can look through the dramatic conflict to the contest of ideas behind it, without having to interpret the text in light of their familiarity with the interlocutors’ respective points of view in life.2 Sixteenth-century readers of La Villa might have known the true identities of the interlocutors and their real opinions, if they were personally acquainted with the author or his friends. In fact this seems likely, given the typically intimate relationship between writer and reader in the Renaissance. It is possible that Taegio wrote La Villa for a closed group of subscribers who were aristocrats and villa owners, but the dialogue speaks to a larger audience whose understanding of La Villa as a type of the city/country debate is not necessarily complicated by a reading of it as documentary. A major contributor to villa discourse, Taegio’s voice needs to be heard today. At a time when the balance of nature is being challenged by humanity’s interventions on a scale hitherto unimaginable, the city/country debate needs to be revisited, in order to be imagined anew. Four hundred and fifty years after it was published, La Villa continues to speak about the consequences of the choices human beings make among possible ways of dwelling in the world. Yet, the ability of modern readers to find meaning in the text will depend to a considerable extent on their understanding of the context in which the initial discursive exchange between the author and his sixteenth-century readers took place. The goal of this Introduction, by unfolding the biographical, political, economic, social, agricultural, horticultural, and philosophical facets of that context, is to situate La Villa within the history of the idea of the villa, thereby orienting the reader to the text and providing a framework for interpreting it. In the field of landscape architecture, which lacks a body of theoretical writing comparable to that of architecture, and in which a comprehensive survey of history, theory,

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and practice was not even attempted until the eighteenth century, La Villa is an invaluable source of theory from the Renaissance.

The Life and Literary Activity of Bartolomeo Taegio

Bartolomeo Taegio, jurist and man of letters, was born in Milan around 1520 to an old patrician family.3 His father’s name was Girolamo, and the family name (variously spelled Taegio, Taeggio, or Taeggi) is a contraction of Taveggio or Tavecchio, which in turn is derived from Montevecchio, Girolamo’s ancestral home.4 It is likely that young Bartolomeo studied law at the University of Pavia, a center of jurisprudence in northern Italy since the fourteenth century.5 He was educated not only in law, both civil and canon, but also in humanistic studies. He was admired in the seventeenth century as an orator and as a writer of both

figure 1. Woodcut portrait of Bartolomeo Taegio, from the verso of the title page of La Villa (Moscheni, 1559).

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prose (in Italian and Latin) and poetry.6 When he was in his early twenties he found himself on the wrong side of the law, and his mistake, however faint may be the record of it now, left an indelible mark on his carreer. Whether it ultimately cost him his life is uncertain, but its immediate effect was to compel him to leave the city of his birth. Sometime between 1540 and 1544, Taegio took up residence in the smaller city of Novara, forty-five kilometers from Milan. A twentieth-century specialist in the history of Novara reports that Taegio was “confinatovi per aver commesso un omocidio” (banished there for having commited a murder).7 Taegio adjusted quickly to his new surroundings. He bought land and started his own law practice in Novara.8 Between 1544 and 1546 he founded a semisecret literary society called the Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna, in which, according to local historians, “si iscrissero i giovani novaresi più ingegnosi, dando vita così in una piccola città ad un centro di insolita attività letterale culturalmente libera” (the most talented Novarese youth were enrolled, thus giving life in a small city to a

figure 2. Frontispiece of L’Essilio. Courtesy of Biblioteca Civica, Novara.

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center of isolated, culturally free, literary activity).9 The emblem of the academy was a palm with hanging fruit and the motto “adversus pondera surgo.” According to Taegio’s nineteeth-century biographer, G. B. Finazzi, “Taegio, speaking about this emblem in a speech, implied that the Academy was intended for something better than the reciting of sonnets or strambotti.”10 The inference is that the Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna was conceived for the purpose, at least in part, of preparing its members for political action. Including Taegio, who styled himself Vitauro, there were a total of twenty members of the academy. Six besides the founder are known by their real names. Two of them, Giovanni Pietra Testa and Giovanni Iacopo Torniello, were villa owners named in La Villa.11 The other thirteen “shepherds” are known only by their pseudonyms. It was Taegio’s intention to remain in Novara and make it a “studious Athens, where all the liberal arts would display their splendor by competing with one another.”12 His vision would never be realized. In 1554 he was, according to Finazzi, “constrained to leave and to be tied again to his city of origin.”13 In none of his published writings did Taegio explain the reasons for this forced return to Milan. Finazzi speculated that Taegio’s inclination toward novità (novelty), his involvement with the Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna, and his relationship with Cardinal Giovanni Morone, who had been held in the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome for “suspicions in religious matters,” attracted the attention of the Spanish authorities, who might have preferred to keep Taegio in Milan, where “his actions would have been felt less than in Novara, a smaller city.”14 Taegio remained visible, even holding public office. Cardinal Morone appointed him governor of Lago d’Orta.15 Taegio also served as one of the vicars general of the state of Milan.16 Bartolomeo Taegio began his career as a writer at about the time of his return to Milan.17 By most accounts his first and best published work was Le Risposte (The Replies), which he dedicated to Cardinal Morone. He wrote it in 1554, while he was governor of Lago d’Orta, and probably while he was staying at Isola San Giulio.18 As the inscription on the frontispiece of Le Risposte indicates, Taegio was already by that time a member of the Collegio di Giureconsulti (College of Jurists) of Milan, a prestigious association of legal specialists. Le Risposte was translated into French in the sixteenth century, and until now it is the only piece of Taegio’s writing that has been published in translation.19 As many as sixteen more books followed, over a period of eighteen years. Two seventeenth-century encyclopedias of literature that include entries on Bartolomeo Taegio list the same twelve titles, while the earliest of these sources adds that there were other

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figure 3. Frontispiece of Le Risposte. Courtesy of Biblioteca Civica, Novara.

books.20 Later biographical dictionaries of Italian authors provide dates of publication and names of publishers for some of these twelve works, as well as the titles of five additional ones not identified in the earlier sources.21 The public library in Novara holds copies of six books by Bartolomeo Taegio.22 Le Risposte is a collection of fifty-three essays in the form of replies to inquiries from Taegio’s friends, most of them residents of Novara. All of the Shepherds of the Agogna who are known by name are represented; one suspects that the anonymous ones are as well. The essays contain valuable historical information. The one entitled “Della Bellezza del Isola et Lago d’Orta” (On the Beauty of the Island and Lake of Orta) describes mid-sixteenth-century Isola San Giulio, and helps to locate its author there in 1554. Another, “Della Pittura” (On Painting), is dedicated to Bernardino Lanino, one of the promising young painters of the Vercellese school.23 The titles of the essays reflect the range of themes, both practical—“Delle Richezza” (On Riches), “Del Studio delle Leggi” (On the Study of Law), and “Delle Qualità che deve haver la Buona Moglie” (On the Qualities That

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a Good Wife Ought to Have)—and theoretical—“Della Musica” (On Music), “Del Chaos Poetico” (On Poetic Chaos), and “Dell’Amicità c’ha la Pittura con la Poesia” (On the Friendship That Painting Has with Poetry). The titles of other essays are suggestive of Taegio’s interest in country life: they include “Della Caccia” (On Hunting) and “Della Solitudine” (On Solitude). An essay entitled “Di Dialoghi” (On Dialogue) is addressed to Francesco Sesallo, the publisher of Le Risposte. In the year following the publication of his first book, Taegio produced L’Essilio (The Exile), the only one of his extant works besides La Villa to be published by Moscheni. This slim volume contains a letter addressed to Giovanni Battista Piotto, one of the villa owners named in La Villa, in which Taegio expressed sorrow over the separation from his scholarly friends and his garden in Novara, as well as resignation at being confined in Milan, his “very sweet homeland.” L’Essilio contains other letters addressed to each of the members of the Shepherds of the Agogna, and it is because of this that their pseudonyms are known. La Villa itself was published in 1559, the year of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, which gave Spain dominion over Milan.24 A twentieth-century Milanese historian calls La Villa “un gustoso libretto” (an enjoyable little book) devoted to the idea of villeggiatura. He provides a concise description of the book: É un dialogo tra due gentilhuomini, l’uno innamorato della vita campestre, l’altro allora della cittadina. Il primo, per convalidare la propria tesi, enumera i cittadini che passano in villa gran parte dell’anno, una sfilata di circa dugencinquanta nomi di famiglie e di personaggi, preziosa anche perchè ci mette sott’occhio le persone allora più distinte a Milano. (It is a dialogue between two gentlemen, one enamored of country life, the other of the city. The first, in order to support his thesis, enumerates the citizens who spend a large part of the year in villa, a list of about two hundred and fifty names of families and personnages, especially valuable because it sets before the eyes the most distinguished persons in Milan at that time.)25 The first of the “two gentlemen” is Taegio, using the name Vitauro, his pseudonym in the Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna. The other interlocutor is Partenio, one of the “shepherds” whose real-life identity is unknown. Testimony to the importance of La Villa for a historian is given by a nineteenth-century author who said,

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Dalla pag. 55, alla 106, si accennano in parte, ed in parte si descrivono più ville e giardini del milanese rinomate in que’ tempi. L’opera torna molto preziosa anche per la storia dei costumi lombardi di quel secolo. (From pages 55 to 106, most of the villas and gardens of the prominent Milanese of that time [the middle 1500s] are either alluded to or described. The work is also very valuable for the history of Lombard customs of that century.)26 The first of Taegio’s publications that followed La Villa is L’Humore (The Humors), a dialogue between the author and Giovanni Paolo Barzi, whose name appears in La Villa. It contains numerous poems, many of them translations of works by Virgil. Dedicated to Giuliano Golesino, L’Humore was published in 1564, the same year as Taegio’s treatise on criminal law, Tractatus Criminales, the only work Taegio wrote in Latin.27 Il Liceo (The Lyceum) consists of two volumes, in which “there are riches of historical and biographical facts regarding Milanese literature.”28 The first book

figure 4. Frontispiece of Il Liceo. Courtesy of Biblioteca Negroni, Novara.

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of Il Liceo is written in the form of a dialogue between Count Galeazzo Visconti and Ennio Ritio, in which, according to the inscription on its frontispiece, “the order of the Academies and the Nobility is discussed.” It is dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Alziati. The second book, “where the art of making enterprises conform to the concepts of the mind is discussed, and the poetical imaginings of the muses talked about,” is dedicated to Giulio Claro, one of the villa owners named in La Villa.29 Two poetic compositions by Bartolomeo Taegio entitled Paradossi (Paradoxes) were published only in a second edition of Il Liceo book 1 in 1572.30 The last of Taegio’s works to be published, in 1572, was L’Officioso (The Dutiful One), a dialogue dedicated to Saint Carlo Borromeo. It shows the author near the end of his life, “intent on works of piety and religion.”31 The portrait in the front of this book depicts Taegio in his old age, and carries the legend “Bartholomaeus Taegius Comes Doctor et Eques” (Bartolomeo Taegio, Companion, Teacher, and Knight). The date, place, and circumstances of Bartolomeo Taegio’s death remain a mystery. A local historian described a marble sepulchral monument, with an inscription dedicated to the Taegio family, in the church of S. Francesco in Vercelli, and he gave 1573 as the year of Bartolomeo’s death.32 It is likely that the stone was installed, as was customary, in the floor of the church, but no trace of it exists today. When the interior of S. Francesco was renovated in the 1980’s the floor was repaved, and a great number of old lapide were removed.

The Political, Economic, and Social Context

When La Villa was published, the state of Milan, a territory that encompassed the western half of present-day Lombardy as well as a large part of Piedmont, was a Spanish possession. Philip II (1527–1598), son of the Habsburg emperor Charles V (1500–1558), had reigned as king of Spain since 1556, the year Charles abdicated and left the empire to his brother Ferdinand I, to whom Taegio dedicated his dialogue in 1559, and whose claim to the imperial throne had just been recognized the previous year.33 The roots of Spanish control of Milan, and the origins of its sixteenth-century aristocracy, lie in the history of the duchy of Milan from the end of the fourteenth century. The names of the most active political Milanese families for three hundred years—Visconti, Sforza, Simonetta, Trivulzio, Crivelli, and others—appear repeatedly in the pages of La Villa. Members of the Visconti family had ruled the territory since the title “duke of Milan” was first bestowed by the Holy Roman

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Emperor Wenceslas on Gian Galeazzo Visconti in 1395.34 Under their leadership the region flourished economically and artistically in the fourteenth century. By Taegio’s day, many Visconti castles had been transformed into hunting lodges and villas that can still be seen today, such as the Visconti-Sforza castle at Cusago, which Taegio identified as the villa of Countess Maximiliana Sforza. The fall of the Visconti dynasty came with the death of Filippo Maria Visconti, without heirs, in 1447. After a violent struggle for succession, a condottiere by the name of Francesco Sforza took control of the duchy in 1450, and the people of Milan proclaimed him duke. He removed from positions of power several Milanese aristocrats close to the Visconti whose family names (such as Borrromeo, Trivulzio, and Cotta) appear in La Villa, and he replaced them with members of his own entourage of commoners.35 He restored the economic health of the duchy, which had been debilitated by years of warfare.36 Francesco Sforza died in 1466, and his oldest legitimate son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, succeeded him. During Galeazzo’s reign the Milanese court became the richest in Italy. His profligacy contributed to the eventual financial bankrupcy of the Sforza dynasty.37 He was assassinated by some of his own courtiers in 1476.38 Galeazzo’s son, Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, was only seven years old when his father was killed. The duchy was effectively ruled by the late duke’s secretary and minister, Cecco Simonetta, until he was arrested and subsequently executed in 1480 by followers of Lodovico Maria Sforza (“il Moro”), the fourth legitimate son of Francesco. Thus Lodovico Sforza became in effect the sole regent of Milan, while his young nephew reigned as duke in title only. Upon Gian Galeazzo’s death in 1494, Lodovico became duke. The period in the history of Italy from 1494 to 1559 was “the age of the Italian Wars.”39 The balance of power the duchy of Milan had been able to maintain as the wealthiest and strongest militarily of the Italian city-states was permanently upset in 1494. In that year French troops under their king, Charles VIII, crossed the Alps into Italy to conquer Naples. Lodovico Sforza had endorsed the invasion, but in an about-face he allied himself with the pope, the emperor, Venice, and Spain against the French king, who was expelled from Naples in 1495.40 Four years later Charles VIII died, and the duke of Orleans, an old enemy of Lodovico’s, became Louis XII. The new French king claimed the title of duke of Milan on the grounds of his descent from a Visconti princess. In 1499 the Treaty of Blois between France and Venice partitioned Milanese territory, and the army of Louis XII invaded Lombardy under the command of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, a former captain of the Milanese army who had made himself an expatriot and an enemy of the Sforzas more than ten years earlier when Lodovico passed him

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figure 5. Frontispiece of L’Officioso. Courtesy of Biblioteca Civica, Novara.

over for a promotion.41 Trivulzio was by no means the only one of his countrymen Lodovico had managed to disaffect. Many of the Milanese, overburdened by taxes levied to support the luxury of the court, welcomed the invaders, and Lodovico Sforza was forced to flee to Innsbruck, where he found refuge and political support from the emperor, whose wife was Lodovico’s sister.42 Many works of art commissioned by the duke were stolen or vandalized by the French, and the artists he had assembled dispersed. Noble Milanese families who had been loyal to the Sforza dukes, including the Crivelli and the Visconti, went into exile after the French confiscated their property.43 In February of 1500 the people rebelled, and Lodovico, with the help of many of his old friends, reentered Mi-

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lan. On his approach to the city he stayed overnight outside Milan at a house mentioned in La Villa called Mirabello, which belonged to the Landriani family at that time.44 Backed by imperial troops, Lodovico routed the French forces and was given a hero’s welcome by the people, who had been treated badly by their foreign masters. Lodovico’s restoration was short-lived. A few weeks later he was captured by Trivulzio and imprisoned in France, first at Lyon and then at Loches, where he died in 1508.45 Over the next half‑century, as French, Spanish, and German rulers competed for mastery of the peninsula, political and cultural preeminence in Italy shifted from Milan to papal Rome.46 In 1512 the warlike Pope Julius II, who earlier, as Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, had urged the French to invade Italy, joined forces with Emperor Maxmillian II to remove them, and to install in Milan as his puppet Ludovico Sforza’s oldest son, Massimiliano. After Francis I became king of France upon the death of Louis XII in 1515, he defeated the Italian army at Marignano and negotiated the abdication of Massimiliano.47 In 1519 Charles V was elected emperor. In 1521, with the help of Pope Leo X, he expelled the French from Milan and installed the seriously ailing second son of Ludovico Sforza, Francesco II. The 1520s, the decade in which Bartolomeo Taegio was born, was a time of political disorder, disease, famine, and devastation of the countryside. After the death of Francesco II without heirs in 1535, the duchy of Milan passed directly to Charles V and became a province of his empire.48 The period of Milanese history from the death of the last Sforza duke in 1535 to the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559 was the first part of an era of Spanish domination, which lasted until 1714.49 During that era, Milan was ruled by a series of appointed governors who in theory administered the state of Milan for the king of Spain, but who in practice functioned almost autonomously.50 Charles V invested his son Philip with the office of duke of Milan in 1540. Philip was installed in 1546, the same year the emperor summoned Ferrante Gonzaga to serve as governor of Milan, which office he filled until his death in 1557.51 Between 1549 and 1555 a new ring of bastioned defense walls twenty miles in length were built under the supervision of Gonzaga’s architect, Domenico Giunti. Giunti also designed additions, including an innovative portico with superimposed orders, to the suburban villa known today as La Simonetta. Gonzaga bought La Simonetta in 1547 and later sold it to an apostolic nuncio by the name of Alessandro Simonetta, whose name appears in Taegio’s list of villa owners.52 Giunti’s portico at La Simonetta still stands today, as do remnants of the defenses he designed for the Spanish government. Commonly called the “Spanish walls,” they enclosed the suburbs that had sprung up in the fifteenth century outside the medieval

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walls, which were subsequently demolished, and they effectively doubled the area of the city. The part of the navigli (Milan’s system of navigable canals) that had been built to serve initially as a moat outside the medieval walls was thus incorporated into the city.53 In 1554 Philip took possession of the city of Milan and appointed a magistracy, which consisted of a president and nine officials called questors. The chief executive of the city was the podestà, an administrative official like a mayor, but appointed rather than elected. In 1555 Pope Paul IV made a league with France to expel the Spanish from Naples and Milan, and once more Lombardy became a battlefield.54 Lasting peace was finally achieved in April of 1559, roughly seven months after the death of Charles V, with the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which France, weakened by religious wars at home, renounced its claims in Italy, and Spain retained Milan. The establishment of Spanish hegemony in Milan contributed to a shift in the regional economy away from manufacturing toward agriculture. The Milanese economy had begun to recover in the middle of the sixteenth century and enjoyed several decades of rapid expansion after the conclusion of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis. In spite of attempts by Spain to block the export of cloth, the silk and wool industries made modest gains in the first half of the sixteenth century, as did the manufacture of leather goods, arms, and armor. The publishing trade in Milan, though relatively small with only about a dozen established firms, was profitable enough to lure Francesco Moscheni, the publisher of La Villa, into moving his business from Pavia to Milan in 1553.55 But the sector of Milan’s economy that experienced the most remarkable progress in the 1550s was agriculture.56 The reasons for the shift from manufacturing to farming in Taegio’s day are related to demographic growth. The population of the city of Milan was probably more than eighty thousand in the middle of the century and increasing rapidly.57 The city was home to approximately one-tenth of the growing population of the state of Milan.58 Prices for agricultural produce were rising in pace with the demand for foodstuffs.59 As farming became increasingly profitable, many wealthy Milanese merchants and aristocrats invested in the acquisition, reclamation, and irrigation of land in the fertile plain of the Po River valley, and many of these new landowners built houses in the countryside.60 The names of two hundred and eighty-four owners of villa estates and gardens that existed in the state of Milan in the sixteenth century are listed in La Villa. These names include many of the high officials of the city of Milan in the epoch of Charles V, including nineteen (almost two-thirds) of the podestà who served between 1537 and 1567, three questors, eleven senators, three presidents of the

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Senate, and one high chancellor.61 Leaders of the church identified in this list include nine bishops and one who would become the bishop of Novara after 1559. Two of the villa owners named in La Villa would become archbishops (Giovanni Arcimboldo and Carlo Borromeo), and one (Giovanni Angelo de’ Medici) would become a pope, Pius IV. With the exception of the clergy, all of the villa owners named in La Villa were aristocrats.62 Two aristocracies coexisted in the state of Milan in the sixteenth century. One was the feudal nobility, who possessed hereditary titles and fiefs in the countryside. These cavalieri (knights) and conti (counts), from which the Italian word for countryside, contado, is derived, typically received most of their income from agriculture, and they enjoyed judicial and administrative authority over the peasants who worked their lands.63 The other aristocracy was the urban patriciate, whose claim to the highest status in Milanese society was based on their families’ long histories of residency and political leadership in the city.64 Conspicuous among the patricians were the lawyers, from whose ranks the senators rose, and who were recruited by the Spanish government for various bureaucratic posts.65 At first each kind of aristocracy had its own separate sphere of influence, either the town or the country, but by the second half of the sixteenth century the distinction between the two groups was beginning to become blurred.66 The gradual blending of the two aristocracies is indicated by the changing usage in the sixteenth century of the word gentilhuomo (gentleman), an honorific favored by Taegio. In Milan under the Sforzas the title gentilhuomo was used to designate a courtier of high rank and income from the class of the cavalieri. In the epoch of Charles V the term lost some of its specificity outside of the princely court, although it was still reserved for the feudal nobility. By the end of the sixteenth century the meaning of the word would be broadened to include members of either aristocracy, and eventually almost anyone we would call a “gentleman,” on the basis of education and comportment more than social status. Taegio was writing in the midst of these changes, just as the term “gentleman” was beginning to be applied to members of the urban patriciate. Well over half of the names of villa owners in La Villa appear in two lists of “gentlemen,” one beginning on page 98 and the other on page 109. At first glance it may seem that Taegio used the term gentilhuomini to distinguish the villa owners of the knightly order from those belonging to the urban patriciate; at least nine of the one hundred and forty-six “gentlemen” he lists were counts. Concerning only three of the “gentlemen” villa owners did Taegio say anything about their participation in public life. Only twice in the entire dialogue are city dwellers referred to as gentilhuomini, and then the tone is ironic. In one instance

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city dwellers are called ociosi gentil’huomini (lazy gentlemen); in another they are said merely to consider themselves to be gentlemen. Closer examination, however, reveals that Taegio’s gentilhuomini are not exclusively knights or counts. Nine of those listed are known to have been podestà, three were senators and one was a president of the Senate; they certainly belonged to the urban elite. Nor do the lists of “gentlemen” include all of the villa owners who might have been knights; only one of the ten villa owners Taegio called cavallieri and fewer than half of those he identified as counts are included. The fact that Taegio did not equate “gentlemen” with feudal nobility suggests that by the time La Villa was written differences between the two aristocracies in Milanese society had already become less marked than they had been at the beginning of the century. During the course of the sixteenth century the urban patriciate became increasingly exclusive, imitating the feudal nobility in its reliance on lineage more than education or service to the state as the primary condition for admission to its order of society. At the same time as the aristocrats were closing ranks, a wealthy class of commoners, purchasing titles and fiefs from the Spanish government, were challenging all claims to nobility on hereditary grounds.67 This “new nobility of mercantile origin” competed with the patriciate “in the refined passion for villeggiatura.”68 While the villa owners mentioned by Taegio comprised both kinds of the old aristocracy, they apparently included none of these newly titled bourgeois.

The Agricultural Context

La Villa is an early example of the type of “villa book” that was popular in Italy toward the end of the sixteenth century. Taegio responded to a demand for a new kind of writing in the Renaissance, “the essay, letter or dialog on villa life,” which James Ackerman calls “an innovative literary genre.”69 La Villa is typical of the genre, in that it reflects its author’s familiarity with farming and gardening practices in the region of the upper Po River valley. However, Taegio’s dialogue differs from other books on villa life written before and after it, in two important respects: it emphasizes the aesthetic value of gardens and farmland, and it treats the villa as a place of leisure devoted to intellectual activity. Ackerman includes Bartolomeo Taegio among the four “North Italian agricultural authorities” whose works “offer the greatest insight into villa society,” and he says that Taegio is the only one of them who represented the villa as a setting for the pursuit of scholarly and philosophical otium.70 Besides Taegio, the other

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three “agricultural authorities” whose writings Ackerman discusses are Alberto Lollio, Giuseppe Falcone, and Agostino Gallo. Lollio was from Ferrara, Falcone and Gallo from Brescia. The earliest of their works is the Lettera di M. Alberto Lollio, nella quale rispondendo ad una di M. Hercole Perinato, egli celebra La Villa et lauda molto l’agricoltura . . . , which was published in Venice in 1544. It describes the practical advantages of life in villa over life in the city. Falcone’s La Nuova, vaga, et dilletevole villa was first published in Brescia in 1559, the same year as Taegio’s La Villa. Of all the Renaissance authors on country life, Falcone is the closest to the ancient Roman authorities, Varro and Columella, in his conviction that the villa owner should be tireless in his commitment to the full-time supervision of his estate. In contrast to Falcone, Gallo’s work emphasizes relaxation and diversion as benefits of life in the country. As originally conceived, Le dieci giornate della vera agricoltura, e piaceri del La Villa, was published first in Brescia in 1564, and then in Venice in 1566.71 A revised version, with the title Le venti giornate . . . , came out of Turin in 1580 and Venice in 1584. Like Taegio, Gallo was a jurist, and like La Villa, Le dieci giornate and Le venti giornate were written in dialogue form. Ackerman identifies several other agricultural treatises produced in northern Italy in the sixteenth century, including Trattato dell’agricoltura (Venice, 1572), written by the Paduan Africo Clemente, and Ricordo d’agricoltura (Mantua, 1577), written by Camillo Tarello, a Brescian. Ackerman’s list does not include the verse treatise on agriculture, La Coltivazione, by the Tuscan, Luigi Alamanni (1495–1556), which was published in Paris in 1546, and which Sereni calls “the most important agronomic poem of the sixteenth century.”72 Nor does Ackerman mention two earlier authors of agronomic literature whose treatises were precedents for the type of the sixteenth-century villa book. They are Pietro de’ Crescenzi, the Bolognese lawyer whom Taegio called one of the “more recent” authorities on the nobility of gardening, and Michelangelo Tanaglia, the Florentine author of a verse treatise in three books called De Agricoltura, which was written in 1490 but not published until 1953. Sereni refers to Crescenzi as the “restorer of the science of agronomy in communal Italy.”73 Crescenzi’s Liber ruralium commodorum, written around 1305 and published numerous times, was well diffused throughout Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century. Taegio could have known it in the Italian translation published in Venice in 1542. Although Crescenzi’s book was written much earlier than La Villa and reflects the author’s knowledge of a northern Italian agricultural landscape less intensively cultivated than it would become in Taegio’s lifetime, the two works have some features in common. Like Taegio, Crescenzi made use of ancient sources such as Cato, Varro, and Columella. He also provided lists of purely ornamental trees, aromatic herbs,

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and flowers, thereby implying (although without linking horticulture with the liberal arts and philosophy as Taegio would) that a garden could be appreciated not only for its usefulness but also for its beauty.74 Crescenzi wrote his treatise at a time when gradual but dramatic changes were beginning to take place in the agricultural landscape all over Italy, owing to population growth and increased opportunities for individual initiative in farming in the late communal period. The earlier medieval pattern of cultivation in temporary clearings, where livestock were allowed to forage without restriction, was being replaced by a new system that involved enclosing permanent fields with hedges, plowing under stubble, and setting aside part of the tilled land to lie fallow each season. The principle of crop rotation, though known, was not widely diffused. The hills were being deforested and planted with grapevines, a practice that, though profitable because of a steadily increasing demand for wine, led to widespread erosion. Crescenzi addressed the problem of soil conservation by recommending, among other things, that hilly terrain be worked a girapoggio (across the slope) rather than a rittochino (in the direction of the slope). The first great works of irrigation in the Po River valley had already been started at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when Crescenzi was writing.75 By the time Tanaglia had written his treatise in the late fifteenth century, a system of drainage, called magalato, had become common in the plains. It involved arranging tilled land annually in porche, or hummocks; that is, narrow, elongated rows separated by shallow furrows. Tanaglia spoke of the increased yield from this system: “Maggior ricolta in piano ha magalato” (The magalato produces the best harvest in the plain).76 He referred also to a shortage of pasture land, writing of letting animals graze on the branches of trees planted in rows along the edges of fields to support grapevines, so that “olmi ancor con la foglia nutriranno gli armenti” (elms with their leaves also will nourish the herds).77 Tanaglia addressed the problem of forage by advocating the renewal of meadows through reseeding and manuring, and by promoting the cultivation of enclosed meadows.78 Tanaglia’s work refers to three landscape forms that appeared on the plains of northern Italy for the first time in the early Renaissance and that persisted in Taegio’s lifetime: the magalato, or fields arranged in porche, rows of trees supporting vines, and hedges protecting fields from indiscriminate pasturage. Tanaglia paved the way for Taegio by laying the theoretical groundwork for an aesthetic evaluation of agricultural landscape. In book 1 of his treatise, Tanaglia retold the story of the Persian king Cyrus, whom Lysander called “blessed” because of the beauty of his garden in Sardis, to support his argument for the nobility of gardening, just as Taegio would do more than a century and a half

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later in La Villa.79 In La Villa (p. 48) Taegio applied to farms the same standard of beauty he used to judge gardens, saying “that there can be nothing more usefully productive or more beautifully ordered than well-cultivated land.” The priority Taegio gave to geometry and order in the landscape echoes the value placed on similar qualities in the poem by Tanaglia, who advised that the planning of agricultural estates should conform to a rectilinear system: “Agli orti come a’ prati squadra e lista” (Square up and edge the orchards as well as the meadows).80 Tanaglia argued that trees should be planted in rows because, Se per tramite retto e pari sesti Fien compartiti, più grati saranno, E par che me’ la terra omor vi presti.

(If in a straight line and with even intervals they are distributed, they will be more graceful, and it seems that you do more honor to the earth.)81

More than half a century after Tanaglia wrote his verses, and only thirteen years before La Villa appeared, Alamanni’s poem La Coltivazione was published. While the agricultural landscape he knew was more elaborated than Tanaglia’s, Alamanni spoke of the same forms and addressed some of the same issues as his predecessors. In the middle of the sixteenth century, soil erosion and shortage of pasture land were still unsolved problems. Echoing Crescenzi’s advice on soil conservation, Alamanni recommended plowing hillsides parallel to the contours rather than up and down the slopes, saying, . . . ponga cura Ch’ ei non rovini in giù rapido e dritto; Ma traversando il dorso umile e piano Con soave dolcezza in basso scenda. ( . . . take care that [the furrows] do not crash down, rapid and straight; but cross over the back [of the slope], humble and slow, with peaceful sweetness in their downward course.)82 Alamanni called even more urgently than Tanaglia for permanent enclosure of pastures, with these words:

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Indi volga il pensier coll’opra insieme Intorno ai prati ch’ il passato verno Aperti, in abbandon, negletti furo, Agli armenti, ad ogni uom pastura e preda. Quei con fossi talor, talor circondi Con pali e siepi: o se n’ avesse il loco, Può di sassi compor muraglie e schermi; Talchè il rozzo pastor, la greggia ingorda E col morso e col piè non taglie e prema La novella virtù ch’ all’ erbe infonde Con soave liquor la terra e ’l cielo.

(Then turn your thoughts and actions to the meadows, which last spring were open and abandoned to the herds: any man’s for pasturage or taking. These ditches now, now surround with palisades and hedges, and with enough space, you can make walls and barriers of stone, which the rustic shepherd’s greedy flock will not cut with mouth or foot, or crush the new life that the grass receives as sweet liquor from the earth and sky.)83

The soave liquor of which Alamanni sang is the rain, which for most parts of Italy in the sixteenth century did not fall with sufficient regularity during the growing season “to assure a luxuriance of forage in the meadows.”84 In the Po River valley, however, the construction of elaborate and widespread works of irrigation had the dual effect of making possible the expansion of needed pasture land and imposing new forms on the landscape. The planning and execution of great irrigation projects in the Po River valley, particularly in Lombardy, during the second half of the fifteenth century were based on uninterrupted experience and tradition dating from at least the eleventh century. Thirteenth-century Lombard documents mention a method of irrigation called marcita, which involved letting a sheet of water run over the meadows in winter. Beginning in the middle of the fifteenth century, the system of canals for irrigation and transportation around Milan was developed rapidly, generally through the initiative of the new signorie. In 1457 Francesco Sforza ordered the

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excavation of the Binasco canal to carry the waters of the Naviglio Grande from Milan to Pavia, and in 1464 he had the Martesana canal built to bring the waters of the Adda River from Trezzo to Milan. Twenty years later, under Lodovico Sforza, the irrigation of the countryside around Vigevano and Novara was extended with the construction of the Roggia Mora and the Sforzesco canals.85 Owing in part to the fact that in the fifteenth century the “centralized territorial unit” of the duchy of Milan “realized the powerful concentration of force and [economic] means that was necessary to carry out great public works,” an artificially irrigated and intensively cultivated agricultural landscape extended throughout the plain of the Po River valley in Taegio’s lifetime.86 This landscape was characterized by canals, meadows, and fields planted primarily with either wheat or rice, a recent introduction that had already become an important export of the neighboring region of Piedmont by the sixteenth century.87 The boundaries of the fields in Lombardy were typically marked by embankments and irrigation ditches, along which rows of trees were planted. These plantations consisted of either hardwood species, such as elms, or mulberry trees, which had been introduced into the region with the silk industry in the first half of the sixteenth century. By the second half of the century, with the expansion of meadows and the regular practice of crop rotation based on recently founded modern theory, the old system of fallowing finally came to an end. The arrangement of fields in porche yielded to systematization a prese or a prace, with three or four times greater distance between drainage ditches. The greater length and width of the fields, and the permanent and extensive hydraulic arrangements, distinguished the piantata of Lombardy from the landscape of other parts of Italy. With these improvements the Po valley moved to the forefront of agricultural progress in Italy in the first decades of the sixteenth century.88 By the middle of the century, leadership in agricultural theory and technology had shifted from Tuscany and southern Italy to Milan and other northern cities, such as Padua and Venice, which took the place of Florence as the most important centers of publication of agronomic literature. This shift is apparent from the fact that, while earlier the science of agronomy had been dominated by Florentines such as Tanaglia and Alamanni, after 1550 we find at the forefront a Paduan (Clemente) and two Brescians (Falcone and Gallo).89 Gallo’s Le dieci giornate is especially illuminating in connection with La Villa because it reflects the landscape of the same region and the same time period as Taegio’s. The salient features of this landscape are the network of canals and ditches for irrigation, the systematization of the plain into a checkerboard of fields, and the cultivation of trees in rows along the boundaries of the fields. That

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Gallo approved of the works of systematization and irrigation is evident from the great pleasure he took quando egli fa drizzare vie, quadrare campi, scavezzar tor nature, carettare cavedagne, ugualare prati, fare ponti, argini, canali, e chiaviche per adacquare. (when someone straightens roads, squares fields, digs out ditches, hauls up embankments, levels meadows, builds bridges, banks, canals, and sluiceways for irrigation.)90 He advocated imposing an orthogonal grid on the land: fields si quadrino di pezzo in pezzo non piu lunghi di quaranta cavezzi l’uno, ne manco di trenta, o di vinti cinque; facendo i fossi attorno, e piantando da ogni lato gli arbori. (should be well squared one after the other, not more than forty cavecci [240 feet] long, nor less than twenty five or thirty, with ditches all around, and planted on all sides with trees.)91 Gallo took up the subject of the cultivation of mulberry trees in the section of his treatise on gardens, and in the third section he expounded on the planting of trees to support vines, stating his preference for poplars over the elms of which Tanaglia had sung. In La Villa (p. 112) Taegio described the delightful sight of “the leafy vine, when it reacquires the lost shoots and, marrying itself to the elms, clings to their branches.” The technique of “marrying” vines to trees in Lombardy is as ancient as the period of Etruscan colonization, and in the time of the late empire the Romans, who planted maples, poplars, and elms for the purpose, called this method of viniculture, in what was then known as Cisalpine Gaul, arbrustum gallicum.92 The practice of edging the fields with linear plantations dates from at least the last decade of the fifteenth century, when Tanaglia was writing. The texts by Crescenzi, Tanaglia, Alamanni, and Gallo are vauluable not only as sources of technical information about how land in northern Italy had been cultivated for two centuries before La Villa was published but also as verbal impressions of the changing visual experience of agricultural landscapes in Italy over the same time period. Although he acknowledged Crescenzi, and exposed his familiarity with Tanaglia, Taegio was careful to distinguish his dialogue from

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the written works of both his predecessors and his contemporaries. La Villa is not an agricultural treatise, as its author made clear at the end of the dialogue where Vitauro decides “to defer the discussion of agriculture to a more convenient occasion.” There is not a single reference in La Villa to the two most important crops produced in the region at the time of its writing: rice and silk. Mulberry trees, the single food source of the silkworm caterpillar, are mentioned only as root stock for grafting oranges, pears, and other fruits. In fact gardening, rather than farming, is the primary focus of Taegio’s treatment of villa landscape.

The Horticultural Context

In the culture of the Italian Renaissance, gardening was understood to be a special case of the imitation of nature in art. A garden could represent, like a painting, the outward appearance of visual effects (and, unlike a painting, the auditory, olfactory, and tangible effects) observable in the world of landscapes both touched and untouched by human hands. In addition, it could represent the hidden cosmic order that was thought to produce those effects. Because the gardener’s palette was the living, growing, changing world of earth, water, and plants, his work could express the interaction of human culture and the natural world in a unique way. In the Italian Renaissance, the garden was considered by many to be the ideal place to reveal the supposed correspondence between the visible and the invisible in a divinely ordered and harmonious universe. This mimetic function distinguished Italian gardens of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries from earlier ones. Claudia Lazzaro calls it “the essence of an Italian Renaissance garden.”93 Eugenio Battisti says that the Italian Renaissance garden was, among a great many other things, a “well-ordered model of the universe.”94 Lazzaro in particular has specified how gardens in Italy in the Renaissance were made to be representations of the larger world: microcosm imitated macrocosm through conventions of planting and ordering.95 The selection of plants in a garden enabled it to serve as a medium for preserving and transmitting knowledge of the divine order of the cosmos in two ways. First, a garden was supposed to represent nature in all its variety by containing a diverse collection of botanical species from all over the known world. In fact, actual gardens created in Italy in the first half of the sixteenth century approached this ideal. The first European example of what later became known as the “botanical garden” was founded at Pisa in 1543. The second, the Orto Botanico at Padua, was constructed two years later.96 Taegio mentioned the botanical gardens

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at both Pisa and Padua in La Villa (p. 105), where he compared the garden of Scipione Simonetta to them. The metaphor of the garden as a catalogue of plants was familiar in fifteenth-century Italy to, among others, Leon Battista Alberti.97 In book 3 of his I Libri della Famiglia, in a discussion modeled after Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, Alberti said that the ideal setting in which to raise a family would be a villa where “tutti e’ frutti nobilissimi quali nascono per tutti e’ paesi” (all the finest fruits that come from the country) would be grown.98 Villa gardens in the state of Milan in the sixteenth century embodied this ideal by including a wide variety of specimens, some exotic. In his description of the garden of Scipione Simonetta in La Villa (p. 104), Taegio listed forty-eight “valuable, famous and exotic simples” from places as remote as Egypt and Calcutta.99 Among the exotics Taegio observed in Cesare Simonetta’s garden at Castellazzo were “the sweetsmelling, precious and rare shrubs, brought from parts of India.” The diversity of Cesare Simonetta’s collection of plants is indicated by the passage in which Taegio described a bosco of mixed deciduous and coniferous shade trees, “a shady and delightful wood, where one sees growing the very straight fir tree, the mighty oak, the tall ash, the knotty chestnut, the lofty pine, the shady beech, the delicate tamarisk, the incorruptible linden, the oriental palm, the mournful cypress, the very hard cornel, the humble willow, the very pleasant plane tree, and other very beautiful trees” (p. 67). Variety and rarity of plants were part of what made a garden an imitation of nature in Taegio’s day. The second way in which planting contributed to the mimetic potential of an Italian Renaissance garden was through symbolism. As Lazzaro has said, “the symbolic significance of plants guided the selection of specimens in the garden.”100 While the key to much of this symbolism is now lost, it is clear that it was based on associations with moral as well as physical attributes of human beings. In the passage quoted above the oak is called “mighty,” the tamarisk “delicate,” the linden “incorruptible,” the cypress “mournful,” and the willow “humble.” These specimens not only represented the variety of plant species in the world; they also symbolized the range of human physical and psychological types, establishing a correspondence between the garden itself and the larger world, with the human being as the mediator, through conventions of planting. The microcosm of the Italian Renaissance garden also imitated the macrocosm by means of various strategies for imposing order on the layout of plant materials. Four conventions of ordering gardens in sixteenth-century Italy are recorded in La Villa. The principal one is the subdivision of the garden into three parts corresponding to three categories of plants. The conventional arrangement of the parts of a villa garden placed beds of simples, herbs, or flowers near the house,

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an orchard of small fruit trees at an intermediate distance, and a bosco, or grove of larger trees, in the most remote part of the garden.101 The second ordering convention is partitioning the garden into regular units, most commonly squares, called compartimenti (quadri in La Villa). Intersecting linear elements such as paths, pergolas, and hedges were typically used to achieve compartmentalization. The third method is the use of geometric designs, epitomized by the quincunx, in the plan of the whole or parts of the garden. The fourth strategy is to fashion plant material into representations of the owner of the garden.102 The last three of these conventions were explained in Alberti’s treatise on architecture. In book 9 of De re aedificatoria, where he discussed garden design in the context of ornament appropriate for private dwellings, Alberti advised that “walks should be lined with evergreen plants” such as box, myrtle, and laurel. In the same passage he advocated the use of geometric designs, saying, “Circles, semicircles and other geometric shapes that are favored in the plans of buildings can be modeled out of laurel, citrus and juniper when their branches are bent back and intertwined.”103 He went on to express his partiality for the figure that was to become a favorite of sixteenth-century garden theorists: the quincunx.104 Alberti said that “rows of trees should be laid out in the form of the quincunx as the expression is, at equal intervals and at matching angles.” Finally, Alberti wrote approvingly of the ancient Roman practice of fashioning garden plants into representations of villa owners: “How charming was that custom of our ancestors whereby the gardeners would flatter their master by writing his name on the ground with box or fragrant herbs!”105 The systematic application of order and measure to garden design is a hallmark of the Renaissance, and a foreshadowing of it can be seen in Alberti’s architectural theory. Its justification is found in a desire, newly expressed in the fifteenth century, for order in the garden to reproduce not only the order proper to the design of buildings but also the cosmic order. Four conventions of ordering are represented in La Villa. Taegio’s description of Cesare Simonetta’s villa estate (p. 65) reflects the organization of the garden in three parts. The first part of the “well-ordered” garden is composed of “squares of beautiful appearance, both distinct one from another, and equal . . . where the flowers and the herbs are obliged to dwell.” This is followed by an orchard, where “green and living lemons, oranges and citrons, which have their fruit hanging fresh, unripe and ripe, together with their flowers,” and finally by “a shady and delightful wood.” The second method of establishing order in the garden is mentioned in several places in La Villa. Compartimento (compartmentalization) is the word Taegio

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used to describe the partitioning of the garden of Pietro Paolo Arrigono: “In the marvelous and well-contrived construction of a superb palace, as well as in the comparmentalization, in the order, in the charm, and in the loveliness of this very beautiful garden, he shows clearly the splendor and magnificence of his mind” (p. 101). Pergolas are among the means Taegio specified in La Villa (p. 66) for the compartmentalization of Cesare Simonetta’s garden: “The main walkway, which subdivides the place in a cross, is covered by a pergola of new vines, whose sides are nearly all covered with roses and jasmine, so that their big and pleasing fragrance makes the garden seem in truth like all the spiceries of the orient are there. And the alleys are well shaded from the sun, so that one can at all times go everywhere under fragrant and pleasant shade without being touched by its rays.” Taegio added that squares in the same garden were outlined with clipped hedges. “Beside the paths that wind along the aforementioned squares, the pale salvia grows, the green rosemary, the fragrant lavender, the pretty myrtle, the crinkled box, the tenacious mastic, the prickly juniper, the poetical bay laurel, the lowly strawberry bush, and many other similar shrubs, placed regularly and kept low by the masterful hand of the wise cultivator, enclose all the paths of the successful garden.” The “masterful hand of the wise cultivator” would have been indispensible as well for the third convention of garden art represented in La Villa: the ordering of the plan of the garden with geometric designs such as the labyrinth and the quincunx. In La Villa (p. 108) Taegio called wonderful a “very dense grove of hazel made in the form of a labyrinth” that he saw in the garden of Pietro Novato. He also praised “the wonderful order, the gracefulness, and the careful distribution of the plants that were disposed in the form of a quincunx” in the proverbial garden of King Cyrus. Taegio was so enamored of the quincunx that he illustrated it in La Villa (p. 50). Finally, Taegio referred to the fourth way of making a garden as an ordered microcosm: by shaping plants into representations of the owner. Rather than spell the owner’s name, as the ancients did in Alberti’s account, Cesare Simonetta’s gardeners reproduced his insignia on the ground with plants. As Taegio wrote in La Villa (p. 67), “the flowers and herbs not only delight the corporeal eyes of the spectators, but with very sweet food they nourish even those of the mind; for inside frames are seen very beautiful devices with very witty and ingenious mottos; and so those like these are composed in flowers and tiny herbs.” By representing owners, and by means of geometry, compartmentalization, and tripartite organization, Italian Renaissance gardens in general, and the gardens Taegio described in particular, reflected the cosmic order in which human

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beings were thought to occupy a privileged place. Various adaptations of these conventions of ordering, in combination with those of planting, resulted in sixteenth-century Milanese gardens that functioned as imitations of nature on multiple levels. Horticultural conventions supported the representational quality of Italian Renaissance gardens. Agricultural theories and practices shaped, both literally and figuratively, the terrain in which Taegio’s villa owners lived.

The Idea of the Villa in Antiquity

The idea of the villa has a history. The word villa originated in the Latin language, and it was introduced into English, by way of Italian, in the seventeenth century.106 The word villa has a great richness of associations for readers of English today, as it did for Taegio and his sixteenth-century Italian readers, both because it was an adaptable term in ancient times and because its meaning developed from a long history of usage beginning in ancient times and continuing through the Renaissance to the present day.107 Latin authors used the term villa to denote either a building or a group of buildings, built on a piece of land that was cultivated to some extent, and that usually, though not always, was located outside, or at least on the outskirts of, the city. In papal documents of the sixteenth century, villa was used to refer to the whole ensemble of buildings and their landscape setting, while the house itself was called a palazzo.108 The word villa brings to mind variously a working farm, a simple homestead, an architecturally refined country seat, a refuge from the irritations and dangers of the city, a retreat for study and inspiration, a luxurious vacation house, a locus amoenus (place of pleasure), and a paradise on earth. As this list suggests, these overlapping associations can be thought of as occupying a scale from simple and necessary to elaborate and idealized. The origin of the word villa is by no means clear, nor is its meaning fixed very securely by its early usage. Pliny the Elder said that in the Twelve Tables, the traditional founding documents of Roman law written in the middle of the fifth century b.c., the word villa never occurs, but that the word hortus is “always used in that sense.”109 In the later codes of law, villa signified a building in the country that, together with its ager (land), formed a fundus (estate).110 A Latin word closely related to villa is vilicus, which is both an adjective meaning “pertaining to an estate” and a noun meaning “steward,” or “overseer of an estate.” Varro’s Rerum rusticarum contains an etymology of the noun, vilicus.

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Vilicus agri colendi causa constitutus atque appellatus a villa, quod ab eo in eam convehuntur fructus et evehuntur, cum veneunt. A quo rustici etiam nunc quoque viam veham appellant propter vecturuas et vellam, non villam, quo vehunt et unde vehunt. (The vilicus is appointed for the purpose of tilling the ground, and the name is derived from villa, the place into which the crops are hauled [vehuntur], and out of which they are hauled by him when they are sold. For this reason the peasants even now call a road veha, because of the hauling; and they call the place to which and from which they haul vella and not villa.)111 Of the ancient Roman authors invoked by Taegio in La Villa to support his argument for the superiority of country life over city life, six prove to be important sources for the origin and early usage of villa: Marcus Porcius Cato, who wrote the earliest extant piece of continuous Latin prose, De agri cultura, in 165 b.c.; Marcus Tullius Cicero, who wrote De senectute in 40 b.c.; Marcus Terentius Varro, who wrote Rerum rusticarum in 37 b.c.; Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella, who wrote the most systematic extant Roman agricultural manual, De re rustica, in 65 a.d.; Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus), who wrote Naturalis historia in a.d. 70; and his nephew Pliny the Younger (Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus), whose Epistulae were first published around a.d. 100. Another important ancient source for the meaning of villa, a source Taegio used extensively, is the Greek author Xenophon, who wrote Oeconomicus around 360 b.c. The term villa may have been relatively new at the time Cato was writing. The villa-residence he described was a working farmhouse, complete with horse stalls and quarters for servants.112 Scholars today commonly refer to this type of building, for which archaeological evidence has been found at Boscoreale and elsewhere, as villa rustica, although Cato never used that term. His word for such a farmhouse is simply villa. Varro, whose description of a villa is more detailed than Cato’s, was the first of the ancient writers to distinguish between villa rustica and villa urbana. In Varro’s day, the villae urbanae of the wealthy were typically more elaborate architecturally than the serviceable farmhouse described by Cato, and they were often adorned with painted decoration and filled with expensive furnishings. That Varro disapproved of this trend is evident in the following passage in which he praised the thrifty ancients and condemned his extravagant contemporaries.

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Itaque illorum villae rusticae erant maioris preti quam urbanae, quae nunc sunt pleracque contra. . . . Nunc contra villam urbanam quam maximam ac politissimam habeant dant operam ac cum Metelli ac Luculli villis pessimo publico aedificatis certant. (And so their [the ancients’] villae rusticae cost more than their villae urbanae, while now the opposite is usually the case. . . . Nowadays, on the other hand, people try to have as large and handsome a villa urbana as possible; and they vie with the villas of Metellus and Lucullus, which they have built to the great damage of the state.)113 As this excerpt from book 1 of Rerum rusticarum shows, Varro used the terms villa rustica and villa urbana to refer to two different kinds of dwellings. Later in Varro’s dialogue, the difference between these kinds of dwellings is elucidated: one is a utilitarian farmhouse, the other a luxurious country residence dissociated from farming. In a long passage in book 3, in which one interlocutor asks what a villa is, a range of examples is given in reply. At one end of the spectrum is a villa that entirely lacks painted or sculpted embellishments. At the other extreme is a villa that serves no purpose related to the tilling of the soil.114 For Varro it was not a building’s location, size, or level of comfort but its economic productivity (which could be based on raising anything from crops to cattle, birds, or bees) that made it a villa. Like Varro, Columella distinguished between rustica and urbana, but for a purpose different from Varro’s. According to Columella, the rustica (overseer’s residence), the urbana (owner’s residence), and the fructuaria (storehouse) were the three main parts of the villa, differentiated according to use: “Modus autem membroumque numerus aptetur universo consaepto et dividatur in tres partes, urbanam, rusticam, fructuariam” (Moreover, the size [of the villa] and the number of its members should be proportioned to the whole enclosure, and it should be divided into three parts: urbana, rustica, and fructuaria.)115 It is clear from the context that Columella was referring to a building that was composed of more or less loosely related parts. The same building housed, in three sections, everything that needed shelter: the owner’s family; the slave household, cattle, and other animals; and the wine and all the produce of the villa. The two principles Columella set forth that were supposed to guide the arrangement of spaces within each section were solar orientation—“balnearia occidenti aestivo advertantur” (the baths should face the setting sun of summer)—and convenience—“vilico iuxta ianuam fiat habitatio, ut intrantium exeuntiumque conspectum habeat” (quar-

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ters should be provided for the overseer alongside the entrance, so that he might have a view of all who come in and go out).116 Columella distinguished between the villa and the consaeptum (fenced enclosure) in which it is built. Even where he said that there should be “vel intra villam vel extrinsecus inductus fons perrenis” (a never-failing spring either within the villa or brought in from outside) and that “salientes rivi . . . perducendos in villam” (bubbling brooks . . . should be conducted into the villa), Columella used the word villa to refer to an articulated and functionally differentiated aedificium (building), not an estate.117 Another important ancient source of villa is the late first-century a.d. Roman author Marcus Valerius Martialis. Martial’s Epigrams contain more than thirty references to suburban villa estates, including his own. Where he referred to his own property at Nomentum, a town in Latium northeast of Rome, Martial used the words rus (farm), recessum (retreat), or hortus (garden), or he simply called it his Nomentanus.118 Distinguishing between the land and the building, he called his modest house at Nomentum both casa and rudis villa.119 He repeatedly stated that his main reason for going there was to exchange the incessant noise of the city for the quiet of the countryside, and a good night’s sleep.120 Martial praised his friend Faustinus’s villa at Baiae because it “rure vero barbaroque laetatur” (rejoices in the true, rough countryside). He contrasted Faustinus’s villa with a property “sub urbe” (near Rome) that offered its guests “famem mundam” (elegant starvation).121 Quiet was evidently more important to Martial than either distance from the city or rusticity. He said he preferred the villa of Julius Martialis on the Janiculum in Rome to larger ones at Tibur or Praeneste because there he could view the city below isolated from its noise, even though he wondered whether the “celsa villa” (lofty villa) ought to be called a rus (country place) or a domus (urban residence).122 The ancient author who, more than any other, enlarged the word villa by expanding its range of associations is Pliny the Younger. Of his letters, written at the height of the empire, four in particular reveal the richness of meaning of villa for Romans at the end of the first century a.d. In his letters to Gallus and Domitius Apollinaris, Pliny attributed to his Laurentine and Tuscan villas qualities that are now almost universally associated with the word villa. References to these qualities also occur, among comments on a villa’s purpose, in two less well known letters: one to Baebus Hispanus, in which Pliny the Younger described a property that a friend wanted to buy; and another to Minicius Fundanus (which Taegio cited), concerning his Laurentine villa. The qualities that Pliny the Younger counted among the attractions of his Laurentine villa are its moderate commodiousness, its proximity to the city, and

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the favorable disposition of its rooms with respect to exposure and vistas. He wrote to Gallus that “villa usibus capax, non sumptuosa tutela” (the house is large enough for my needs, but not expensive to keep up).123 Extending this principle to an entire estate, he told Baebus Hispanus that he should buy a property with “mediocritas villae, modus ruris, qui avocet magis quam distringat” (a modest house, and sufficient land for him to enjoy without taking up too much of his time). Pliny the Younger expected his friend to enjoy strolling around his grounds inspecting vines and fruit trees. He recommended the same property because it was vicinitas urbis (not far from Rome).124 He described for Gallus the arrangement of various rooms of his Laurentine villa in terms not only of solar orientation but also of vistas, especially the view from the dining room that “quasi tria maria prospectat” (looks out, as it were, on three seas).125 Pliny the Younger also emphasized the beauty of the views from the house, and the restfulness of the place, in his description of the Tuscan villa. He wrote to Domitius Apollinaris, “Villa in colle imo sita prospicit quasi ex summo” (My house is on the lower slope of a hill but commands as good a view as if it were higher up).126 He claimed that he enjoyed the best of health, both physical and mental, when he was at his villa, because “placida omnia et quiescentia, quod ipsum salubritati regionis ut purius caelum ut aer liquidior accedit” (everywhere there is peace and quiet, which adds as much to the healthfulness of the place as the clear sky and pure air).127 Although none of the ancient sources says so (and Varro did not mention it in his etymology of vilicus), it is probable that villa, like many Latin words, is closely related to a Greek word. Modern etymologies indicate that villa is a derivative of the Latin word vicus, which is cognate with the Greek word oikos, meaning “estate” or “household.”128 In Oeconomicus, Xenophon’s dialogue on the subject of estate management, the word oikos denotes an economic entity, the most basic unit of production and consumption throughout the Greek world. The oikos described by Xenophon was sustained by agricultural activity. It combined features of the family-run farm with the type of enterprise that exploited slave labor; profit was its chief goal. Neither the location of its land nor the character of its landscape setting was an important aspect of the oikos.129 Many inhabitants of classical Athens had to travel miles from home to reach the plots of land they farmed, and while some of the wealthiest possessed enclosed, irrigated, and intensively cultivated kepoi (gardens) adjacent to their houses, this certainly was not the rule.130 There are similarities between the Greek idea of the oikos and the Roman idea of the villa. Both depended to some extent on the cultivation of the land

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and agricultural production. Roman treatises on the management of villas reflect practical concerns identical to those treated by Xenophon in Oeconomicus. Cato may have used Xenophon’s Oeconomicus as a source for his own treatise, De agri cultura. In Cicero’s De senectute, Cato, the chief interlocutor in the dialogue, was represented as familiar with Xenophon’s writings in general, which he called “multas ad res perutiles” (very instructive on many subjects), and with the Oeconomicus in particular.131 It is Cicero’s, not Cato’s, regard for Xenophon that is evident in this passage. Cicero had produced a Latin paraphrase of the Oeconomicus in 85 b.c., and it was Cicero’s version, rather than the Greek, that Varro, Columella, and Pliny the Elder later quoted. Cicero himself was the real speaker in all of his dialogues. He even warned his readers, in the introductory section of De senectute, not to expect to find in his representation the historical Cato, who “eruditius videbitur disputare quam consuevit ipse in suis libris” (will seem to argue more learnedly than he was in the habit of doing in his own books).132 The idea of the villa, especially as found in Cato and Varro, differs in several repects from the idea of the oikos found in Xenophon. By contrast to the Greek oikos, the Roman villa was always situated in a “countryside,” whether found or contrived. Cicero used the term villa to distinguish a house in the country from one in the city. While most ancient Roman villas had the agricultural capability to be self-sufficient, not all villas were associated with farming.133 The villas of the rich, especially those of the emperors, were not always literally located in the countryside. The most obvious example is the Domus Aurea of Nero, who built his villa where the Colosseum now stands. Though it was located in the heart of Rome, because it was provided with a parklike setting, an imitation of rural landscape, such a residence could still be called a villa. The first-century a.d. Latin historian Tacitus described Nero’s villa as a palace the marvels of which “were not so much customary and commonplace luxuries like gold and jewels, but lawns and lakes and faked rusticity—woods here, open spaces and views there.”134 Because the idea of the villa carries with it a notion of life in the country, a landscape setting that evokes or represents the countryside is essential to the Roman villa, while it is not essential to the Greek oichos. A villa is distinguished from an oikos not only by its actual or represented situation but also by its purpose. The Roman villa was associated with the owner’s enjoyment and relaxation in a way that the Greek oikos was not. Evidence for the idea that the enjoyment of country life constituted a purpose for the villa is found in the works of Cato, Varro, and Pliny the Younger. The first indication in ancient literature that life in villa was associated with delight in the vita rustica appears as early as the first half of the second century b.c., in Cato’s De agri

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cultura. To Cato the villa represented primarily a sound investment, and only secondarily a source of pleasure because it served as a retreat. Varro’s view was more balanced. He said that “agricolae ad duas metas dirigere debent, ad utilitatem et voluptatem” (farmers ought to aim at two goals, profit and pleasure).135 For Pliny the Younger, the main purpose of the villa was pleasure, particularly the pleasure that comes from “dulce otium honestumque” (sweet and honorable leisure) devoted to literary studies.136 He called the retreat at Laurentum his “verum secretumque mouseion (true and private haunt of the muses), indicating that for him an important function of its setting was to inspire him to write.137 Pliny the Younger counted himself among the “scholasticis porro dominis” (scholarsturned-landlords) of his day, who not only enjoyed villa life but also found it necessary for cultivating a life of scholarship, just as Taegio would, nearly fifteen hundred years later.138 While life in villa was, from Cato’s day on, associated with enjoyment of the countryside, the “pleasure factor” became more remarkable at the height of the empire. The rustic farmhouses of Cato’s and Cicero’s days were overshadowed in later generations by the luxurious suburban villas described by Martial. This shift in the idea of the villa may have resulted in part from the increasing influence of Epicurean philosophy, which contrasted with the Stoicism of Cato. As the Roman Empire expanded, villas were increasingly devoted more to the owner’s pleasure than to farming. This development probably was stimulated by economic changes associated with the rise of slave-run estates known as latifundia. When Pliny the Elder wrote that “latifundia perdidere Italiam, iam vero et provincias” (large estates have been the ruin of Italy, and are now proving the ruin of the provinces too), he was not only putting latifundia at the center of debate about the aggregation of rural properties too large to farm according to the labor-intensive methods described by Cato and Varro, he was also signaling a change in the meaning and purpose of the villa, a new emphasis on its role as a locus amoenus, a place of sensual and intellectual pleasure.139

The Idea of the Villa in the Renaissance

As the Roman Empire disintegrated, the ideological as well as the practical need for villas waned. As urban populations shrank, much of the countryside of Italy was taken out of cultivation, and became economically and politically isolated from cities. Villas ceased to be centers of economic and administrative life, and

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many of their structures were either neglected or adapted for other uses. While people may have continued to live on country estates throughout the former empire, the construction of new villas and the production of writing on the idea of the villa both eventually stopped. The “process of disaggregation of the agricultural landscape and the separation of the city from the countryside” reached its peak between the eighth and eleventh centuries.140 By the thirteenth century, following an increase in population, the elaboration of the agricultural landscape began to develop again under new conditions. At the beginning of the fourteenth century Crescenzi wrote his Liber ruralium commodorum using Cato, Varro, and Columella as sources.141 Crescenzi’s agricultural treatise does not deal with the idea of the villa. Rather, “it gives a complete picture by a cultured observer, of the medieval garden at its most expansive, before the onset of the Renaissance.”142 The buildings Crescenzi described in his text are essentially fortified castles, which were built all over Italy before the fifteenth century. Villas, as distinct from castles, farmhouses, and urban palazzi, began to be built again in Italy in the fifteenth century. The resurgence of Italian cities, which had begun in the thirteenth century, stimulated a demand for the agricultural produce that villas collected and distributed, and a related increase in the safety of the countryside led to positive reassessments of the value of country life relative to that of city life. Investment in agricultural real estate was a way for wealthy businessmen to buffer themselves financially from the shocks of fluctuating market economies in Florence in the middle of the fifteenth century, when banking and trading were more profitable than farming, as surely as it was in the Veneto in the late sixteenth century, in the context of the reformation of uncultivated land in the Terraferma, and in the state of Milan in Taegio’s day. A change in attitude toward the contemplative life stimulated new interest in the idea of the villa, which in turn prompted a revival of villa literature and a renewal of villa construction, beginning in Florence in the fifteenth century. This revival progressed in two phases: the rebirth of the ancient tradition of the “villa dialogue,” in the first half of the century; and, after 1450, the appearance of the first treatises to include the idea of the villa as a topic. Renewed interest in the idea of the villa as a site of otium was preceeded by writing on the contemplative life. Belief in the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life is expressed in the writings of fifteenth-century humanists, such as Cristoforo Landino, who wrote Disputationes Camaldulenses in 1475, and Pico, who wrote Oratio de hominis dignitate in 1486; but its roots are found in the previous century, in the writings of Francesco Petrarca and Giovanni Boccaccio.

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Petrarch based his argument for the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life, in De vita solitaria, on the authority of a variety of ancient writers, mostly Stoics, including Cicero, Scipio, and Seneca. The literary setting for Petrarch’s life of solitude was a locus amoenus in the countryside, “inter purpureos florum toros, autumno caducarum inter frondium . . . procul a malis, procul ab exemplis scelerum” (amid purple beds of flowers [and] heaps of fallen leaves . . . far from evil, far from examples of wickedness).143 Petrarch began writing his treatise, as an apologia for his withdrawal from the urban world of activity, in his villetta at Vaucluse in 1346.144 He was one of the first to view his own day as the beginning of a revival, which he conceived in terms of a return to the study of classical Greek and Latin texts and a reformation of writing in Latin. But it was Boccaccio who answered Petrarch’s call for a return to the classics with a call of his own for a return to nature.145 Boccaccio’s Decameron is set during the Florentine plague of 1348, in a villa in the countryside midway “between sophisticated city life and the pastoral simplicity of the peasant’s world.” That villa is a locus amoenus, conceived as a place to which one can escape from the city without suffering the disorderliness of untamed wilderness.146 The revival of villa literature proper began with the rebirth of the “villa dialogue” in Florence in the century following Boccaccio’s. The earliest such work is the Dialogus ad Petrum Paulum Histrum, written by Lionardo Bruni in 1401. Two other villa dialogues, both from shortly before 1440, are Poggio Bracciolini’s De Nobilitate and Matteo Palmieri’s De Vita Civile. Not only is Palmieri’s dialogue, like Bruni’s and Bracciolini’s, set in a villa, it also focuses on villa life as a subject.147 Palmieri has one of the interlocutors say, “La Villa è tutta buona, fertile, copiosa, dilettevole, onesta, naturale e degna d’ogni uomo da bene e libero” (The villa is a perfect good: fertile, abundant, delightful, honorable, and worthy of every free man of good class.)148 When this statement is compared to comments on country life made in the previous century, the increase in value of the kind of retreat that a villa affords is evident. Paolo Da Certaldo, in his mid-fourteenth century Libro di buoni costumi, had written, ‘“La Villa fa buone bestie e cattivi uomini,’ e pero usala poco: sta a la città e favvi o arte o mercatantia, e capiterai bene” (“The villa makes good animals and bad men”; therefore make very little use of it. Stay in the city and foster your trade or business affairs, and you will prosper.)149 The second phase of the revival of villa literature began with the work of Leon Battista Alberti. Alberti was the first writer since antiquity known to have devoted a piece of writing exclusively to the idea of the villa. That piece is his short

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monograph, written probably around 1438, entitled simply Villa.150 Alberti also took up the villa as a topic in two other, better known, works: his dialogue on the family, I Libri della Famiglia, written in 1438; and his treatise on the art of building, De re aedificatoria, written after 1450. The content of Alberti’s Villa is derived from the De agri cultura of Cato and the Works and Days of Hesiod, which also may have served as a model a century later for Taegio. Alberti could have been familiar with one of several manuscripts of Works and Days now in Florence, and Taegio with one now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.151 The moralizing tone of Alberti’s Villa can be traced to Cato and Hesiod. Alberti’s phrase “nulla più iusto a ricchire che la agricultura, e quelle ricchezze quali s’acumulano senza fraude sono uno bene divino” (there is no fairer way to get rich than agriculture, and riches that are acquired without fraud are a divine blessing),152 recalls the opening paragraph of Cato’s treatise, where he says that his ancestors praised farmers more than merchants,153 as well as Hesiod’s exhortation to Perses to do “the work which the gods ordained for men.”154 Alberti did not simply imitate his antique models, however; he built on them and went beyond them, reflecting on the purpose of a villa. The first line of Villa reads, “Compera La Villa per pascere la famiglia tua, non per darne diletto ad altri” (Buy a villa to nourish your family, not to give pleasure to others).155 Similar sentiments about the purpose of a villa can be found in the dialogue on the family Alberti wrote at about the same time as Villa. In I Libri della Famiglia he embellished his conception of the villa as a farm for the production of food and income for the family by adding, in a way that is reminiscent of Martial, that a villa is a refuge from the noise and dangers of city life. For Alberti, the villa not only offered “utile grandissimo, onestissimo e certissimo” (the greatest, the most honest, and the most certain profit); it was also a place “fuggire questi strepiti, questi tumulti, questa tempesta della terra” (to flee these uproars, these tumults, this tempest of the world) that is the city.156 This felt need to withdraw from the city, which in Alberti is mixed with a sense of the private realm as a training ground for public life, recalls Petrarch’s De vita solitaria.157 In De re aedificatoria Alberti made three statements about the design of villas that refer to attributes of the idea of the villa found in ancient sources.158 In the first of these statements, Alberti reaffirmed the purpose of the villa implied by Martial and Pliny the Younger, saying that the kind of private house appropriate for a leading citizen of a republic is “a place to retreat with his household . . . well away from the common crowd,” and ideally “outside the city altogether.”159 In a second passage, Alberti, like Cato before him, located the villa between the

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works of man and the works of nature, where it should enjoy the best of both worlds, urban and rural, by being situatied “right in the countryside, at the foot of mountains,” and “at no great distance from the city.”160 Finally, Alberti defined the type of the suburban villa, intimated by Martial, as “that [which] combines the dignity of a city house with the delights of a villa.”161 Alberti called this type by that archaic term for a villa, hortus, which Martial had used. Its distinguishing feature is that it has a view of “meadows full of flowers, sunny lawns, cool and shady groves, limpid streams and pools.”162 With Villa, I Libri della Famiglia, and De re aedificatoria, Alberti made an enormous contribution to the revival of villa literature, by drawing from Hesiod, Cato, Martial, and Pliny the Younger to reconstruct the idea of the villa in a new context. Alberti’s work and the “villa dialogues” by Bruni, Bracciolini, and Palmieri incorporated notions of the essential nature and purpose of a villa, and thereby embodied the idea of the villa in the Renaissance.

The Philosophical Context of La Villa

Bartolomeo Taegio was not a philosopher, but he was well versed in the studia humanitatis of his day, and the list of his published writings indicates the wide scope of interests typical of the homo universalis. Taegio was a humanist and a poet-scholar, and as such he belonged to a class of intellectuals that was in decline in the sixteenth century, even as the influence of humanistic learning in Italy was reaching its zenith.163 The reasons for the decline are numerous and interrelated. After 1500, when printed editions of ancient texts, many accompanied by commentaries, became widespread, the humanists found themselves no longer “personally the possessors and diffusers of ancient culture.”164 Having been for several decades practically indispensable to patrons eager for new knowledge of antiquity, a growing number of classically trained scholars now had to compete for fewer and less profitable posts. At the same time, with the CounterReformation gaining momentum, humanists more and more frequently had to defend themselves against charges of atheism and heresy. Suspicions of apostasy had occaisionally interrupted the careers of classical scholars in Italy as early as the middle of the fifteenth century. In general it became increasingly difficult for scholars in Italy to publicly maintain unorthodox views after 1542 when Paul III, the pope who was to summon the Council of Trent three years later, revived the Inquisition by establishing “a new centralized organization, the Holy Office, with

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its headquarters in Rome, to supervise and coordinate the activities of inquisitorial tribunals elsewhere in Italy.”165 It is commonplace today to characterize the intellectual climate of the Renaissance in terms of a conflict between the two dominant systems of classical thought. A better sense of the kind of intellectual activity that produced La Villa is captured by the phrase some scholars have used to characterize the writings of the Florentine humanists: “an attempt at a syncretistic fusion of ” Platonism and Aristotelianism.166 As a writer, Taegio depended on sources aligned with both traditions. Traces in La Villa of the influences of the Platonists Ficino, Pico, and Carolus Bovillus, as well as the Aristotelian Pietro Pomponazzi, are unmistakable. The main premise of Taegio’s argument for the superiority of villa life is that the villa is the ideal setting for contemplation, which should be valued because its purpose is the pursuit of knowledge, or, in Taegio’s words, “il fin dell’anima” (the spirit’s goal). Taegio’s emphasis on the value of contemplation recalls the philosophical thinking of Marsilio Ficino, the leader of the Platonic Academy in Florence and “the most influential exponent of Platonism in Italy during the fifteenth century.”167 In his Theologica Platonica (1474) Ficino called contemplation the highest goal of human existence, and he argued that, because contemplation is never perfectly attained in this life, the human being must have an immortal soul.168 The human soul occupied the central position in Ficino’s hierarchy of possible modes of existence, an unbroken scale of mediation between the sensible and the intelligible—that is, in Platonic terms, between appearances (phenomena) and ideas (noumena).169 The theory of a graduated cosmos has its roots in the philosophy of that pseudonymous early sixth-century Neoplatonist author known to scholars in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as Dionysius the Areopagite, whose De divinis nominibus and De mystica theologica Ficino translated in 1492.170 Taegio referred to Marsilio Ficino only once in La Villa, and then it was to identify him as the owner of a villa that is called by the original form of Taegio’s family name, Montevecchio. In fact, Ficino is the first villa owner mentioned in La Villa. The second is Ficino’s pupil Pico della Mirandola, the basic outline of whose teaching was undoubtedly familiar to Taegio, as the following passage from La Villa (p. 4) clearly indicates. In response to a question from Partenio about what the object of the contemplation fostered by the solitude of the villa should be, Vitauro replies, “You ought to know that the elements have only being, the plants have being in common with the elements and life as well, the beasts have being in common with the elements, life in common with the plants,

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and sense as well. And men have being in common with the elements, life in common with the plants, sense in common with the beasts, and intellect in common with the angels. Thus the immortality of our souls is proven.” Taegio’s articulation of the concept of a graduated cosmos represents his synthesis of the speculative scheme of Bovillus and the philosophy of Pico. In his De sapiente (1509) Bovillus postulated a universe consisting of four different existential levels: being, living, sensing, and reasoning. The lowest of these levels is shared by everything that is, including minerals, plants, beasts, and humankind. The highest level is reserved for human beings. The passage in which this system is postulated can be found at the beginning of first chapter of De sapiente: Homini omni insunt a natura Substantia, Vita, Sensus et Ratio. Est etenim, vivit, sentit et intelligit omnis homo. Ast alii hominum duntaxat ut simplicis substantie, alii ut Substantie et Vite, ali ut Substantie, Vite et Sensus, alii denique Substantie, Vite, Sensus et Rationis actu atque operatione funguntur. (All men by nature consist of Substance, Life, Sense and Reason. For indeed every man exists, lives, senses and understands. Some men in their actions and works function with substance only; others not only with substance but also with life; others not only with substance and life but also with sense; and still others not only with substance, life and sense but also with reason.)171 Bovillus’s system is ethical as well as metaphysical; it describes not only the gradations of existence, which are supposed to reveal the hidden order of the microcosm and the macrocosm, but also the path along which a human being can pass from acedia (spiritual inertia) to self-knowledge and knowledge of the cosmos, which Bovillus associated with virtus (virtue). Bovillus acknowledged only the influences of Ramon Lull and Nicholas of Cusa on the development of these ideas, but his intellectual debt to Pico, though unacknowledged, is amply evident.172 In Oratio de dignitate hominis, which was written probably in 1487 and published only after his death, Pico based his argument for the surpassing excellence of human nature on the human being’s God-given power to choose his place on the scale of created beings. Pico’s scale consists of four levels, like Bovillus’s, but it is marked by two important differences: it encompasses “ways of life” rather than modes of existence per se, omitting Bovillus’s first level; and it makes a distinc-

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figure 6. De quattuor hominum gradibus, woodcut illustration from Carolus Bovillus, Le Livre du Sage, p. 56.

tion between two kinds of knowing. Pico’s levels are vegetative, sensual, rational and intellectual. The highest of these, which Pico associated with the contemplative life, is the way of life of the angels. The most concise statement of this theme is found in the following passage. Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitae germina indidit Pater; quaequisque excoluerit illa adolescent, et fructus suos ferent in illo. Si vegetalia, planta fiet. Si sensualia, obrutescet. Si rationalia, caeleste evadet animal. Si intellectualia, angelus erit et Dei filius. (The Father bestowed on man when he was born the seed of every kind and the germ of every way of life. Every one of these a man cultivates will mature and bear its fruit in him. If vegetative, he will be a plant. If sensual, he will become a brute. If rational, he will turn out to be a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God.)173 Taegio’s scheme, which is composed of being, life, sense, and intellect, combines the first three of Bovillus’s levels with Pico’s highest level, making the state of contemplation man’s chief end and his link with the divine. In La Villa (p. 4) Taegio called attention to his affinity with Pico by asking, rhetorically, “Don’t you know that the intellect is a divine thing, and that man is the link in the chain that

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binds mortal things with the divine?” The resemblance between Taegio’s “chain” and Bovillus’s shows that Taegio was familiar with the De sapiente. The fact that Taegio made the highest level of existence mankind’s link with the divine strongly suggests that he was influenced by Pico directly, through a reading of the Oratio de dignitate hominis, as well as indirectly, through Bovillus. Taegio was also influenced by Pomponazzi, the great Aristotelian rival of Ficino. While most of the fifteenth-century humanists, including the Florentines of Ficino’s Academy, embraced Platonism, “the organized intellectual life of the universities remained loyal to the Aristotelian tradition.”174 In northern Italy, the center of that life was the University of Padua, where Pomponazzi lectured from 1488 to 1509.175 Pomponazzi compared the “whole human race to a single body composed of different members,” in which all parts, while specialized, have some things in common. Pomponazzi said, in De immortalitate animae, that “all men . . . must share in three intellects: the theoretical, the practical or operative, and the productive,” and that “the universal end of the human race is to participate relatively in the speculative and the productive intellects but perfectly in the practical.”176 Taegio alluded to this passage of De immortalitate animae in La Villa (p. 13) where he said, speaking through Vitauro, “As long as that intellect you call practical inquires into what is truly just, honorable, and useful, it is speculative, but when one applies it to actions and to particular things, it becomes practical.” Later in his dialogue, Taegio made an oblique reference to another treatise by Pomponazzi. In De naturalium effectuum admirandorum causis, sive de incantationibus Pomponazzi sought to transform astrology into a rational science by explaining all so-called miraculous effects in terms of either ordinary natural causes, or natural forces not ordinarily experienced, or the influence of the observable motions of stars and planets. Pomponazzi’s phrase “Sed haec est consuetudo vulgi, ascribere daemonibus vel angelisquorum causas non cognoscunt” (But this is the custom of the common people: to ascribe to demons or to angels causes they don’t understand)177 is echoed by Vitauro’s line in La Villa (p. 55) “There are many things held by common folk to be miracles which are nevertheless natural.” Pomponazzi completed De incantationibus in 1520, but it was not published until it was printed in Basel in 1556, three years before La Villa was published in Milan. Taegio’s intellectual debts to Pomponazzi, Bovillus, Pico, and Ficino are apparent in his specific references to particular philosophical statements of theirs, and generally in his elevation of the contemplative life. Taegio’s endorsement of contemplation over action in La Villa is subordinated to his argument for the superiority of life in villa over city life.

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The Relationship Between Leisure and Intellectual Activity: Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and Petrarch

Taegio introduced his argument for the villa as the ideal setting for the life of a true gentleman with the following statement in the words of Vitauro (La Villa, p. 2): “I tell you that in villa I enjoy principally the honorable leisure of that literature that agrees with my nature.” A key to understanding Taegio’s notion of the purpose of the villa lies in the meaning of his expression honorato ocio (honorable leisure). Ocio is the sixteenth-century Italian equivalent of the Latin word otium, which was a translation of the Greek word skole. Otium is usually rendered in English as “leisure,” skole as “repose.” It is especially useful, in connection with a discussion of the idea of villa life, to look at otium in relation to its opposite, negotium, formed by prefixing the negative particle nec to otium. Negotium, which can be translated “business,” “occupation,” or “employment,” indicates a lack of otium, and therefore otium can be construed as something positive in itself. In Latin texts, otium was almost never used merely in the sense of time off from work, what we might call “spare time.”178 Nor was otium generally considered something to be enjoyed passively. On the contrary, it was frequently associated with intellectual activity. The history of “honorable leisure” encompasses changing attitudes toward the relationship between leisure and intellectual activity, and the relative merits of action and contemplation. In La Villa, Taegio cited four of the most important sources of our knowledge of these attitudes: Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, and Petrarch. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defined skole as both a characteristic of the contemplative life and a prerequisite for happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness “consists in” contemplation, which is the highest form of activity and the only activity desired for its own sake.179 The activity of the intellect, which Aristotle said also “consists in” contemplation, is the stuff of which human happiness is made, partly because it is characterized by skole.180 For Cicero and Seneca, otium was a means toward what was for them the noblest of ends, service to the state. By linking otium and statesmanship, Cicero and Seneca radically altered the meaning of Aristotle’s skole. For these ancient Roman philosopher-statesmen, otium conveyed not so much repose as retreat from negotium, and they found its justification in intellectual activity. In its Ciceronian sense, otium itself was an activity, and one that was always comprehended in the context of its complement, political activity. Where Cicero, in De officiis, quoted Cato saying that Scipio Africanus claimed to be “numquam se minus otiosum

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esse, quam cum otiosus, nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset” (never less idle than when he was at leisure, and never less lonely than when he was alone), he was associating otium with the work of thinking and writing. In his Tusculan Disputations, where he said he wanted to elevate Roman philosophy to the level set by the Greeks, so that “si occupati profuimus aliquid civibus nostris, prosimus etiam, si possumus, otiosi” (if I have been of service to my countrymen while actively engaged [in politics], I may also, if I can, be of service to them in my leisure), Cicero was justifying otium in terms of its value to the Republic as a complement to political activity.181 Cicero expressed his delight in so dignifying otium when he asked, “Quid est enim dulcius otio litterato?” (What is sweeter than leisure devoted to literature)?”182 Otium litteratum was the only tolerable kind of leisure for Seneca, who said, in his Epistles, that “otium sine litteris mors est, et hominis vivi sepultura” (leisure without literature is death, and a tomb for the living man).183 For Seneca, literary study justified leisure because contemplatio (contemplation) was the activity that made otium a form of service to the state. In De otio, Seneca wrote that “hoc nempe ab homine exigitur, ut prosit hominibus” (this of course is required of a man, that he benefit his fellow man), and he went on to describe the attitude that could enable one to serve society in his leisure.184 He asked rhetorically, “Quo animo ad otium sapiens secedit? Ut sciat se tum quoque ea acturum, per quae posteris prosit. (With what spirit does the wise man enter into leisure? Indeed, he knows that there also he will be doing something that will benefit posterity.)185 Seneca implied that the “something that will benefit posterity” was contemplation: “Natura autem utrumque facere me voluit, et agere et contemplationi vacare. Utrumque facio, quoniam ne contemplatio quidem sine actione est.” (But nature intended me to do both, to be active and to have leisure for contemplation, and I do both, because even contemplation is not devoid of action.)186 For Seneca the highest good was to live according to nature.187 Seneca’s “highest good” involved contemplation subordinated to action. Like Seneca, Petrarch privileged contemplation and the solitude that he claimed makes it possible. In De Vita Solitaria 1.3, Petrarch reinterpreted leisure as solitude, where he quoted Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations and Seneca’s Epistles: Equidem solitudo sine literis exilium est, carcer, eculeus; adhibe literas, patria est, libertas, delectatio. Nam de otio quidem illud Ciceronis notum: “Quid dulcius otio literato?” Contraque, non minus illud Senecae vulgatum: “Otium sine literis mors est, et hominis vivi sepultura.”

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(Indeed, solitude without literature is exile, prison and torture; supply literature, and it becomes homeland, liberty and delight. For well known is that saying of Cicero’s about leisure: “What is sweeter than leisure devoted to literature?” No less familiar is Seneca’s “Leisure without literature is death, and a tomb for the living man.”)188 Petrarch’s phrase “Solitude without literature is exile” is virtually identical to Seneca’s “Otium sine literis mors est,” except that Petrarch substituted the word solitudo for the word otium. The effect of this substitution is to transform the meaning of leisure. Solitudo is retreat, not only from business, but from society altogether. By implying that the leisure of Cicero and Seneca was solitude, Petrarch gave solitude the same relationship to intellectual activity that leisure had for those ancient Roman philosophers. The thought of a life of solitude deprived of literary and philosophical studies was as unbearable for Petrarch as the thought of otium without litterae was for Seneca. Petrarch interpreted the writings of Seneca and Cicero to mean that they could not engage in intellectual activity without solitude. In Petrarch’s view, solitude was necessary for more than contemplation. By asserting that the infusion of solitude with intellectual activity produces “homeland, liberty and delight,” Petrarch made solitude necessary for happiness, just as Aristotle made skole necessary for happiness. In De Vita Solitaria, solitudo is described as productive of happiness because it is characterized by litteras. Although Petrarch’s solitudo had the same relationship to intellectual activity as Cicero’s and Seneca’s otium, it was not a means to an end. Solitude for Petrarch, like contemplation for Aristotle, was an end in itself.189

Leisure and Villa Life: Alberti, Rinuccini, and Ficino

In the writings of Leon Battista Alberti on villa life, leisure plays a role in what he described as the dual purpose of the villa, which is not only to nourish one’s family, as he said in the essay he entitled Villa, but also to give pleasure. He suggested both purposes in the following passage from book 3 of I Libri della Famiglia: Sempre si dice La Villa essere opera de’ veri buoni uomini e giusti massari, e conosce ogni uomo La Villa in prima essere di guadagno non piccolo, e, come tu dicevi, dilettoso e onesto.

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(The villa is always said to be the work of truly good men and just stewards, and everyone knows the villa to be, in the first place, more than a little profitable, and, as you were saying, delightful and honorable.)190 The pleasure Alberti found in villa life was not self-indulgent but self-defensive; miserable social conditions in the city warranted fleeing to the countryside, as he explained: Agiugni qui che tu puoi ridurti in villa e viverti in riposo pascendo la famigliuola tua, procurando tu stessi a’ fatti tuoi, la festa sotto l’ombra ragionarti piacevole del bue, della lana, delle vigne o delle sementi, senza sentire romori, o relazioni, o alcuna altra di quelle furie quali dentro alla terra fra’ cittadini mai restano,—sospetti, paure, maledicenti, ingiustizie, risse, e l’altre molte bruttissime a ragionarne cose, e orribili a ricordarsene. (Add to this that you can retire to your villa and live there in repose, nurturing your family, getting things done yourself, on holidays talking pleasantly in the shade about oxen, wool, vines or seeds, without hearing rumors, or tales, or some of those other rages that never stop in the land of city dwellers–suspicions, fears, slanders, injuries, feuds, and other things too ugly to mention and too horrible to remember.)191 Here riposo (repose) is one of the blessings of villa life, which Alberti, like Taegio after him, contrasted with the maladies of city life. Another blessing is delight in the countryside. Immediately following the passage quoted above, Alberti called the villa “uno proprio paradiso” (one’s own paradise), because vi godete in villa quelli giorni aerosi e puri, aperti e lietissimi; avete leggiadrissimo spettacolo rimirando que’ colletti fronditi, e que’ piani verzosi, e quelli fonti e rivoli chiari, che seguono saltellando e perdendosi fra quelle chiome dell’erba. (at the villa you enjoy clean and airy days, open and very delightful. You have a very lovely view, beholding those leafy hills and verdant plains, and those springs and clear streams, which go leaping through and losing themselves in the waving grass.)192 In order to enjoy these blessings it was necessary, according to Alberti, to flee the

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maladies of the city, as he went on to say: “Puoi alla villa fuggire questi strepiti, questi tumulti, questa tempesta della terra, della piazza, del palagio” (At the villa you can flee these uproars, these tumults, this tempest of the land, piazza, and palace.)193 The sense of leisure gained from Alberti’s I Libri della Famiglia involves the ideas of repose, flight from the city, and enjoyment of the countryside. In the second half of the fifteenth century, Marsilio Ficino and Alamanno Rinuccini developed further the interpretation of leisure as fuggire (fleeing). Ficino embellished a wall of the villa given him by Cosimo de’ Medici with the following inscription: “A bono in bonum omnia diriguntur. Laetus in praesens. Neque censum existimes, neque appetas dignitatem; fuge excessum, fuge negotia, laetus in praesens.” (All things are directed from the good to the good. Be joyful in the present. You must not value property or desire dignity. Flee excess, flee business, be joyful in the present.)194 The words “laetus in praesens” recall Horace’s verses: laetus in praesens animus quod ultra est oderit curare et amara lento temperet risu. nihil est ab omni parte beatum. (Let the soul be joyful in the present, let it disdain to be anxious for what the future has in store, and temper bitterness with a smile serene. Nothing is happy altogether.)195 Ficino’s inscription is pregnant with meaning because of the associations it makes. Not only does it link the serenity of which Horace wrote with the ancient Roman sense of leisure, retreat from negotium; it also connects both serenity and leisure with the villa and intellectual activity, by virtue of the fact that the setting in which it appeared was a particular villa, which Ficino named Academia after Plato’s Academy. Rinuccini also associated leisure with serenity in his Dialogus de Libertate (1479), and he used a word for “serenity” that appears frequently in Taegio’s La Villa: tranquillità. From the beginning of the preface to his dialogue, Rinuccini offered a justification for living in the country to those who did not approve of him devoting more care to the management of his villa than to his business in the city. Rinuccini wrote Dialogus de Libertate one year after the Pazzi conspiracy, while he was in forced retirement at his villa outside Florence, which he made the setting for his dialogue. There he said he led “ab urbana frequentia et, quae ab ea fluunt, innumeris avaritiae atque ambitionis curis semotam vitam” (a life dis-

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sociated from urban congestion and the immeasurable greed and abition which flow from it).196 Rinuccini’s description of the vices of city dwellers would be echoed nearly a century later by Taegio in La Villa (p. 2) where he wrote that he could not see anything in the city but “pride, ambition, greed, hatred, falsehood, and idolatry.” Rinuccini said that it was not his purpose to tell others how to live, only to explain why he chose his way of life, which was to attain “what the Greeks called euthemia, a word we might translate as spiritual well being, or simply tranquillity.”197 Rinuccini defined “tranquillity” in terms of his interpretation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, as follows: Quod si Aristotelem sequi volumus qui non inhabitu sed in actu collocavit foelicitatem, hanc ipsam animi quietem et tranquillitatem carentiamque perturbationum fundamentum sedemque foelicitatis non immerito arbitramur, quod ita institutus animus facilime ad actionis aut contemplationis operationem sese conferet. (If we agree with Aristotle’s conviction that happiness lies not in passivity but in action, we shall conclude that tranquillity is the essential foundation and basis of happiness because it allows us to devote ourselves properly to either action or contemplation.)198 In the soliloquy that concludes the dialogue, Rinuccini made clear that he felt justified in retreating from the city only because political conditions there had become unbearable for him. In words that are reminiscent of Seneca’s statement in De Otio, that a man has good reason for retiring “si res publica corruptior est quam ut adiuvari posit” (if the state is so corrupt that it cannot be helped),199 Rinuccini wrote, Libertatis occupatoribus gratificer perpeti non possum. Propterea, hac, ut videtis, villula et hoc agello contentus, nullis anxius curis, nec quid agatur in civitate perquirens, quiete libereque vitam duco. (I cannot peacefully tolerate the usurpers of our liberty. Therefore, as you see, I lead a quiet and free life, content with this little villa and farm, free from all anxiety, never inquiring into what goes on in the city.)200 For Rinuccini, as for Seneca, service to the state took priority over leisure. In fact, as soon as he was again offered a position in the government of the city,

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Rinuccini ended his retirement and returned to Florence. However, while it was possible, according to Rinuccini, to pursue a life of otium in either the city or the country, the setting he chose for his own “otium cum dignitate et sine interpellatione quietem” was “villula et hoc agello”; in other words, a villa. In Taegio’s La Villa, ocio is leisure spent in the active pursuit of knowedge. It is associated with pleasure and tranquillity of mind, and it is made possible by villa life. Knowledge of the truth depends on leisure, a point Vitauro makes in La Villa (p. 12) by asking rhetorically, “How can [truth] be had except by means of discourse and leisure put to good use to acquire it?” By calling the leisure he associated with the pursuit of knowledge felice (happy) and productive of quiete d’animo (quiet of mind), Taegio was agreeing with Seneca, who “when in his Sabine [villa] . . . attended to his very honorable studies with happy leisure and great quiet of mind.” Taegio used the term tranquillità d’animo in connection with leisure as he described the the villa of Francesco Torniello: “He escapes to the sunny and very happy hill of Vergano, where with great tranquillity of mind he enjoys the freedoms and pleasures of the villa.” Taegio associated tranquillity of mind with the mythical golden age, as he penned these words (p. 16): “Hence if neither cities nor castles had ever been built, men living in the country with greatest concord and tranquillity of mind would pass their years in the manner in which the ancients did in the golden age.”201 For Taegio, the study of literature and philosophy constituted learning, and learning led to the kind of knowledge, “la cognitione del vero” (knowledge of the truth), that he called both “il fin dell’anima” (the spirit’s goal) and the highest pleasure. In La Villa (p. 147), at the beginning of the discussion of the three kinds of pleasure, Partenio says, “I don’t know anything more pleasing than learning, and while I read some book that satisfies me with noble food, I feel it nourishing my mind.” Near the conclusion of the same section, Vitauro tells Partenio that natural philosophy is the “appointed food for your mind.” According to Taegio, the “ocio delle lettere” (scholarly leisure) that makes such mental nourishment possible can be found more readily in the villa than in the city. By calling the pursuit of knowledge a pleasure, and by defining pleasure and establishing its place in a system of human motivations, Taegio did more than expand the theme of villa as locus amoenus; he followed Aristotle, who said that the intellectual life is the perfect ideal of happiness, by grounding his argument for the superiority of villa life in a theory of happiness. By associating the pleasure of the pursuit of knowledge with the honorato ocio of the villa, Taegio recalled both Cicero and Petrarch, and with them argued for the surpassing suitability of the villa as a setting for the contemplative life of scholarly and philosophical pursuits.

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The Function of La Villa’s Dialogue Form

La Villa is a polemical work that pretends to be a record of a conversation between two aristocratic Milanese gentlemen. In it Taegio juxtaposes two contradictory arguments, and resolves the tension between them by using one to overturn the other. The question debated in La Villa is whether a palace in the city or a villa in the country is the more suitable setting for the life of a true gentleman. At the outset Partenio, who represents the urban patriciate, condemns villa life and the contemplation it fosters. The common theme of Partenio’s various assertions early in the dialogue is that virtue and happiness are to be found in the active life and, by extension, life in the city. Vitauro, representing the feudal nobility, denounces cities while he extols the virtue and happiness he associates with contemplation and villa life. As the conversation progresses, two issues arise. One is whether or not farming is a noble, useful, and necessary occupation. The other is whether the pursuit of philosophical studies is more easily accommodated in the city or in the villa. The latter issue provides Vitauro with the pretext for the roll call of villa owners, many of whom are described as dottissimo (very learned), that fills fifty pages in the first half of the book. The second half of La Villa is devoted to a contest between the respective pleasures of city life on the one hand and country life on the other. At first the conflicting viewpoints of the interlocutors are explored through logical argumentation, giving the appearance of a sincere effort to discover whether one has more validity than the other. Eventually Vitauro emerges as the princeps sermonis, proving the author’s points by easily overturning each of Partenio’s weak objections. At the end of the dialogue, Partenio serves merely as a straw man, even assisting Vitauro as he contrasts the pleasures of the villa with the miseries of the city by setting him up with leading questions. It finally becomes evident that Vitauro has won the debate when Partenio admits that he knows his opponent is telling the truth. From that point on, there is no real conflict, and the conversation continues, not as a true dialogue, but rather as a monologue in disguise. Taegio himself never said why he composed La Villa as a dialogue, but two better-known Italian writers of dialogues in the second half of the sixteenth century, Sperone Speroni and Torquato Tasso, did reflect on the capabilities of the dialogue form and explained in writing their reasons for using it. Speroni, who is among the villa owners Taegio praised in La Villa, wrote twenty-one dialogues,

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ten of which were published in seven editions printed in Venice between 1542 and 1558.202 Taegio was probably familiar with some of them.203 Taegio had reason to prefer the dialogue form if one of his purposes for writing La Villa was to induce his readers to join him in a search for truth. The ancient practice of exchanging questions in dialogue for the purpose of discovering truth was exemplified, for writers in Renaissance Italy, by the dialectical method of Socrates as described by Plato. In the Meno, in a conversation that begins with the question of whether virtue can be taught and ends with a discussion of how knowledge is acquired, Socrates, having established that knowledge is essentially recollection, says that “knowledge will not come from learning but from questioning.”204 On the foundation of this practice of dialectic, fifteenth-century Italian humanists, with dialogues such as Bruni’s Dialogi ad Petrum Paulum Histrum (1401–1406) and Bracciolini’s De avaritia (1428) preferred disputation as a means of access to the truth. The intention of inviting the reader to join the author in a search for truth was made explicit later in the sixteenth century by Speroni and Tasso. In his Apologia dei dialoghi, Speroni explained that he chose the form “si accorgesse il lettore, che io in tal caso non sapiente o maestro, ma disputante più tosto e condiscepolo seco insieme volessi essere riputato” (to make it apparent to the reader that I did not want to present myself as an authority or master, but rather as a disputant, a fellow student, learning alongside him).205 In the preface to his dialogue La Cavaletta overo de la poesia toscana, Torquato Tasso said that of all the modes of exposition, he considered “questo usato nel dialoghi il più dilettevole e ’l meno odioso: perch’ altri non v’insegna il vero con autorità di maestro, ma il ricerca a guisa di compagno” (this one used in the dialogue to be the most delightful and the least irksome, because it does not teach you the truth with the authority of a master, but [rather, it teaches you] inquiry, after the manner of a friend).206 The friendly manner of the dialogue would have been particularly appealing to writers in an age when “truth” was generally held to be something that was difficult, if not impossible, for an individual to discover on his own. Dialogue, in literature as in life, was seen as a safeguard against error. Such was the view articulated by Baldassare Castiglione in his dialogue Libro del Cortegiano (1528). Castiglione’s belief in the practice of social dialogue as a path to a collective, if not universal and absolute, “truth” is evident in his introductory letter of dedication to Don Michel de Silva, where, in words that are reminiscent of Plato’s in the Meno, he suggests that “la moltitudine, anchor che perfettamente non conosca, sente però per instinto di natura un certo odore del bene e del male” (the multi-

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tude, although it does not understand perfectly, does have, by natural instinct, a sense of right and wrong).207 Besides the seemingly altruistic goal of engaging his readers in a search for truth, there is another, more selfish, motive that Taegio might have had for writing La Villa as a dialogue. In sixteenth-century Italy, authors used the dialogue form with the stated intention of accomplishing what we might call “public relations,” by advertising themselves and others in whose projected image they had an interest. It is reasonable to assume that public relations would have been an important goal for writers at a time when they depended for their livelihood on professional, social, and political connections more than on income from book sales. While the dialogue certainly is not unique among literary genres in its capacity to be used as a means toward such an end, it was commonly expected to facilitate the performance of a variety of functions related to advertisement. Castiglione, Sperone, Tasso, and other Italian authors of the period declared their intentions of advertising both themselves and their acquaintances in dialogues. Using the dialogue form, writers propagated fictitious images of themselves and others that served a variety of purposes, and these purposes were furthered by the special characteristics of the genre. Authors of dialogues in sixteenth-century Italy typically contrived their selfimages for both self-promotion and self-effacement. By virtue of its pretended artlessness and spontaneity, the genre of the literary dialogue helped writers to present themselves as accomplished amateurs. At a time when the widespread circulation of printed books was still a fairly recent phenomenon, and works in the vernacular were addressed to a newly literate public, most readers were more receptive than audiences even a century later would be to arguments structured according to the apparently unstructured patterns of everyday speech. Although a dialogue, like a monological treatise, could be used simply to display an author’s erudition, the exceptional capacity of the literary dialogue to imitate the impromptu character of spoken conversation could be exploited to create the impression that the author had not given much thought in advance to the shape his argument would take, thus publicizing his improvisational skill. This is what Castiglione called sprezzatura.208 The dialogue form offered Taegio opportunities not only for self-promotion but also for self-effacement, which could benefit a writer like Taegio in three ways: by diminishing his authority, by disguising his personal opinions, and by giving him a semblance of modesty. Sixteenth-century Italian writers had an incentive to renounce their authorial role, because audiences accustomed to being dominated by foreign powers tended to resist the potential “tyranny” of the

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authors of printed books. The dialogue form enabled the writer to diminish his authority when he presented himself as one of two or more interlocutors, as Taegio did, by juxtaposing his own voice with the voices of others. Speroni alluded to the diminuation of his authority where he said, in his defense of dialogues, that he wanted to present himself as a “fellow student,” and so did Tasso, where he spoke of joining “companionably” with the reader. When the author of a dialogue did not present himself as an interlocutor, the dialogue form facilitated the author’s concealment of his true opinions by allowing him to create the illusion that the work is a record of a conversation that the author merely transcribed, rather than one in which he himself participated, thereby suggesting that the ideas contained in the work originated with someone else. In the cornice (the narrative that “frames” the dialogue) of book 1 of Libro del Cortegiano, Castiglione explained that he was going to recount alcuni ragionamenti, i quali già passarono tra omini singularissimi a tale proposito: e, benchè io non v’intervenissi presenzialmente . . . avendogli poco apresso il mio ritorno intesi da persona che fedelmente me gli narrò. (a few discussions that took place among men singularly qualified for such a purpose. And, although I did not participate in them personally . . . they were faithfully reported to me soon after my return by someone who was present.)209 The author’s pretense that he had no part in the dialogue other than to record the conversation was a way achieving self-effacement without presenting himself as an interlocutor, and it had the advantage of protecting him from official censure, or worse, if his opinions were unorthodox. Although this strategy might have been particularly useful in an age that was marked by a revival of the Inquisition, it was not new in the sixteenth century. As David Marsh has noted, the fifteenthcentury humanists “exploited the form of the dialogue in order to avoid recriminations and reprisals from contemporary authorities.”210 Curiously, by identifying himself as Vitauro, Taegio declined to take advantage of an opportunity for self-concealment offered by the dialogue form. Besides enabling the writer to diminish his authority and conceal his own opinions, the dialogue form helped instill in the sixteenth-century reader a false yet disarming sense of the author’s modesty, by making it possible for interlocutors to frame their speeches with elaborate protestations to the effect that they speak out of obligation or duty in spite of doubts about their competency to

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treat their subject. For example, in Libro del Cortegiano, when Emilia Pia asks Lodovico da Canossa to describe the perfect courtier, he replies, Signora, molto volentier fuggirei questa fattica, parendomi troppo difficile e conoscendo . . . ch’ io non sappia quello che a bon cortegian si conveniene . . . Pur, essendo cosi che a voi piaccia ch’ io abbia questo carico, non posso né voglio rifiutarlo, per non contravenir all’ordine e giudicio vostro. (Madam, I would very happily be excused from this labor, because it seems too difficult and because I know . . . that I do not know what befits a good courtier. . . . Still, since you want me to have this task, I neither can nor will refuse it, in order not to go against the rules and your judgement.)211 By comparison to those in Libro del Cortegiano and most sixteenth-century dialogues, Vitauro’s protestations in La Villa seem weak. Late in the dialogue (p. 159) Vitauro says, “But I am a farmer of little esteem, and I cannot satisfy your desire well.” Taegio did not take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the dialogue form’s inclusion of multiple voices to diminish his authority or conceal his opinions, nor did he use a cornice to project an appearance of modesty, even though that device was a characteristic feature of sixteenth-century dialogues. Although modestà was a trait generally admired as much in gentlemen as in courtiers in Taegio’s day, it is possible that his esteem for it was not especially high; of the more than two hundred villa owners flattered by Taegio in La Villa, only two are praised for their modesty. Taegio did capitalize on another capabilitiy of the dialogue form. The value of the opportunity afforded by the dialogue form to praise acquaintances, and to invent flattering portraits of those presented as interlocutors, was attested by several sixteenth-century Italian writers. Sforza Pallavicino, in his Trattato dello stile e del dialogo (1662) wrote, [Il Dialogo] si col divisato colloquio di moderni Letterati, si col premesso racconto della lor condizione, apre un’ illustre campo ad onorar le memoria di quei defonti a cui dottrina onorò il secol nostro mentre fur vivi. (As an imagined conversation between modern men of letters, prefaced by an account of their circumstances, the dialogue offers a splendid opportu-

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nity for honoring the memory of those men, now deceased, who honored the world with their learning while they were alive.)212 Giovanni Fratta, in 1590, said that the dialogue is a way “ampliar la riputatione a gli amici” (to increase the fame of our friends).213 In a letter to Curzio Ardizio dated 27 June 1584, where he described his project for a commemorative dialogue to be set in the court of Guidobaldo II della Rovere, Torquato Tasso wrote that “il buon duca Guidobaldo . . . in guisa col suo testimonio m’onorò, ch’io al valor di lui non debbo alcun testimonio negare” (the good duke Guidobaldo so honored me with his testimony that I cannot grudge him any testimony I can give his valor).214 The literary dialogue provided the cultural elite of a society that was in an almost continual state of political siege with a means of satisfying a deeply felt need for self-definition. In Italy generally and particularly in Milan, a series of foreign occupations and economic upheavals in the sixteenth century resulted in a loss of distinct identity for the old aristocratic orders of society, which was just as serious as the erosion of their political control. One reaction to this loss was an increased demand for the kinds of self-images that literary dialogues can supply. In response to this demand, authors of dialogues in the sixteenth century often presented acquaintances as interlocutors. In his dialogue on horsemanship, Il Cavallarizzo (1562), Claudio Corte stated that one of his reasons for using the dialogue form was “per nominare alcuni patroni, e amici” (to name a few patrons and friends).215 Because positive self-images had commercial value, an author like Corte could expect to profit from their publication. In exchange for favorable publicity and perhaps a chance of gaining literary immortality, he might have received patronage, political protection, or even something more tangible. Pietro Aretino, in his Lettere, wrote that to be portrayed as an interlocutor in one of Sperone Speroni’s dialogues was “un tesoro che per sempre spenderlo mai non iscemerà” (a treasure that one can keep spending forever, without it ever running out).216 The expectation of reward may have motivated Bartolomeo Taegio to honor villa owners who were contemporaries of his by mentioning them, and by praising them for their virtue and erudition, in La Villa.217 Many of those Taegio mentioned were his “patrons,” thirteen were friends to whom he addressed Le Risposte, and one, Alessandro Castiglione, had been his schoolmate at the University of Pavia. The names of at least two members of the Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna, Giovanni Pietro Testa and Giovanni Iacopo Torniello, appear in La

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Villa. It is possible that other “shepherds” known only by their pseudonyms in the Academy are also named.

Taegio’s Dialogue with His Sources

La Villa can be read not only as a conversation between interlocutors but also as a dialogue between the author and his literary sources. The arguments on both sides in La Villa rely heavily on the accepted authority of sources cited, and they are supported almost exclusively with references to ancient and Renaissance philosophical writings. In this respect too Taegio departed from the tradition of Italian Renaissance dialogues based on the model of Cicero, who wrote, “Non enim tam auctores in disputando quam rationis momenta quaerenda sunt” (indeed, in discussion the weight of reason rather than authority is sought).218 In La Villa, Vitauro’s proposition is demonstrated to have more validity than Partenio’s, not because it is reasoned better, but because it is represented as having more authority. Taegio argued from the authority of Greek writers such as Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Homer, and Hesiod, as well as Latin ones, including Cato, Varro, Columella, Ovid, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, Seneca, and both the elder and the younger Pliny. Taegio also drew from the works of the Italian authors Angelo Poliziano and Jacopo Sannazaro, as well as Petrarch and the Florentine humanists.Taegio did not, as a rule, identify his sources, and he usually referred to them indirectly, either by alluding to the author’s oeuvre in general, rather than to a specific work, or by simply mentioning the author’s name. Often he neglected to identify the authors whose words or ideas he clearly was borrowing. Not once in La Villa did Taegio provide the title of a literary source, although here and there he dropped a hint, such as “Virgil in his rustic poem” (meaning the Georgics). Nowhere did he quote a classical text in its original language or render a literal translation; rather, he consistently presented paraphrases of Greek and Latin works. There is no reason to doubt that Taegio could have composed the paraphrases of classical texts himself; his seventeenth-century biographers praised him for his scholarship, and his ability to write verse is evident from the fact that he published his own poetry in Italian. Wherever Taegio’s classical source is poetry, his paraphrase appears in his native Italian with a rhyme scheme and meter of its own. Taegio quoted verbatim some of his Italian sources, such as Sannazaro’s Arcadia, but where he quoted Petrarch’s Rime sparse he did so without mentioning the poet’s name or in any way giving him credit for his verses.

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Taegio used literary sources to support virtually every point of his argument for the superiority of country life over city life. He put his argument in the mouth of Vitauro, whose literary references are both more numerous and more effective than Partenio’s. In the first thirty-three pages of the dialogue, Partenio makes four references to literary sources. First he alludes to Aristotle, whose “man is by nature a social being” from the Nichomachean Ethics Partenio recalls with the words “Man came into this world not for himself alone but also for others” (p. 10). Then Partenio’s summarizes the plot of Homer’s Odyssey, in which, he says, Ulysses is praised for action, not contemplation. The third reference, which is unattributed, is an expression that appears more than once in fourteenth-century Italian literature. Partenio’s phrase “Cities are made for men and villas for beasts” (p. 15) echoes the words of the raconteur Franco Sacchetti who, in the 1380s, wrote that “la citta buon’ uomini de’ fare, la villa buone bestie a notricare” (the city should produce good men, the villa good livestock).219 Sacchetti was apparently retelling the same proverb quoted by Paolo da Certaldo in his Libro di buoni costumi. Finally Partenio makes a specific and attributed reference to Virgil’s Georgics, which he paraphrases to support his claim that men were happier in the age of iron, after cities were built, than in the golden age. Responding to Partenio’s assertion that men in the country are less virtuous than those in the city, Vitauro replies, in words that bring to mind the ideas of Pico, Ficino, Bovillus, Petrarch, and Pomponazzi, that the vices of city dwellers outweigh their virtues because they neglect to apply the intellect to the purpose for which it was created; that is, contemplation. Vitauro answers Partenio’s objection, that the solitude of the villa is not conducive to knowledge of the world, with a logical proof that solitude is necessary for contemplation, which in turn leads to something far greater than knowledge of the world: knowledge of the truth. Vitauro’s thesis, that villa life is naturally more agreeable to gentlemen than city life, consists of three points. The first point, that city life is not the way of life originally intended for humankind, is supported with refences to Latin sources, specifically Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the De architectura of Vitruvius. In making his second point, that life in the country is more pleasant than life in the city, Vitauro cites Virgil and Horace, and he misquotes Plato. Finally, Vitauro argues that country life is nobler than city life by enumerating the ancient kings and heroes who farmed. In the middle of the dialogue, Partenio cites Petrarch’s De remediis utriusque Fortune and Virgil’s Georgics in an attempt to convince Vitauro that farming is not a suitable occupation for a scholar. In his rebuttal, Vitauro cites the same pas-

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sage of the Georgics to prove that Partenio is misinterpreting Virgil. Then Partenio concedes the nobility of farming, and he refrains from citing literary sources for the remainder of the conversation. Vitauro makes more than fifteen references to literary sources as he argues that farming is a noble, useful, and necessary occupation, and that the villa accommodates philosophical studies more easily than the city. He cites a few lines each of Virgil’s Georgics, Varro’s Rerum rusticarum, and Petrarch’s Rime sparse, and he alludes briefly to Cato’s De agri cultura, where these sources concur in asserting that farming is the most honest way to earn a living. At greater length, he paraphrases the passage from Cicero’s dialogue De senectute, where Cato is depicted rejoicing in the delightfulness and usefulness of agriculture, and excerpts from Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, in which Cyrus, king of Persia, is portrayed saying he was as concerned about cultivating the land as he was about defending it. To illustrate his point that philosophical studies are more easily accommodated in the villa than in the city, Vitauro alludes to Pliny the Younger’s letter “To Minicius Fundanus,” in which he described the secluson he enjoyed at his villa in Laurentum. Vitauro also quotes two poems from Petrarch’s Rime Sparse and three stanzas from book 1 of Poliziano’s Stanze, in which those poets described the sweetness of their scholarly seclusion in villa. At the end of the dialogue, Partenio’s role as Vitauro’s opponent is diminished. The dialectical character of the conversation is preserved only where Partenio argues, unconvincingly and without citing authorities, that the products of culture are no less delightful than the effects of nature. Vitauro, citing Virgil in praise of rugged mountains and uncultivated fields, persuades Partenio that nature is more delightful than art because the thing imitated is superior to the imitation. Vitauro deduces from this that villa gardens are more delightful than gardens in the city because they are closer to, and offer views of, wild countryside, which, he implies, is what gardens imitate. The bulk of Vitauro’s increasingly monological discourse toward the end of La Villa is given over to an elaboration of one of the points he made earlier, that life in villa is more pleasant than city life. Vitauro begins to develop this theme by describing a variety of sensual pleasures that arise from being in the country: seeing animals, hearing waterfalls and birds, and smelling flowers. The country he describes is neither wilderness nor agricultural land but something in between; something more like paradise. It is shaped, at least in part, by human hands. There are trees in groves, water is in fountains, and grapevines are “married to the elms.” Its fauna includes domesticated as well as wild animals, and it is a country inhabited by people. Among its pleasures are the sight of rugged peasants and the

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sounds of villagers singing and shepherds playing pipes. The verses of the Georgics paraphrased to complement this description express Virgil’s delight in the regimented orderliness of a regularly planted vineyard. Vitauro continues to argue for the pleasantness of country life by retelling the tale of “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse,” in which the advantages of city life over country life (symbolized by better food) are outweighed by its greater dangers. In the satire in which Horace originally set the story, excellent food and elevated conversation over dinner in a villa are presented as antidotes to the anxiety that comes from working in the city. Vitauro juxtaposes this tale with a story about a horse and a stag, which teaches that freedom is better than plenty, from one of Horace’s Epistles that also recommends the country as a site for a house. Although Taegio made no references to the original contexts of these stories beyond mentioning the author’s name, he might have expected an educated reader in the sixteenthcentury to have been able to recall them. Taegio concluded his argument for the comparative pleasantness of country life by having Vitauro tell Partenio that what delights him most when he is in villa is catching birds, and by quoting Sannazaro’s Arcadia where that rural pastime, which had been a favorite of leisured aristocrats in Italy since the time of the Roman Empire, is described in detail.220 With the conclusion of the conversation about the respective pleasures of the city and the country, La Villa assumes the character of a monological treatise, as Vitauro alone continues to cite literary sources—Virgil’s Georgics, Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, and Xenophon’s Oeconomicus—to particularize the kinds of pleasure offered by life in villa. Vitauro speaks of three kinds of pleasure: sensual, intellectual, and aesthetic. He cites Virgil on speculating about natural causes, as he theorizes about what is the highest pleasure. He paraphrases Virgil and Pliny on reading the signs of the heavens, as he demonstrates the delightfulness and the usefulness of the kind of knowledge peasants possess. This beautiful and practical knowledge includes horticulture, which Vitauro discusses, and agriculture, which he declines to treat. In its final section, which is based on a conversation between Socrates and Ischomachus on the training of a villa steward in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, La Villa, having succeeded only partially as an imitation of a live conversation, becomes little more than an imitation of one of the literary dialogues that served as its models. Taegio interpreted portions of the Oeconomicus, as well as Horace’s Epodes and Satires, to serve the purposes of his argument. In several instances Taegio used the word “villa” in his paraphrases where terms that cannot be translated literally as “villa” appeared in the classical texts he was citing. For example, where Vitauro

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paraphrases Horace’s Epodes 2.1–38, the Latin phrase “paterna rura” (ancestral farm) is interpreted as “villa.” Similarly, Vitauro uses the expression “topo del la villa” (mouse of the villa) in place of “rusticus mus” (country mouse) in his paraphrase of the tale of the country mouse and the city mouse from Horace’s Satires 2.6.78–117. Where he paraphrases Xenophon’s Oeconomicus, Vitauro calls the “work of supervision” the “cose della villa” (affairs of the villa), and he uses “villa” in place of both “kepos” (farm) and “ktema” (piece of property). Taegio also exercised freedom of interpretation where he paraphrased the description of agriculture in Oeconomicus 19.17. The practice that Xenophon called “philanthropos” (humane) becomes, in Vitauro’s words, a “scienza magnanima e generosa” (magnanimous and generous science); in effect, Taegio elevated what is essentially a humble activity to fit his argument that farming is a suitable occupation for an aristocrat.

The Origins of “Third Nature”

E i frutti sono tutti qui più saporiti che altrove, e tutte le cose che nascono dalla terra migliori. Per li giardini che qui sono e quei delle Esperide e quelli d’Alcinoo e d’Adoni, la industria de’ paesani ha fatto tanto, che la natura incorporata con l’arte è fatta artifice, e connaturale de l’arte, e d’amendue è fatta una terza natura, a cui non sarei dar nome. (And the fruits are more flavorful here than elsewhere, and all things born of the earth are better. As for the gardens that are in this region, and those of the Hesperides and those of Alcinoüs and Adonis, the industry of the peasants has been such that nature incorporated with art is made an artificer, and the connatural of art; and from both of them is made a third nature, which I would not know how to name.) —Jacopo Bonfadio221 Quivi sono senza fine gl’ingeniosi innesti, che con si gran meraviglia al mondo mostrano, quanto sia l’industria d’un accorto giardiniero, che incorporando l’arte con la natura fà, che d’amendue ne riesce una terza natura, la qual causa, che i frutti sieno quivi piu saporiti, che altrove. (Here are without end the ingenious grafts that show with great wonder to the world the industry of a wise gardener, who by incorporating art with

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nature brings forth from both a third nature, which causes the fruits to be more flavorful here than elsewhere.) —Bartolomeo Taegio Within two decades and two hundred miles of each other, around the middle of the sixteenth century in northern Italy, Jacopo Bonfadio, in a letter written from Gazano, near Salò on the western shore of Lake Garda, in August of 1541, and Bartolomeo Taegio, on page 66 of La Villa, published in Milan in 1559, penned these strikingly similar characterizations of the interaction between art and nature in horticulture. Bonfadio and Taegio applied the same term, terza natura, to gardens, in the context of statements about human industry and fruits “more flavorful here than elsewhere.” Both Bonfadio’s letter and Taegio’s dialogue are replete with allusions to ancient literary sources. John Dixon Hunt has pointed out that Bonfadio was imitating the rhetorical style of Pliny the Younger’s letter to Domitius Apollinaris, in which he described his Tuscan villa, and that the intentionality of this conceit is apparent from the fact that the name of Bonfadio’s correspondent was Plinio Tomacelli.222 In addition to this allusion, Bonfadio’s letter contains at least two specific literary references: one to Lucretius’s De rerum natura, where Flora is said to scatter flowers in springtime, in a passage to which Taegio also alluded in La Villa (p. 101), and another to Virgil’s Georgics.223 In the use of the phrase terza natura as well as in the placement of that phrase in context, Taegio’s articulation of an idea about the relationship between art and nature closely resembles Bonfadio’s earlier formulation, and until now its origins have not been elucidated. The most convincing of the possible explanations for the resemblance between the two characterizations is that Bonfadio’s letter was Taegio’s source, and the available facts support this hypothesis. A careful comparison of the two texts suggests that Taegio had read Bonfadio’s letter to Plinio Tomacelli and derived his statement about “third nature” directly from it. There is another passage in La Villa, besides the one on third nature, that is virtually identical to one in Bonfadio’s letter. On page 63, where Taegio described the villa of Francesco Taverna, he wrote, “Such is the pleasantness of this very pleasant hill, that to those who come here it seems that they come to a place like the one they say our souls inhabit when, having departed from this life as from a tempestuous sea, they arrive where, rested, never again to reach beyond their desires, content, they enjoy an infinite tranquillity.” Bonfadio described the gardens in his region to his correspondent in very nearly the same words:

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Voglio perder la vita, se giunto che sarete qua non vi parrà di esser venuto in luoco simile a quello ove dicono abitar gli animi nostri, quando partiti di qua come d’un tenebroso e tempestoso mare, arrivano in certe parti dove fermati, per non sapere che desiderar più oltre, contenti in sempiterna luce si godono una tranquillità infinita. (I would wager my life that it would seem to you that you have come to a place like the one they say our souls inhabit when, having departed from this life as from a gloomy and tempestuous sea, they arrive where, rested, not knowing what more could be desired, content in eternal light, they enjoy an infinite tranquillity.)224 It is possible that in these comparisons of gardens to “a place like the one they say our souls inhabit” Bonfadio and Taegio were quoting the same source independently of each other. Bonfadio never identified any of the literary works to which he alluded in his letter, and Taegio did not always cite his sources. However, no earlier antecedent for this phrase has yet been found. Furthermore, the contexts, as well as the phrasing, of these passages are so similar that it seems highly unlikely that Taegio could have created virtually the same juxtaposition of words and literary setting as Bonfadio without having seen the letter. Finally, remembering the close similarity with respect to both phrasing and context of the passages on third nature, a double coincidence is even less plausible. A body of evidence from outside the letter to Plinio Tomacelli bolsters the argument that Taegio relied on Bonfadio, by showing that he had ample opportunity to see the letter. Four of Bonfadio’s letters, including the one addressed to Plinio Tomacelli, were published in Venice by Aldus Manutius five times before the publication of La Villa, first in 1545 and then again in 1547, 1548, 1553, and 1556.225 The modern-day editor of Bonfadio’s letters has brought forward strong circumstantial evidence suggesting that when Bonfadio was in Rome in 1538, in the service of Cardinal Girolamo Ghinucci, he joined a literary society not unlike Bartolomeo Taegio’s Academy of the Shepherds of the Agogna, called the the Accademia della Virtù, which had been founded by Claudio Tolomei, a humanist from Siena, in 1530.226 Bonfadio and Tolomei probably knew each other, and they certainly had mutual acquaintances. One of Bonfadio’s letters is addressed to Francesco della Torre, with whom Tolomei also corresponded.227 The addressee of another one of Bonfadio’s letters, Francesco Molza, and the addressor of a letter received by him, Annibal Carro, were members of Tolomei’s Academy of Virtue.228 The collected letters of Bonfadio also reveal that he and Tolomei had at

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least three acquaintances in common with Taegio. The names of Francesco della Torre and Annibal Carro appear in Taegio’s list of villa owners, and one of the letters received by Bonfadio is signed by Alessandro Piccolomini, whose garden in Siena Taegio praised.229 Claudio Tolomei’s own writings contain a suggestion that he was familiar with Bonfadio’s articulation of the idea of third nature, and this fact opens up the possibility that some of their mutual acquaintances, such as Taegio, might have been familiar with it as well. In a letter to Giambattista Grimaldi, dated July 26, 1543, Tolomei described a grotto in a garden near the Trevi Fountain in Rome, which was fed by the newly restored Acqua Vergine, where, he said, “mescolando l’arte con la natura, non si sa discernere s’elle è opera di questo o di quella; anzi or altrui pare un naturale artifizio ora una artifiziosa natura” (mingling art with nature, one does not know how to discern whether it is a work of the former or the latter; on the contrary, now it seems to be a natural artifice, then an artificial nature.)230 While the phrase terza natura does not appear in Tolomei’s letter, the idea conveyed by this excerpt is unmistakably the same. Tolomei had the opportunity to see Bonfadio’s letter, and he may have been a crucial link between Bonfadio and Taegio. It is not impossible that both Taegio and Bonfadio derived their statements about third nature independently from earlier sources. However, it is much more likely that Bonfadio’s letter was Taegio’s source for both the phrase terza natura and the idea of third nature. It remains to be seen if Bonfadio’s use of the phrase terza natura was in turn dependent on earlier sources. The question of whether phrases similar to terza natura, and anticipations of the idea, existed in the literature with which Bonfadio and Taegio were familiar is complicated by the fact that the word natura admits of some ambiguity. Natura comes from natus, the past participle of the Latin verb nascor, nasci, which means “to be born,” and it is the counterpart of the Greek word physis. Like physis, natura has, in Italian as well as in Latin, two different senses, although in ancient Latin texts these two senses are not always distinct. In one sense, natura is used, in Italian and Latin literature, to refer to the innate qualities of people and things. In the other sense, it is used in both languages to signify the order and constitution of the world. It is in the latter sense that Bonfadio and Taegio employed natura in the phrase terza natura. The usage of the phrase by these authors is marked by three characteristics that are important to delineate for the purpose of comparison to similar expressions in earlier literature. The primary characteristic of third nature is that it is the result of something which both Bonfadio and Taegio describe as the in-

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corporation of nature with art. Second, this “incorporation” is accomplished by human beings (gardeners in Taegio; peasants, or local people, in Bonfadio) who are engaged in making gardens. Finally, third nature in turn brings about a result; it causes the fruits that grow on trees, particularly trees that have been grafted, to taste better. In other words, third nature benefits humankind by producing something that neither human beings nor nature can produce without the help of the other. Claudia Lazzaro has read a great deal into the incorporation, or “conjunction,” as she has called it, of nature with art. She has found in Bonfadio’s terza natura a “symbiotic relationship” between nature and art, a participation of each “in the character of the other,” and a uniting of the two “into an indistinguishable whole.” She has also interpreted Bonfadio’s sentence “La natura incorporata con l’arte è fatta artifice, e connaturale de l’arte” to mean “Nature becomes the creator of art.”231 At the core of this sentence is the formulation that, as a result of its incorporation with art, nature is made the connaturale of art. Although the English equivalent of the Italian noun connaturale (connatural) is archaic, the meaning of “connatural” is nevertheless clear enough: “a person or thing of the same or like nature.”232 Taegio did not use the word connaturale in his discussion of third nature. Rather, in La Villa (p. 103), where he described the garden of Scipione Simonetta in Milan, he referred to the incorporation of nature with art in terms of unity and reconciliation: “This man has a splendid, happy, and precious garden in Milan clothed in eternal springtime, where are seen things rare, marvelous, and novel; where art and nature, now in competition one with the other, demonstrate their latest trials, now both, incorporated, united and reconciled together, make amazing things.” This passage is an elaboration of the idea that to produce gardens, nature and art work together in partnership. Anticipations of this idea, and phrases that are similar to terza natura, are to be found in the relevant literature. The Latin equivalent of terza natura occurs in two of Taegio’s sources: the verse treatise on nature, De rerum natura, of Titus Lucretius Carus (95–52 b.c.), to which both Bonfadio and Taegio alluded, and Pliny the Elder’s encyclopedic Naturalis historia (a.d. 70). In neither of these works is third nature associated with gardens. Lucretius, in a discussion of the things that constitute the world, employed the term tertia natura to refer to something that cannot exist. After having specified that nature consists of only two kinds of things, bodies and void, Lucretius added, “Praeterea nil est quod possis dicere ab omni corpore seiunctum secretumque esse ab inani, quod quasi tertia sit numero natura reperta” (Besides, there is nothing which you can call wholly distinct from body and separate from

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void, to be discovered as a kind of third nature.)233 Like Bonfadio’s terza natura, Lucretius’s tertia natura refers to nature in the sense of the order and constitution of the world, although ambiguously, in a way that blurs the distinction between the two senses of the word natura. The impossibility of third nature for Lucretius provides an intriguing counterpoint to the novelty that Bonfadio and Taegio seem to ascribe to it. It is possible that the De rerum natura was a source for Bonfadio’s use of the phrase terza natura. Lucretius’s poem was printed in northern Italy at least five times between 1486 and 1515. The Latin equivalent of terza natura occurs twice in Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia, where it is applied to marine life. In both instances, the phrase tertiam naturam appears in the context of a description of aquatic species that share the characteristics (the nature) of both plants and animals. In book 1 of Naturalis historia, Pliny the Elder referred to “de ariete pisce de is quae tertiam naturam habent animalium et fructum” (species intermediate between animal and vegetable)234 In book 9, he wrote, “Equidem et iis inesse sensum arbitror quae neque animalium neque fruticum sed tertiam quandam ex utroque naturam habent, urticis dico et spongeis” (For my own part I hold the view that even those creatures which have not got the nature of either animals or plants, but some third nature derived from both, possess sense-perception—I mean jelly-fish and sponges.)235 In both of these passages, the word natura signifies the innate qualities of living creatures, not the order and constitution of the world. In this respect, Pliny the Elder’s tertiam naturam differs from Bonfadio’s and Taegio’s terza natura. However, in other respects, the phrases are quite similar. Pliny the Elder, like Bonfadio, was attempting to name something that did not belong in either of two established categories. Both of these authors were referring to something which had never been classified, and in which the characteristics proper to existing classifications were seen to be united. Pliny the Elder’s hesitation in calling this thing by a new name, tertiam naturam, is evident in his interjection of the qualifier quandam (some), just as Bonfadio’s tentativeness is apparent in his appendage of the phrase “a cui non sarei dar nome” (which I would not know how to name) to terza natura. These similarities are significant enough to warrant asking whether Bonfadio, who, as we have already seen, was imitating Pliny the Younger in the style of his letter, could also have been imitating Pliny the Elder, even in the way he qualified the name for third nature. In fact, he had ample opportunity to become familiar with Pliny’s use of the term tertiam naturam. More than thirty printed editions of Naturalis historia appeared in Italy between 1469 and 1540. In Venice alone, the Latin text of Naturalis historia was published on at least twenty occasions within that time frame, and a translation by Cristoforo

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Landino was published in five separate editions between 1476 and 1516. Latin versions also came out of Treviso, Parma, Rome, Brescia, and Ferrara between 1493 and 1509. There is no reason to think that Bonfadio relied on Italian translations, since several of his letters attest to the fact that he was a competent Latinist. From the evidence of stylistic similarity between Pliny the Elder’s and Bonfadio’s statements about some kind of third nature, and of the availability of numerous printed editions of the Latin treatise, it is reasonable to deduce that Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia could have been a source for Bonfadio’s phrase terza natura. However, an earlier work, written by a contemporary of Lucretius around 55 b.c., and also available in numerous printed editions in the early sixteenth century, appears to be another possible source. As Hunt has shown, terza natura resembles, and builds upon, the phrase alteram naturam (second nature), in Marcus Tullius Cicero’s dialogue De natura deorum, where the Stoic philosopher had one of the interlocutors, Quintus Lucilius Balbus, make the following statement. Nos campis, nos montibus fruimur, nostri sunt amnes, nostri lacus, nos fruges serimus, nos arbores, nos aquarum inductionibus terris fecunditatem damus, nos flumina arcemus, derigimus, avertimus, nostris denique manibus in rerum natura quasi alteram naturam efficere conamur. (We delight in the fields and the mountains. Ours are the rivers, the lakes. We bring forth the fruits of the earth and the trees. We give fecundity to the land by bringing in water. We dam, direct, and divert the rivers. In short, with our hands we undertake to produce as it were a second nature within the natural world.)236 Cicero’s “second nature” is what Hunt calls “cultural landscape: agriculture, urban developments, roads, bridges, ports and other infrastructures.” By postulating the existence of second nature Cicero implied that rerum natura (“the nature of things,” or “the natural world”) preexisted as an unmediated realm, or “first nature,” which in the Renaissance was associated with what today commonly goes by the name of “wilderness.” By calling gardens a third nature, Bonfadio put them at the top of a triad of conceptual zones in the landscape, ordered hierarchically according to the degree to which each represents natura, in the sense of the constitution of the world, controlled or changed by human intervention.237 Phrases similar to terza natura, then, have been found in the De rerum natura

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of Lucretius, Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia, and Cicero’s De natura deorum. Anticipations of the idea that art and nature can work in partnership with each other can also be found in the writings of these authors, although not where they deal in general with the idea of natura. It is in the sections of Lucretius’s De rerum natura and Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia in which they discuss propagation techniques, and, somewhat surprisingly, in Cicero’s De oratore, where he treats the art of public speaking, that depictions of natura can be found that make the partnership, or cooperative interaction, between nature and art conceivable. Cicero developed the attributes of natura in the second book of De natura deorum. Cicero’s natura is divine (and female), nurturing and rational. She is “quae contineat mundum omnem eumque tueatur, et ea quidem non sine sensu atque ratione” (that which holds the whole universe together and guards it, and indeed she is not without sense and reason.)238 Cicero equated natura with both mundus (the universe) and deus (God), as the following excerpt makes clear. Quocira sapientem esse mundum necesse est, naturamque eam, quae res omnes complexa teneat, perfectione rationis excellere, eoque deum esse mundum, omnemque vim mundi natura divina contineri. (So the universe must be wise, and the Nature that embraces all things must be distinguished by perfection of reason. And so God must be the universe, and all the life of the universe must be contained within Divine Nature.)239 In both of the passages quoted above, Cicero described natura as nurturing and rational. He went on to explain the wisdom of natura in terms of sollertia (skillfulness). Cicero said that no human operation, such as the navigation of fleets or the deployment of troops, “tantam naturae sollertiam significat, quantam ipse mundus” (shows the skillfulness of nature so much as the universe itself ).240 Cicero’s characterization of natura as divine, nurturing, and rational was not uniquely his own. Rather, the view of nature that Cicero articulated in the second book of De natura deorum has its essential elements in common with what Mary Beagon has called a “mainstream tradition,” which was “derived from the cosmological theories of Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.”241 More than a century after Cicero, the most eloquent spokesman for that tradition was Pliny the Elder. The salient features of Pliny the Elder’s cosmology, like Cicero’s, are the divinity of natura/mundus, her providence, and her skillfulness. Pliny the Elder’s very

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first statement about natura in Naturalis historia is that “numen esse credi par est” (she is rightly believed to be divine).242 Like the divinity of natura, the idea of her providence toward humankind, which Pliny the Elder expressed in terms of providentia (providence), naturae benignitas (the benevolence of nature) and naturae maiestas (nature’s majesty), is a recurring theme in the treatise.243 Pliny the Elder used the phrase ars naturae (the skill of nature) to refer to what we call symbiosis.244 The basic components of Cicero’s and Pliny the Elder’s theoretical constructs of natura are neither exceptional in ancient Roman literature nor peculiar to Stoicism. In his collection of occasional poems called the Silvae, Publius Papinius Statius (ca. a.d. 45–95) remarked on the evidence of nature’s skill in landscape scenery. Recalling a visit to the villa of the literary Epicurean, Manlius Vopiscus, near Tibur, Statius wrote the following lines in his Silvae: “Quae forma beatis arte manus artemque locis! non largius usquam indulsit Natura sibi” (How beautiful beyond human art the enchanted scene! Nowhere has Nature more lavishly spent her skill).245 It cannot be definitely ascertained from the context whether the scene Statius was describing in this poem was entirely “natural,” or to some extent contrived by human hands. Vopiscus’s villa was built in two parts facing one another across an unusually still stretch of the Anio River, in which Statius saw the reflection of trees.246 If the river was dammed to create a pool, and the trees planted at the water’s edge, Statius did not say. In any case, it is nature’s skill, not man’s, that he was praising. Even the Epicurean poet Lucretius, who did not identify natura with mundus as Cicero and Pliny the Elder did, sometimes wrote of natura in terms basically similar to theirs. Lucretius denied that the universe is planned for the benefit of humankind, saying, in De reum natura, that “quorum omnia causa constituisse deos cum fingunt, omnibu’ rebus magno opere a vera lapsi ratione videntur” (when they imagine that the gods have arranged everything for the sake of men, they are seen to have fallen very far away from true reason in all things).247 Throughout De rerum natura, it is terra (the earth), not natura, who is said to bring forth and nourish crops, trees, wild beasts, and humankind, “quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est” (wherefore rightly has she acquired the name of mother).248 And yet, Lucretius wrote that it was natura who nursed the offspring of terra when the earth was young, “sicut nunc femina quaeque, cum peperit, dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti” (just as now, when a woman has given birth, she is filled with sweet milk, because every force is directed toward her breasts).249 Lucretius granted

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natura an almost divine autonomy; he described her as “libera continuo, dominis privata superbis, ipsa sua per se sponte omnia dis agere expers” (continually free, rid of proud masters, doing all things by herself of her own accord, without gods).250 Repeatedly throughout the poem, he referred to the foedera naturae (laws of nature).251 Finally, he described natura as creator, and implied that she is skillful in matters pertaining to the cultivation of land: “At specimen sationis et insitionis origo ipsa fuit rerum primum natura creatrix” (But the pattern of sowing and the beginning of grafting first came from nature herself, the maker of all things).252 In the process of describing natura as ruling, nurturing, and creating, he identified the three essential elements of a view of nature that would become a commonplace in ancient Roman literature: the divinity of natura, her providence, and her skillfulness. These characteristics by themselves do not intimate the possibility of a cooperative interaction between nature and art, but the passage quoted immediately above does, and it even suggests an association of this interaction with gardening. Besides anticipating a “mainstream tradition,” Lucretius depicted nature as a teacher of planting and grafting, skills that are as indispensable to horticulture as they are to agriculture. Pliny the Elder also depicted natura in a way that implied the possibility of interaction between nature and art, and he did so specifically in the context of a discussion of techniques for propagating fruit trees, in words that are very similar to Taegio’s ingeniosi innesti. The ingenium inserendi (ingenuity involved in grafting) mentioned by Pliny was learned from nature.253 Humankind was taught the methods of propagating plants, including grafting and layering, either by natura ipsa (nature herself ) or by casus, which Beagon defines as “natura working on some accidental circumstance of human or even animal action.”254 According to Lucretius, mankind repaid its debt to nature for this education by creating as many artificially propagated varieties of trees as there are wild varieties.255 One of the benefits of grafting which both Bonfadio and Taegio mentioned in their passages on third nature is that it results in improved fruit. Taegio associated terza natura specifically with the practice of grafting fruit trees. The particular garden he was describing when he made this association is the garden of Cesare Simonetta at Castellazzo, about which he also wrote that “the gardens of the Hesperides and of Adonis ought to yield to this very pleasant garden” (La Villa, p. 69). Taegio referred to the garden of the Hesperides again in his description of the villa of Camillo Porro at Calvairato (La Villa, p. 85). He compared the garden of the villa Canonica of Francesco Taverna to “the pleasant gardens of Alcinoüs” (La Villa, p. 62). The gardens of the Hesperides and those of Alcinoüs and Adonis,

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to which Bonfadio referred in his letter, were also mentioned together by Pliny the Elder: “Antiquitas nihil prius mirata est quam Hesperidum hortos ac regum Adonidus et Alcinoi” (Nothing was praised more in antiquity than the gardens of the Hesperides and of the kings Adonis and Alcinoüs).256 The “coincidence” of Bonfadio and Pliny the Elder both mentioning those three mythological gardens together increases the probability that Naturalis historia was a source of third nature. However, Bonfadio’s association of a partnership between nature and art with gardening is anticipated more clearly in other ancient texts than it is in Naturalis historia. Pliny the Elder treated the relationship between art and nature variously in Naturalis historia. In general, he contrasted the benefits of art and nature, even where he mentioned them both in the context of arboriculture. For example, he referred to winter figs as products “artis, non naturae” (of art, not of nature).257 The theme of art imitating nature repeats throughout the treatise in passages such as the one where, in the context of glassmaking, Pliny the Elder spoke of “ingenio arte naturam faciente” (the talent for reproducing nature in art).258 The imitation of nature takes on a provocative tone where Pliny the Elder wrote, with reference to the arts of painting and metalworking, that “didicit homo naturam provocare” (man has learned to challenge nature in competition).259 The contrast, sometimes rendered as a contest, between art and nature was a common topos in ancient literature. Varro juxtaposed this contrast with the relationship between the city and the country in Rerum rusticarum, where he said that “divina natura dedit agros, ars humana aedificavit urbes” (divine nature gave us the country, and human art built the cities).260 Perhaps the earliest indications of the belief that nature and art can cooperate productively appear in Cicero’s De oratore, where he said that the talents necessary for an orator “sunt enim illa dona naturae” (are indeed the gifts of nature), although art can give them polish, and that practice “educet atque confirmet” (fosters and strengthens) innate abilities.261 Twenty years after Cicero, Horace spoke of the cooperation between art and nature with almost the sense of partnership that is involved in third nature. In Ars poetica, Horace wrote, Natura fieret laudabile carmen an arte, quaesitum est: ego nec studium sine divite vena, nec rude quid prosit video ingenium: alterius sic altera poscit opem res et coniurat amice. (It is asked whether a praiseworthy poem is made by nature or by art. Personally, I do not see what either study without rich natural ability, or

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native talent without training, can produce; so earnestly do they ask for each other’s help, and join together in a friendly league.)262 Lucretius, Pliny the Elder, Cicero, Varro, and Horace all spoke of the relationship between art and nature in terms that suggest in general the possibility of their cooperation and productive interaction. Lucretius and Pliny the Elder, by portraying natura as a teacher of horticultural techniques, pointed to gardening in particular as an activity in which human beings and nature can interact in a kind of partnership, but they did so without referring to gardening as an art. Gardening was treated as an art by another author whose work served as a source for both Bonfadio and Taegio. In his letter to Domitius Apollinaris, Pliny the Younger described a xystus (terrace) at his Tuscan villa in terms of art. Although he wrote this description without using any word that can be translated as “garden,” it is clear from the context that a garden is precisely what this xystus is. It features beds of flowers (acanthus), as well as hedges and shrubs clipped into various shapes to resemble animals and regular geometric figures, and it is enclosed by a stone wall. On the other side of the wall is a meadow, about which Pliny the Younger wrote: “Pratum inde non minus natura quam superiora illa arte visendum” (Outside is a meadow, no less worth seeing for nature than that [xystus] is for art).263 By implying that gardening is an art, Pliny the Younger forged a critical link between anticipations of the idea that art and nature can interact cooperatively, anticipations found in the work of the other above-mentioned ancient authors, and the idea that such a partnership between art and nature can be formed especially in the garden. The idea of third nature, articulated exactly as it is by Bonfadio, has not been found in any earlier text. Rather, what has been found, in various ancient writings with which Bonfadio was almost certainly familiar, are germs of the idea that nature and art can interact in cooperative and productive ways, and that gardens especially are places where this can happen. According to Cicero, in De oratore, and Horace, in Ars poetica, art and nature cooperate to bring forth the finest products of rhetoric and poetry. According to Lucretius, in De rerum natura, and Pliny the Elder, in Naturalis historia, humankind learned the techniques that are basic to the art of gardening from nature, and Pliny the Younger implied that gardening is an art. These anticipations of third nature, when taken together with the fact that phrases similar to terza natura have been found in relevant works by Lucretius, Pliny the Elder, and Cicero, strongly suggest the probability that these were Bonfadio’s sources. If Bonfadio’s work manifests originality, it is in this synthesis of ideas incipient in several ancient sources.

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Conclusion

The task of interpreting Taegio’s La Villa is not merely a problem of grasping the author’s intention, any more than it is only a matter of imposing a “meaning” on the text. Rather, interpretation is participation in a process of collaboration between writer and reader in which both parties together define what they collectively believe and value.264 If this characterization of the functional relationship between auctor and audience is valid generally, then it was as true in the sixteenth century as it is today, and La Villa must have been used collaboratively by Taegio and the community of which he was a part to define some of their shared beliefs and values, the totality of which constitutes Taegio’s ethos—that is, both his “way of dwelling” and the “spirit of his age.” The villa was, for Taegio, the ideal setting for a balanced way of dwelling in the world, in large part because the “honorable leisure” he associated with life in villa fostered the pursuit of “knowledge of the truth” through the study of philosophy. In Taegio’s view, philosophical study was a necessary component of the happy life of a true gentleman, and it was synonymous with contemplation. Contemplation was, for Taegio, very much a scholarly activity, but it was also, like Aristotle’s theoria, a matter of beholding, with wonder, beautifully made things. In Taegio’s case, those beautifully made things were beautifully written philosophical texts. However, Taegio’s “honorable leisure,” unlike Aristotle’s bios theoretikos, did not constitute a way of life per se. Rather, it was just one of the “honorable pleasures of the villa,” which also included hunting, fishing, catching birds, and, not insignificantly, gardening. Three interrelated factors influenced how Taegio’s choices of subject matter (villa life) and form (the dialogue) would be used by his sixteenth-century readers to define themselves: the domination of Milan by Spain; the economic shift from manufacturing to agriculture; and what I have characterized as an identity crisis for the socially elite, which resulted from “aristocratic closure” and the rise of the middle class. Taegio’s dialogue on the superiority of country life could have been seen as a reaction to a political state of affairs in his native city that was so unbearable for him, as it undoubtedly was also for others in his social circle, that he, and they, found in it “good reason for retiring from active life” (to borrow Seneca’s phrase). If Taegio intended La Villa to be received by his social peers as a manifesto of resistance, he could hardly have chosen a more appropriate year for its publication than 1559, when, with the signing of the Treaty of CateauCambrésis, Milan officially became a possession of Spain. La Villa was printed only once in the sixteenth century, and never in transla-

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tion. Consequently, the book has not circulated widely, and Taegio’s treatment of the subject of villa life is generally not well known even among specialists in the field, and they have commented almost exclusively on the same few passages rather than on the treatise as a whole. The absence, until now, of a translation of the entire work into modern English has meant that this record of a northern Italian Late Renaissance humanist’s meditations on the idea of the villa has not been readily accessible to many who might find it interesting and useful. This book is a step toward correcting that situation. no t e s 1. Ackerman, The Villa, p. 10. 2. Cox, The Renaissance Dialogue, pp. 10–18. 3. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, p. 132. 4. Records in the Archivio di Stato di Milano, fondo Notarile. 5. Stevens, “Printing and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Milan,” p. 152. 6. One seventeenth-century biographer described Taegio as “egualmente atto à gli studii serii, & à gli ameni” (equally apt at studies both serious and light). (Picinelli, Ateneo Dei Letterati Milanesi, p. 71.) Another praised him for “il valore nella dottrina legale, e l’eccellenza in qualunque genere di belle Lettere” (his valor in legal doctrine and excellence in many kinds of literature). (Ghilini, Teatro d’Huomini Letterati, p. 37.) 7. Fassò, “I Letterati del Novaria,” in Novara e Il Suo Territorio, p. 633. For very similar accounts, see Lomaglio, “La Novaria” di Giovanni Battista Piotti 1557, p. 14, and Cognasso, Storia di Novara, p. 376. 8. Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus, p. 1474. 9. Comoli and Della Vesa, eds., Vie, Vicoli e Piazze di Novara—, p. 190. 10. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, pp. 133–134. 11. Fassò, “I Letterati del Novaria,” p. 633. 12. Cited in Lomaglio, “La Novaria” di Giovanni Battista Piotti 1557, p. 14, and Fassò, “I Letterati del Novaria,” p. 633. Fassò says that the source is Taegio’s “inaugural speech,” presumably his L’Oratione da lui detta nel principio dell’Accademia de i Pastori. 13. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, p. 132. 14. Ibid., p. 133. 15. Ibid., p. 135. 16. Picinelli, Atteneo dei Letterati Milanesi, p. 71; Ghilini, Teatro d’Huomini Letterati, p. 37. 17. The British Museum General Catalogue of Printed Books lists two works by Bartolomeo Taegio that may have been published before 1554. The first, which is also listed by Ghilini without a date, is “Lettera al magnanimo . . . monsignor de Verva. [In answer to the author’s detractors], etc. Heredi di B. Sesalli: Novara, [1551].” The second, which does not appear in other bibliographies, is “Nuove rime . . . In lode della molto illustre D. Portia Toralta, contessa Torniella, etc. F. & I. Sesalli: Novara, [1552?].” Dates of publication, which appear in brackets, are not certain, but both works were printed in Novara, suggesting an early date. See General Catalogue, vol. 234 (London, 1964).

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18. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, p. 135. 19. A translation by Ant. du Verdier, published in Lyon by Chez Barth Honorat in 1577 is mentioned in Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus, p. 1474. Lomaglio notes that Le Risposte “si meritò anche traduzioni straniere” (even merited foreign translations). See Lomaglio, “La Novaria” di Giovanni Battista Piotti 1557, p. 14, n. 6. 20. The two seventeenth-century sources are: Ghilini, Teatro D’Huomini Letterati (Venice, 1647), p. 37; and Piccinelli, Atteneo dei Letterati Milanesi (Milan, 1670), p. 71. The twelve titles, in the order in which they appear in both sources, are Tractatus Criminales, L’Officioso, Le Risposte, Lettera a Monsignor di Verrva, Lettere, L’Oratione da lui detta nel principio dell’Accademia de i Pastori, L’Humore, L’Essilio, Un Oratione nell’Essequie del Conte Filippo Torniello, Il Liceo, Un Trattato dell’arte per formar l’Imprese, and La Villa. Ghilini mentions “altri libri.” 21. The later sources are: Filippo Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus (Milan, 1745), pp. 1474–1475; and Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche (Novara, 1890), pp. 132–135. The five additional works, as listed by Argelati, are Due Paradossi, Dialoghi, La Comedia, Ghiribizzi, and Orazione dell’eccelenza della lingua volgare d’Italia. 22. The Novara holdings are: four copies of Le Risposte (Novara: Francesco & Giacopo Sesalli, 1554); two of L’Essilio (Milan: Moscheni, 1555); one of La Villa (Milan: Francesco Moscheni, 1559); two of L’Humore (Milan: Gio. Antonio degli Antonii, 1564); one of Il Liceo book 1 (Milan: Pietro & Francesco Tini, 1571); and four of L’Officioso (Milan: Pietro & Francesco Tini, 1572). In each case multiple copies are of the same publisher and date. One of the copies of L’Essilio is bound in a volume with a translation of Ovid’s Epistles, translated by C. Figiovanni (1532), and the Paradossi of Ortensio Landi (Venice, 1545, and Milan: Francesco & Simone Moscheni, 1555). It contains, following a dedication to Manfreddi Torniello, the work cited by Ghilini and Picinelli entitled Un Oratione nell’Essequie del Conte Filippo Torniello. 23. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, p. 135. 24. In the same year, a Count Taeggi (possibbly Bartolomeo Taegio) founded the Collegio Maschile (Men’s College) in Milan. See Gargantini, Cronologia di Milano, p. 227. 25. Verga, Storia della Vita Milanese, pp. 257–258. 26. Predari, Bibliografia Enciclopedia Milanese, p. 20. 27. Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus, p. 1474. Argelati lists two editions of Tractatus Criminales, both printed in Milan: “Antonianum, 1564” and “Marpurgii, 1598.” Picinelli refers only to the second printing. See Piccinelli, Atteneo dei Letterati Milanesi, p. 71. 28. Predari, Bibliografia Enciclopedia Milanese, p. 363. 29. Ibid. 30. Quadrio, Della storia e della ragione d’ogni poesia, vol. 3, p. 433. 31. Finazzi, Notizie Biografiche, p. 135. 32. Argelati, Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus, p. 1474. 33. Hare, Men and Women of the Italian Reformation, pp. 266, 295. 34. Lubkin, A Renaissance Court, p. 14. 35. Ibid., p. 26. 36. Ibid., p. 22. 37. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, p. 427.

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38. Ady, Beatrice D’Este Duchess of Milan 1475–1497, p. 19. 39. Martines, Power and Imagination: City States in Renaissance Italy, p. 219. 40. Ibid., p. 278. 41. Ady, Beatrice D’Este Duchess of Milan 1475–1497, p. 45. 42. Ibid., pp. 343–346. 43. Ibid., p. 352. 44. Ibid., p. 357. 45. Ibid., p. 373. 46. Martines, Power and Imagination: City States in Renaissance Italy, p. 277. 47. Ady, Beatrice D’Este Duchess of Milan 1475-1497, p. 377. 48. Martines, Power and Imagination: City States in Renaissance Italy, p. 254. 49. Verga, Storia della Vita Milanese, p. 234. 50. Castellaneta, Storia di Milano, p. 28. 51. Gargantini, Cronologia di Milano, pp. 221–223. 52. Baroni, “Domenico Giunti architetto di don Ferrante Gonzaga e le sue opere in Milano,” pp. 327–351. 53. Castellaneta, Storia di Milano, p. 27. 54. Hare, Men and Women of the Italian Reformation, p. 257. 55. Stevens, “Printing and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Milan,” p. 152. 56. Sella and Capra, Il Ducato di Milano dal 1535 al 1796, pp. 105–106. 57. Population levels in sixteenth-century Milan are impossible to determine precisely. Sella and Capra report that the number of people living in the city of Milan rose from 79,000 in 1542 to 112,000 in 1599 (Sella and Capra, Il Ducato di Milano dal 1535 al 1796, p. 109). D’Amico sets the population at 60,000 in 1540 and 120,000 in 1570 (D’Amico, Le contrade e la citta: Sistema produttivo e spazio urbano a Milano fra Cinque e Seicento, p. 165). “D’Amico’s study is based on an investigation of the status animarum records of 1576 and 1610 and thus provides the most accurate figures on population in Milan,” according to Kevin S. Stevens (by e-mail, November 8, 1999). 58. Sella, Crisis and Continuity: The Economy of Spanish Lombardy in the Seventeenth Century, p. 3. 59. Sella, Italy in the Seventeenth Century, p. 19. 60. Ibid., p. 21. 61. The source of names of podestà and questors is Gargantini, Cronologia di Milano, pp. 221–227. See notes to the translation for other sources of information on individual villa owners who held public office. 62. Cavalazzi and Falchi, La Storia di Milano, p. 82. 63. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, p. 75. 64. Sella, Italy in the Seventeenth Century, p. 52. 65. Ibid., p. 58. 66. Ibid., p. 54. 67. Ibid., p. 10. 68. Bagnoli, Ville, Castelli, Cascinalli in Lombardia, p. 49. 69. Ackerman, The Villa, p. 108. 70. Ibid., p. 110. 71. Lazzaro, Italian Renaissance Gardens, gives 1550 as the date of the first publication of Gallo. This is probably an error, as Ackerman explains in The Villa, p. 292, n. 7: “M. S. Aslin,

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Catalogue of the Printed Books on Agriculture, Aberdeen, 1926, refers to a 1550 edition that has not been confirmed in other catalogs.” 72. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, p. 129. 73. Ibid., p. 92. 74. Crescenzi, Ruralia commoda: Das Wissen des vollkommenen Landwirts um 1300, vol. 1, pp. 8–14. For discussions of Crescenzi’s treatment of the aesthetic dimension of gardens, see Wright, “Some Medici Gardens of the Florentine Renaissance,” p. 41, and Fabiani Giannetto, Medici Gardens: From Making to Design, pp. 88–92. 75. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, pp. 92, 113–114, 131. 76. Tanaglia, De Agricoltura, bk. 1, line 1480. 77. Ibid., bk. 1, lines 721–722. 78. Ibid., bk. 1, lines 1102–1103. 79. Ibid., bk. 1, lines 213–228. 80. Ibid., bk. 1, line 361. 81. Ibid., bk. 1, lines 430–432. 82. Alamanni, La Coltivazione, bk. 4, lines 143–147. 83. Ibid., bk. 1, lines 36–46. Cited, with the English translation by R. Burr Litchfield, in Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, pp. 129–130. 84. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, p. 130. 85. Ibid., p. 130. 86. Ibid., p. 133. 87. Ibid., p. 188. 88. Ibid., pp. 130, 133, 137, 140, 217. 89. Ibid., pp. 135, 267. 90. Gallo, Le dieci giornate della vera agricoltura, e piaceri del La Villa, p. 215r. 91. Ibid., p. 5r. 92. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, pp. 24–25. 93. Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, p. 20. 94. Battisti, p. 5. 95. The general outline of the following argument is based on Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, pp. 10–52. 96. Rhodes, “The Botanical Garden of Padua: The First Hundred Years,” p. 327. 97. Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, p. 10. 98. Alberti, I Libri della Famiglia, in Opere Volgari, vol. 1, p. 198. 99. For an explanation of “simples,” see Masson, “Italian Flower Collectors’ Gardens in Seventeenth Century Italy,” pp. 67–68. For more comprehensive discussions of simples and the botanical garden at Pia, see Garbari, Tomasi, and Tosi, Giardino dei Semplici: L’orto botanico di Pisa dal XVI al XX secolo. 100. Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, p. 13. 101. For subsequent history of the tripartite organization of gardens, see Hunt, “Paragone in Paradise: Translating the Garden,” pp. 59–61, and Leatherbarrow, “Character, Geometry and Perspective,” pp. 347–348. 102. These four conventions of ordering are discussed at length in Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, pp. 20–52. 103. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, p. 300. 104. See Soderini, Trattati dell’Agricoltura, vol. 1, pp. 251–252, Trattato della cultura, vol. 2,

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p. 26, and Trattato degli arbori, vol. 3, pp. 53, 245–246. (Cited in Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden, p. 44, n. 80.) 105. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, p. 300. 106. Hunt, Garden and Grove, p. 30. 107. Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 compact ed., s.v. “villa”; Cassell’s New Latin Dictionary, 1960 ed., s.v. “villa.” 108. Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, p. vii. 109. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 19.50, in Natural History, vol. 5. Here I have relied on Rackham’s translation, except that, for clarity, I have left untranslated the words villa (“farm” in Rackham), hortus (“garden”), and heredium (“family estate”). 110. Percival, The Roman Villa, p. 14. 111. Varro, Rerum rusticarum 1.2.14, in Cato and Varro on Agriculture. Varro was an authority on the origins of Latin words; he wrote De lingua latina, the earliest extant Roman treatise on Latin etymology, inflection, and syntax. 112. Cato, De agri cultura 14.2, in Cato and Varro on Agriculture. 113. Varro, Rerum rusticarum 1.13.6. 114. Varro, Rerum rusticarum 3.2.5–6. 115. Columella, De re rustica 1.6.1, in On Agriculture, vol. 1. 116. Columella, De re rustica 1.6.2, 1.6.7, in On Agriculture, vol. 1. 117. Columella, De re rustica 1.5.1, 1.5.4, in On Agriculture, vol. 1. 118. Martial, Epigrams 6.43, 7.31, 7.49, 9.18, vol. 2. 119. Ibid. 7.36. 120. Ibid. 12.57. 121. Ibid. 3.58. 122. Ibid. 6.64. 123. Pliny the Younger, Letters 2.17.4, in Letters and Panegyricus, vol. 1. 124. Ibid. 1.24.3. 125. Ibid. 2.17.5–6. 126. Ibid. 5.6.14. 127. Ibid. 5.6.45. 128. Villa may be descended from vicus by way of vicsla. Vicus means “village” or “hamlet” (in Cicero and Caesar) and “estate” or “country seat” (in Horace). It is from vicus that English place names derive the suffixes “-wick” and “-wich.” Walter W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 1935 ed., s.v. “villa”; Cassell’s New Latin Dictionary, 1960 ed., s.v. “vicus.” 129. Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 29–51. 130. Osborne, “Classical Greek Gardens,” pp. 376–379. 131. Cicero, De senectute 42.59, in De senectute, De amicitia, De divinatione. Pomeroy discusses Xenophon’s possible influence on Cato and other Roman writers in the introduction to her translation of Xenophon, Oeconomicus, p. 70. 132. Cicero, De senectute 1.3. 133. Percival, The Roman Villa, p. 40. 134. Tacitus, Annals 15.42, in The Annals of Imperial Rome. 135. Varro, Rerum rusticarum 1.4.1. 136. Pliny the Younger, Letters 1.9.6. 137. Ibid. 1.9.5–6. 138. Ibid. 1.24.4.

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139. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 18.35. 140. Sereni, History of the Italian Agricultural Landscape, p. 74. 141. Ibid., p. 92. 142. Harvey, Medieval Gardens, p. 76. 143. Petrarca, De Vita Solitaria, p. 70. 144. Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, p. 1. Vaucluse also may have been for Petrarch a haven from the temptations of Avignon. See Fabiani Giannetto, Medici Gardens, pp. 109–110. 145. Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences, pp. 11, 15, 19. See Fabiani Giannetto, Medici Gardens, p. 115. 146. Scaglione, Nature and Love in the Middle Ages, p. 64. 147. Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, p. 11. 148. Palmieri, Della Vita Civile, p. 152. 149. Cited by Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, p. 36. 150. Alberti, Villa, in Opere Volgari, vol. 1, pp. 359–363. 151. For the manuscripts known to Alberti, see Opere Volgari, vol. 1, p. 456. For a list of extant manuscripts of Works and Days, see Hesiod: Homeric Hyms, Epic Cycle, Homerica, p. xliii. 152. Alberti, Villa, in Opere Volgari, vol.1, p. 363. 153. Cato, De agri cultura, preface, line 3. 154. Hesiod, Works and Days, line 398, in Hesiod: Homeric Hyms, Epic Cycle, Homerica. 155. Alberti, Villa, in Opere Volgari, vol. 1, p. 359. 156. Alberti, I Libri della Famiglia, in Opere Volgari, vol. 1, pp. 198, 200. 157. For my source for much of this analysis of Alberti’s I Libri della Famiglia, see Coffin, The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome, p. 11. 158. De re aedificatoria was the earliest printed architectural book, and the first text after Vitruvius to take the art of architecture as its sole subject. See Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, p. xviii. 159. Ibid., pp. 125–126. See Martial, Epigrams 9.57, and Pliny the Younger, Letters 1.9.6. 160. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, pp. 140–141. See Cato, De agri cultura 1.3. 161. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, p. 294. See Martial, Epigrams 6.64. 162. Alberti, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, p. 295. 163. Kristeller, Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, p. 25. 164. Burckhardt, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, p. 272. 165. Ibid., pp. 241, 176. The overseer of this new organization was Giampietro Caraffa, who would reign as Pope Paul IV from 1555 until his death in 1559, the year La Villa was published. The destruction of the records of the Holy Office of the Inquisition during riots in Rome precipitated by the pope’s death is one of the factors that contributed to a lack of research on Inquisition trials in Italy. See Hare, Men and Women of the Italian Reformation, p. 176. 166. Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, p. 2. 167. Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, p. 185; Kristeller, Studies in Renasissance Thought and Letters, p. 27. 168. Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, p. 282. 169. Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, p. 9. 170. Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, p. 185. 171. Carolus Bovillus, Le Livre du Sage, p. 56.

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172. Victor, Charles de Bovelles 1479–1553, p 60. Carolus Bovillus specified that his intellectual fathers were Ramon Lull and Nicholas of Cusa in a letter to Jean le Franc, dated November 1529. For the philosophy of Carolus Bovillus and its kinship with that of Pico della Mirandola, Nicholas of Cusa, and Ramon Lull, see Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, pp. 86–93. 173. Della Mirandola, “Oratio de hominis dignitate,” in Oratio de Hominis Dignitate, Heptaplus, De Ente et Uno, p. 106. 174. Randall, The School of Padua and the Emergence of Modern Science, p. 72. 175. Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, The Renaissance Philosophy of Man, pp. 269–270. 176. Pomponazzi, On the Immortality of the Soul, pp. 352, 356. 177. De incantationibus 12. 23, cited in Ernst Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy, p. 108, n. 59. 178. In Republican and imperial Rome, and again during the Renaissance, otium was considered the best part of life. Ancient testimony to this view was given by the soldier C. Sulpicius Similis, who, having spent the last seven years of his life in retirement on his country estate, had inscribed on his tomb the words, “Here lies Similis, who existed so-andso many years, but lived seven.” Dio Cassius 69.19.2. Cited by Littlewood, “Ancient Literary Evidence for Pleasure Gardens,” p. 23. 179. Aristotle, Ethica Nicomachea 10.7.5, in The Nicomachean Ethics. 180. Ibid., 10.7.7. 181. Cicero, Tusculanae disputationes 1.3.6, in Tusculan Disputations. 182. Ibid., 5.36.105. 183. Seneca, Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales 82.4, vol. 2. 184. Seneca, De otio 3.5, in Moral Essays, vol. 2. 185. Ibid., 6.4. 186. Ibid., 5.8. 187. Ibid., 4.3. 188. Petrarca, De Vita Solitaria, p. 46. 189. Perhaps Petrarch’s strongest statement to this effect can be found in his letter to Guido Sette of 1367, in which he described the time he spent at his villa in Vaucluse: “For I passed many years there . . . in such happy repose that of all my earthly existence, that seems to me almost the only period that was really life, while all the rest is torture.” Petrarca, Rerum Senilium libri, bk. 10, letter 2, in Letters from Petrarch, trans. Morris Bishop (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), p. 268. 190. Alberti, I Libri della Famiglia, in Opere Volgari, vol. 1, p. 200. 191. Ibid. 192. Ibid. 193. Ibid. 194. Cited in Comito, The Idea of the Garden in the Renaissance, p. 79. 195. Horace, Odes 2.16.25–28, in Odes and Epodes. 196. Ibid. 197. Rinuccini, “Liberty,” p. 214. 198. Ibid. 199. Seneca, De otio 3.3. 200. Rinuccini, Dialogus de Libertate, p. 302. 201. Taegio was not the first to associate villa life with tranquillity of mind. Della Tranquillità dell’animo is the title of a dialogue written in 1441 by Alberti, who also wrote a Latin

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version of it, called Profugiorum ab aerumna, libri III. In book 2 of the Italian redaction, Alberti had one of the interlocutors invite him to his villa, to spend part of his time exercising outdoors and the rest studying literature and philosophy. For the Italian text of Alberti’s Della Tranquillità dell’animo, see Opere Volgari di Leon Batt. Alberti, vol. 1, pp. 7–130. 202. The ten dialogues included in the 1558 edition are D’amore, Della dignità delle donne, Del tempo del partorire, Della cura della famiglia, Della discordia, Della usura, Della lingue, Della rhetorica, Delle laudi del Cathaio, and Di Panico e Bichi. See Dialoghi di M. Sperone Speroni: Nuovamente ristampati, & con molta diligenza riveduti & corretti (Venice: Domenico Giulio, 1558). 203. Taegio could not have been aware of either Speroni’s treatise on the dialogue form or a similar work by Tasso, because Speroni’s Apologia dei dialoghi (1574–1575) and Tasso’s Discorso dell’arte del dialogo (1585), as well as the dedicatory letter prefacing Tasso’s dialogue La Cavaletta overo de la poesia toscana (1585), were published after Taegio’s death. 204. Plato, Meno 81d, translated by W. K. C. Guthrie, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato. 205. Speroni, Apologia dei dialoghi, in Opere di M. Sperone Speroni degli Alvarotti tratte da’ mss. originali, vol. 1, p. 284. 206. Tasso, La Cavaletta overo de la poesia toscana, in Dialoghi, vol. 2, p. 613. 207. Castiglione, Cortegiano, p. 12. 208. The passage in Libro del Cortegiano where the author coins the term describing this kind of self-promotion is translated as follows: “But, having already thought a great deal about where this grace comes from . . . I find one quite universal rule, which seems to me to apply more than any other to everything humans do and say. And that is to avoid affectation at all costs, as though it were a jagged and dangerous reef, and in everything to practice a certain sprezzatura—to use perhaps a new word—that conceals artifice, and makes whatever one does and says seem to be done without effort and almost without thinking about it.” See Castiglione, Cortegiano, p. 47. 209. Ibid., p. 15. 210. Marsh, The Quattrocento Dialogue, p. 15. 211. Castiglione, Cortegiano, p. 30. 212. Pallavicino, Trattato dello stile e del dialogo, p. 355. 213. Fratta, Della dedicatione dei libri, con la Correttion dell’Abuso in questa materia introdotto, Dialoghi, pp. 22r–v. 214. Tasso, Lettere, vol. 2, p. 208. 215. Corte, Il Cavallerizzo, p. 115. 216. Aretino, Lettere: Il primo e il secondo libro, p. 173. 217. Claudio Tartari suggested to me, in a conversation I had with him in the Biblioteca Isimbardi in Milan in June 1999, that La Villa is an example of letteratura encomiastica, and that these individuals may have paid Taegio to flatter them. 218. Cicero, De natura deorum 1.5.10. 219. Cited in Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, p. 36. 220. Bird-catching was also described in the late sixteenth-century Trattato degli arbori, by Gian Vettorio Soderini. See Wright, “Some Medici Gardens of the Florentine Renaissance,” p. 43. 221. Bonfadio, Le lettere e una scrittura burlesca, p. 96. 222. Hunt, Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory, p. 32. 223. Lucretius, De rerum natura 5, 737–740; Bonfadio, p. 96, n. 6.

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224. Bonfadio, Le lettere e una scrittura burlesca, p. 94. 225. Ibid., p. 47. 226. Ibid., p. 36. 227. Ibid., p. 188, n. 1. 228. Ibid., pp. 36, 177. 229. Ibid., p. 180. 230. Cited in Giuseppe Barbieri, “La nascita della ‘terza natura,’” p. 136. Elisabeth MacDougall identifies this as “the garden of a Signor Agapito” in Fountains, Statues, and Flowers (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection), p.104. 231. Lazzaro, Italian Renaissance Garden, p. 9. 232. Oxford English Dictionary, 1971 compact edition, s.v. “connatural.” 233. Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.430. 234. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 1.116–117. 235. Ibid., 9.146. 236. Cicero, De natura deorum 2.152. 237. Hunt, Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory, pp. 33–34. 238. Cicero, De natura deorum 2.29. 239. Ibid., 2.30. 240. Ibid., 2.85. 241. Beagon, Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder, p. 27. 242. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 2.1. 243. Ibid., 34.141, 18.5. 244. Ibid., 15.79. 245. Statius, Silvae 1.3.16–20. 246. Ibid., 1.3.20–22. 247. Lucretius, De rerum natura 2.174. 248. Ibid., 2.989; also 1.250, 5.821. 249. Ibid., 5.809. 250. Ibid., 2.1092. 251. Ibid., 1.586, 2.302, 5.310, 5.924. 252. Ibid., 5.1362. 253. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 15.49. 254. Ibid., 17.59, 17.101; Beagon, Roman Nature, p. 64. 255. Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 17.58. 256. Ibid., 19.49. 257. Ibid., 15.72. 258. Ibid., 36.200. 259. Ibid., 33.4. 260. Varro, Rerum rusticarum 3.3. 261. Cicero, De oratore 1.114–115, 2.357. 262. Horace, Ars poetica 408, in Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica. 263. Pliny the Younger, Letters 5.6.18. 264. Clark, Dialogue, Dialectic and Conversation, p. xvi.

La Villa Dialogo di M. Bartolomeo Taegio Partenio. Vitauro. che Vita è stata la nostra da che ragionnamo insieme? Vitauro. Son stato continovamente in Villa, & penso tornarvi di corto (se potrò spedirmi d’una facenda) che sforzatamente m’ha fatto venire alla città. Partenio. Dunque pensate noi di spendere la maggior parte del tempo in villa? Vitauro. Cosi penso, & ne sono resolutissimo. Partenio. Molto mi meraviglio, che un’huomo come voi tutto civile, affabile, dolce nelle conversationi, & ricco di maniera, che aggiatamente puo vivere nelle città, vogliastarsene il piu del tempo in villa. Vitauro. Et io della meraviglia, che del fatto mio prendete, per esser voi persona dimolta isperienza, di sodo giudicio, & di buone lettere, molto mi meraviglio: perche dimostrate non sapere quanto sia grande la felicità, della villa. Partenio. A me basta saper quanto sia grande la miseria della villa. Vitauro. La villa non è  [2]  miseria, fuor che à quegli, che vi stanno ociosamente, & che chiudendo gli occhi della mente nel fango dell’ignoranza dormono gli anni loro. Partenio. Ancor, ch’io sappia, che voi non potete esser nel numero di que tali, pur havrei caro intendere, in che maniera ve ne stiate in Villa, & come si dispensino l’hore vostre. Vitauro. Non potendo io mancar di compiacervi in cose honesto desiderio, vi dico, che in Villa principalmente mi godo dell’honorato ocio di quelle lettere, che sono conformi al genio mio; dapoi mi dò hora all’Agricoltura, hora alla taccia, quando all’uccellare, quando alla pescaggione, & alcuna volta ad altri honesti piaceri della villa; & contento di poco piu di quello, che solo il nostro semplice, & naturale stato conserva, lontano dalle ambitioni, dalli tumulti, & dalle frequentie delle città; me ne vivo d’una assai tranquilla, & riposata vita, senza nuocer ad alcuno, & senza vedere i malvaggi costumi de cittadini. Partenio. Se non vedete in Villa i vitii de cittadini, non vedete ancora le virtu loro. Vitauro. Le vertù de cittadini à guisa d’oro in arena sono accompagnate, &

The Villa Dialogue by M. Bartolomeo Taegio Partenio. Vitauro. What life has been ours since last we reasoned together? Vitauro: I have been continually in villa,1 and I intend to return there shortly (if I can finish up some business), since I was forced to come to the city. Partenio: Then you intend to spend most of your time in villa? Vitauro: I am quite intent on doing so. Partenio: I am much amazed that a man like you, perfectly civil, affable, pleasant in conversation, and abounding in good manners, who has the means to live well in the city, wants to be in villa most of the time. Vitauro: And I am amazed that you, a person of much experience, of sound judgment and [well versed in] literature, are much amazed at me, because it shows that you don’t know how great the happiness of the villa is. Partenio: To me it is enough to know how great the misery of the villa is. Vitauro: The villa is not misery, except for those who are lazy and who, shutting the eyes of their minds in the mire of ignorance, sleep their years away. Partenio: Still, I know that you cannot be among the number of such ones, since you have cared about how you live in villa and how you spend your time. Vitauro: Not able to keep from gratifying you in this honorable desire, I tell you that in villa I enjoy principally the honorable leisure of that literature that agrees with my nature. I devote my time now to farming, now to the hunt, sometimes birding, sometimes fishing, and a little bit of time to the other honorable pleasures of the villa, and I am content with little more than that alone which conserves our simple and natural state, far from the ambitions, from the tumults, and from the patronages of the city. I live a very tranquil and reposed life, without doing anyone any harm, and without seeing any of the harmful customs of the city dwellers. Partenio: If in villa you don’t see the vices of the city dwellers, you don’t see their virtues either. The phrase in villa is left untranslated because it connotes more than a location “in the villa.” See my Introduction, p. 32. 1

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contaminate da mille infelicità, & prometto, che si poco è l’oro della vertù rispetto alla sabbia de vitii, ch’egli è quasi incomprensibile; & per me confesso liberamente, che nella città altro non veggio, che superbia, ambitione, avaritia, invidia, simulatione, & idolatria.  3  Partenio. Perche dite voi idolatria. Vitauro. Perche in vece della verità s’adoravo falsi & bugiardi Dii. Partenio. Anco nelle città si trovano de gli huomini, che innocentemente vivendo, hanno per lor fine il sapere le verità delle cose. Vitauro. Questi, che voi dite, hanno dirizzata dentro della lor fantasia le deità di Pallade, laquale non solamente essi adorano, ma vorrebbono per quella da gli altri esser adorati; Di maniera, che adorando uno idolo della dottrina loro, c’hanno fatto dentro di se, & non il vero & solo Iddio, anch’essi vanno nel numero de gli idoltri, & de gli ambitiosi. Partenio. Vorrei sapere, quali & quanti credete voi, che siano gl’idoli de cittadini. Vitauro. Gl’Idoli de cittadini sono tre, la gloria, l’utile, & il diletto, alcuni perlo sfrenato desiderio c’hanno di salire alli magiori seggi delle città loro, comettono infinite sceleratezze; & facendosi di liberi servi, mai non hanno riposo alcuno; & questi in vece del vero Iddio portano nel cuore l’honor del mondo. Altri ad altro non attendono, che ad ammassar oro, & per arricchire non si vergognano d’ingannare hor questo, hor quello; e à rischio di mille morti corrono per li gonfiati mari à i piu lontani lidi; ne per lo tempestoso Orione, ne per lo mortifero Cane restano diseguire il loro malagevole camino, & la richezza è il berzaglio, ver cui si direzzano tutti i pensieri, & desiderii di questi  4  tali molti adorando Venere, & Bacco, ad altro non attendono, che à lasciui amori, delicate vivande, preciosi vini, carte, dadi, cani, sparvieri, cavalli, soggie, canti, suoni, & cosi simili; & stimandosi, che questa sia la vera vita del gentil’huomo, sprezzano tutti quelli, che vivono altrimenti. Tal che adorando il piacere, l’utilr, & la gloria cittadini si fattamente vivono, che lor medesimi si fanno indegni del precioso dono dell’intelletto, non se ne servendo à quel fine, à che egli c’è dato. Partenio. Apponto sopra di questo ho caro ragionar con esso voi, & vorrei, che descendendo un poco piu alli particolari, mi diceste, à che cosa vorreste voi, che s’applicasse l’intelletto nostro. Vitauro. Alle divine, & humane speculationi. Partenio. Per esser noi huomini, lo speculare alle volte le cose humane non

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Vitauro: The virtues of the city dwellers, like gold in sand, are accompanied

and contaminated by a thousand sorrows, and I swear that so little is the gold of virtue compared to the sand of vice that it is almost negligible. And I confess freely that in the city I do not see anything but pride, ambition, greed, hatred, falsehood, and idolatry. Partenio: Why do you say idolatry? Vitauro: Because instead of the truth they worship falsehoods and false gods. Partenio: Also in the city are to be found men who, living innocently, have as their goal the knowledge of the truth of things. Vitauro: These of whom you speak have erected within their imaginations the goddess Pallas, whom not only do they worship but through whom they would be worshipped by others, so that, worshipping an idol of their teaching which they themselves have made, and not the one true God, they also are among the number of the idolators and of the ambitious. Partenio: I would like to know what kinds and how many idols of the city dwellers you think there are. Vitauro: There are three idols of the city dwellers: glory, benefits, and pleasures. Because of unbridled desire, they have to climb to the highest seats of their cities, they commit countless villainies, and, turning themselves from free men into slaves, they never have even a little repose. And instead of the true God they carry in their hearts the honor of the world. Others attend to nothing else but amassing gold, and they are not ashamed to cheat here or there in order to make themselves rich, and they risk a thousand deaths to sail the swollen seas to the farthest shores. Neither for tempestuous Orion nor for the deathcarrying Dog do they rest from following their arduous path. And wealth is the target at which they truly aim all their thoughts and desires. Many of these, worshipping Venus and Bacchus, do not attend to anything but lascivious loves, delicate foods, rare wines, cards, dice, dogs, falconing, horses, fashions, chants, songs, and such things. And having persuaded themselves that this is the true life of the gentleman, they show contempt for all those who live otherwise. So that, worshipping pleasures, benefits, and glory, the city dwellers live in such a way that they make themselves unworthy of the precious gift of intellect, not applying it to the purpose for which it was given. Partenio: It is precisely upon this matter that I would dearly like to reason with you, and I would like you to tell me, going a little bit more into particulars, to what you would have us apply our intellect. Vitauro: To speculations, human and divine. Partenio: Since we are men, I do not find it unfitting to speculate about

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mi par disdicevole, ma il volere investigare i segreti d’Iddio mi par temerità, et un voler mettere la Natura à sindicato, come già fecero gl’insolenti, & pazzi filosofi. Vitauro. Voi non sapete, che l’intelletto è cosa divina, & chel’huomo è l’anello della catena che lege le cose mortali con le divine? Partenio. In che modo si fa cotesto nostro legamento? Vitauro. Voi dovete sapere, che gli elementi hanno l’essere solamente, & le piante la vita, & lo essere con gli elementi communi, le bestie il senso, & l’essere commune con gli elementi, & la vita, che participa con le piante: Et gli  5  huomini hanno l’essere commune con gli elementi, la vita con le piante, il senso con fiere, & l’intelletto, che communica con gli Angeli. Onde si prova l’immortalità delle anime nostre. Essendo adunque l’intelletto cosa divina, perche col mezzo suo non debbiamonoi intendere Iddio esser somma essentia, da cui tutte l’essentie, somma vità, da cui tutte le vite, & sommo intelletto, da cui tutti altri intelletti dependono? Et perche non debbiomo noi contemplare le sostanze incorporee, eterne, prodotte dalla prima intelligentia, & insieme considerare le Idee, i concetti universali, i moti de cieli, & come questo mondo inferiore sia continovamente sotto la rota della demostratione, & del nascodimento? Partenio. Io non voglio hora contendere con voi circa all’ufficio dell’intelletto nostro; ma ben vi dico, che piu huomini contemplativi si trovano nelle città, che nelle ville. Vitauro. Anzi non è si proprio l’humor all’acqua, quanto è proprio la solitudine della villa à gli huomini contemplativi. Partenio. Se cotesto è vero, è un chiaro & vivo argumento della pazzia de Filosofi; perche nelle lor solitudini fuggono, come cosa mala la conversatione dell’huomo, il quale nella natura è pur un miracolo grandissimo, & animale degno di reverenza: conciosia ch’egli (come voi pur dianzi havete detto) con l’eccellenza dell’intelletto passando alla divina natura, si fa somigliante ad esso Iddio. Questo  6  è pur colui, à cui invisibile Rè del Cielo per essendo togliendolo dal servitio della natura, ha fatto dove alla libertà del volere, & della signoria sopra gli altri animali. Questo è pur quel mirabile, & sacro animale, in cui, come in lucido cristallo, si vede una picciola imagine di tutta la machina del mondo; ma à dirvi il vero questi tali Filosofi à me paiono persone ociose, & da poco, che per coprire la viltà dell’animo loro, con una apparenza di virtù,

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human things, but to be willing to look into the secrets of God, and to be willing to put Nature to the test, as insolent men and mad philosophers have already done, seems temerity to me. Vitauro: Don’t you know that the intellect is a divine thing and that man is the link in the chain that binds mortal things with the divine?2 Partenio: In what way does that provide our linkage? Vitauro: You ought to know that the elements have only being, the plants have being in common with the elements and life as well, the beasts have being in common with the elements, life in common with the plants, and sense as well. And men have being in common with the elements, life in common with the plants, sense in common with the beasts, and intellect, which links us with the angels.3 Thus the immortality of our souls is proven. The intellect being therefore a divine thing, why shouldn’t we by that means understand God to be the supreme being from whom all beings proceed, the supreme life from whom all lives proceed, and the supreme intellect from which all other intellects proceed? And why shouldn’t we contemplate substances incorporeal and eternal, products of the first intelligence, and together consider the ideas, the universal concepts, the movements of the heavens, and how this lower world is continually caught in a cycle of demonstration and concealment? Partenio: I do not want to contend with you now about the office of our intellect, but I tell you truly that you find more contemplative men in the city than in the villa. Vitauro: On the contrary, humor is not so suitable a word for water as the solitude of the villa is suitable to the contemplative man. Partenio: If that is true, it is a clear and persuasive argument for the madness of the philosophers, because in their solitude they shun, as a bad thing, the conversation of man, who is surely a very great miracle of nature and an animal worthy of reverence, since (as you certainly said just now), with the excellence of the intellect approaching the divine nature, he is made similar to God. Surely this is he to whom the invisible king of heaven, removing him from the servitude of nature, gave him freedom of will and dominion above the other animals. Surely this is that marvelous and holy animal in whom, as in clear crystal, one sees a small image of the whole machine of the world. But to tell you the truth philosophers such as these appear to me to be lazy and good-for-nothing persons who, covering up the cowardice of their spirit with an appearance of 2 3

Vitauro is referring to Pico della Mirandola’s Oratione de dignitate hominis (1487). Vitauro is referring to Carolus Bovillus’s De sapiente (1509).

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disprezzano con parole, & non con fatti; le richezze, gli honori, & i piaceri del mondo, come se non fossero di carne, ma pure intelligenze: Ond’io per l’amor, ch’io porto alle vertù vostre, vorrei, che ad ogni vostro potere vi sforzaste di allontanarvi piu che potete dalla vita di questi Hipocriti, & ociosi Filosofi, & lasciando i campi, le pante, & le fiere della villa, veneste à starvene fra gli huomini nella città. Vitauro. Dove si trovano gli huomini nelle città? non vi soviene d’haver letto, che’l buon Diogene andando un giorno per lo foro di Athene con una lucerna accesa in mano, gli fu addimandato, perche ciò facesse; al che egli rispose, io vo cercando un’huomo, per dimostrare, che molte bestie in forma humana si trovano nelle città, ma pochi, ò niuni che sieno veramente huomini? Et se volete con sano occhio mirar lo stato della città, voi vederete, che quanto di male si trova ne gli  7  animali brutti, tutto quasi in un corpo è raccolto gregge de cittadini; ivi è la crudelt della Tigre, la pietà dell’Orso, la bestialità del Cinghiale, la ferocità del Leone, la superbia del Cavallo, la rapacità del Lupo, l’ostinatione bel Bue, l’inganno della Volpe, la militia del Cameleonte, la varietà del Pardo, la mordacità del Cane, la disperatione dell’Elefante, la vendetta del Camello, la petulantia del Becco, la brutezza del Porco, la pazzia dell’Asino, la buffoneria della Scimia, la ribalderia delle Sirene, la furia de Centauri, la ingordigia delle Harpie, la lussuria de Satiri, & quanta malvagità d’animali irragionevoli, & spaventosi mostri creò gia mai la natura; Il perche, quando vengo dalla città alla Villa, parmi di venire dalla servitù alla libertà, dalla guerra alla pace, & da un periglioso, & adirato mare ad un sicuro, & tranquillo porto. Partenio. A’mal porto dirizzate la nostra vela, se prensate di fuggir la tempesta delle miserie humane, per venirvene in Villa, dove non si veggono se non infelicità; Et fra le altre mi negarete voi, che queste non sieno tre infelicità grandissime dell’huomo, che vive nelle solitudini della Villa, il trovarsi privo della dolce conversatione de gli amici, delle grandezze, conmodi, et delitie delle città, et della prattica di varie maniere di genti, che quivi concorrono, senza laquale l’huomo non puo saper che  8  cosa sia questo mondo, ne far acquisto dell’honoratissima et splendissima vertù della prudenza, onde depende la felicità humana, et p[ro]pria dell’huomo. Vitauro. Quanto à quella parte, che dite; che l’huomo, che sta in Villa non gode la dolce conversatione de gli acici, che habbitano alla città, vi rispondo, che la gioia de gli amici è posta solamente nella vertù, laquale mostrandosi in

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virtue, despise with words and not with deeds the riches, honors, and pleasures of the villa, as if they were not flesh, but pure intelligence. Therefore, because of the love I have for your virtue, I would like you to make an effort with all your might to distance yourself as much as possible from the lives of these hypocrites and lazy philosophers and, leaving behind the fields, plants, and flowers of the villa, come to dwell among men in the city. Vitauro: Where are men found in the city? Don’t you remember having read that the good Diogenes, going one day through the forum of Athens with a lamp lit in his hand, was asked why he was doing so, to which he responded, I am seeking a man, proving that many beasts in human form are found in the city, but few or none are truly men. And if you would take an honest look at the state of the city, you would see that everything bad that is found in brute animals is almost all gathered in one body, the flock of city dwellers. The cruelty of the tiger is found there, as are the devotion of the bear, the bestiality of the wild boar, the ferocity of the lion, the haughtiness of the horse, the rapacity of the wolf, the stubbornness of the ox, the slyness of the fox, the pugnacity of the chameleon, the changeability of the panther, the mordacity of the dog, the hopelessness of the elephant, the vindictiveness of the camel, the petulence of the billy goat, the ugliness of the pig, the craziness of the jackass, the buffoonery of the monkey, the rascality of the sirens, the fury of the centaurs, the gluttony of the harpies, the lasciviousness of the satyrs, and as much wickedness of irrational animals and hideous monsters as nature ever yet created. Therefore when I go from the city to the villa, it seems to me that I am going from slavery to freedom, from war to peace, and from a dangerous and angry sea to a safe and tranquil harbor. Partenio: You direct your sail to a bad harbor if you think you are escaping the tempest of human misery by going to the villa, where nothing is seen but unhappiness. And among other things, you will refuse to admit that these are three very great unhappinesses of the man who lives in the solitude of the villa: finding oneself deprived of the sweet conversation of friends, of the greatnesses, comforts, and delights of the city, and of the interaction with different types of people who assemble there, without which a man can neither know what this world is like nor acquire the very honorable and very splendid virtue of prudence, on which depends human happiness and the happiness befitting a man. Vitauro: Regarding what you say—that the man who lives in villa does not enjoy the sweet conversation of friends that they do who inhabit the city—I answer you that the enjoyment of friends has been placed only in that virtue

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ogni luogo, causa, che ovunque l’huomo si trovi possa godere delle dolcezze dell’amicitia; ma che più; non solamente all’animo non si toglie per la allontananza piacere alcuno: ma ne à gli occhi ancora; perche i veri amici (come si scrive di Evandro, & Pallante) in ogni cosa stanno l’uno ne gli occhi dell’altro, il che vien confirmato da M. Tullio, ilquael scrivendo à Balbo suo amico, che era in Franza con Cesare, dice, che non solamente lo portava nell’animo; ma negli occhi ancora; tal che quando io sono lontano dal mio Partenio io’l veggio, io scherzo, & io ragiono con esso lui. Circa à quel che dite, che stando in Villa non si gode delle grandezze, commodi, & delitie delle città; rispondo, ch’à me piu dolce è l’havere intorno Faggi, Quercie, Abeti, Olivi, Lauri, & Ginebri, che una gran copia di servitori, piu mi dilettano le novelle frondi de gli alberi, & i vaghi fiori de prati, che abbelliscono la Villa, che i panni d’oro, & argento, che nelle città adornano le pompose  9  camere de Prencipi; piu grate mi sono le cappanne, le valli, i monti, & le piagge, che i superbi pallazzi, i meravigliosi theatri, le ampie piazze, & gli honorati seggi. Piu in pregio ho l’herbe, i frutti, illatte, & simili cibi, che altri non hanno i fagiani, le lepri, & l’ostree; & tutto, ch’io alle volte peschiu, cacci, & uccelli: nondimeno cio faccio non per cagion digola; ma per recrear l’animo nelle solite sue attioni affaticato. Alla partita, che dite, che non pratticando nelle città con diverse maniere di genti, l’huomo non puo sapere, che cosa sia questo mondo; rispondo, che stando io in Villa solo nel mio tugurio, vengo per aventura in maggior cognitione del mondo, che non fanno quegli, che nelle città conversano con piu sorti di persone. Partenio. In che modo? Vitauro. Con l’animo, non movendosi alcuna parte del corpo, cerco tutte le parti dell’Oceano, circondo tutta questa rotonda palla, che terra si chiama, vo à trovare quanti mari la innondino, quanti laghi la bagnino, quanti fiumi la irrighino, quante isole, porti, scogli, monti, piani, castella, città, provincie, & regioni si trovino. Et piu adentro penetrando vo à trovar le vene dell’oro, dell’argento, & de gli altri metalli, insieme col centro della terra. Et non contento di queste cose basse, mi levo con l’ali del pensiero à volo; Et passando per tutte le regioni  10  dell’aria, & la sphera del foco entro nel cielo, & con la mente scorrendo & sphera in sphera, & da una pura intelligenza all’altra, final-

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which, revealing itself in every place, does so that anywhere a man may find himself he can enjoy the sweetness of friendship. But what’s more, not only is the mind not deprived of any pleasure because of the distance, not even the eyes are, because true friends (as it is written of Evander and Pallas)4 are completely one in each other’s eyes, which is confirmed by M. Tullius, who says, writing to his friend Balbus who was in France with Caesar,5 that he carried him not only in his heart but also in his eyes, so that when I am far from my Partenio, I see him, I joke and I argue with him. To what you said about those who, being in villa, do not enjoy the greatnesses, comforts, and delights of the city, I respond that to me it is sweeter to have around me beeches, oaks, fir trees, olives, laurels, and junipers than a great abundance of servants. The new leaves of the trees and the pretty flowers of the field that beautify the villa delight me more than the cloths of gold and silver that adorn the showy rooms of the princes in the city. Barns, valleys, mountains, and shores are more agreeable to me than superb palaces, marvelous theaters, ample piazzas, and seats of honor. I value the grass, the fruits, the milk, and such foods more than others value pheasants, hares, and oysters. Even if by turns I fish, hunt, and catch birds, yet I do this not out of gluttony, but to refresh the mind tired by its usual activity. To your assertion that a man cannot know what this world is like without interacting in the city with different kinds of people, I answer that, staying in villa alone in my hovel, I come upon perhaps greater knowledge of the world than do those in the city who converse with more kinds of people. Partenio: By what means? Vitauro: With the mind, not moving any part of the body, I search all parts of the ocean, looking over all this round ball called Earth. I want to find out how many seas flood it, how many lakes bathe it, how many rivers irrigate it, how many islands, ports, cliffs, mountains, planes, castles, cities, provinces, and regions there are. And penetrating more deeply I want to find veins of gold, silver, and other metals, together with the center of the earth. And not content with these low things, I take flight on the wings of thought, and passing through all the regions of the sky and the sphere of fire, I enter the heavens. And with the mind passing from sphere to sphere, from one pure intelligence to another, finally I reach God himself. And then wholly full of wonder, I begin 4 Evander was the legendary hero of Arcadia who, according to Virgil (Aeneid 8.66), founded Pallanteum, a colony on the banks of the Tiber. His son Pallas fought beside Aeneas (Aeneid 8.136). 5 Vitauro is referring to Cornelius Balbus, called “Balbus Minor” in the letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero.

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mente mi conduco ad esso Iddio. Et quindi tutto ripieno & meraviglia comincio ordinatamente, à ritornare alla consideratione delle cose da lui prodotte; & in tal maniera salendo, & scendendo, vengo in perfetta conditione di questo mondo; & con gran contentezza passo i giorni miei, & da questa contemplatione deriva la felicità humana, & non dalla prudenza come voi ditte. Partenio. L’humana felicità consiste nell’operare, & non nello speculare; perche l’huomo (come afferma Aristotele) non per se solo, ma ancora per gli altri viene in questo mondo: il perche io dico, che piu honore, & maggior felicità sarebbe all’huomo il vivere alla città, & ingegnarsi di giovar à gli amici, à i parenti, et alla republica, che andarsene, come nemico di tutti altri, & amico sol di se stesso, à vivere rinchiuso nelli studii, ò disperso per le selve. Vitauro. Io vi nego, che piu honorata, & piu felice sia la vita attiva, che la contemplativa, perche lo speculare, & intendere è cosa divinissima, & è quello, che ne fa simili à gli Angeli; dovete pur sapere, che la felicità contemplativa è piu degna, & piu nobile della civile, si per la nobilta della potenza dell’anima, in cui si trova, si ancora della grandezza dell’oggetto suo, ch’è esso Iddio.  11  Dovete pur sapere ancora, come lo specular nostro è un saggio di quello, che faremo poi nella patria del cielo, & che noi siamo huomini per lo intelletto, la cui perfettione è l’intendere la verità delle cose; onde poi ne derivà la salute della republica. Partenio. Anzi se nelle città si trovasse gran copia di questi ociosi Filosofi, ne seguirebbono le rovine delle republiche, non altrimenti, che intervenerebbe del corpo, se tutti i membri suoi volessero stare ociosi; Il che essendo conosciuto fin da pagani gli indusse ad essergli nemici, & che’l sia vero domandatene à gli Atheniesi, i quali fecero morir Socrate? domandatene à Lacedemoni, & à i Messani, i quali nelle lor republiche non vollero ammettere i Filosofi contemplativi; i quali ancora al tempo di Domiciano furono banditi da tutta Italia; & il re Antioco fece una legge contra à i padri, che lasciavano imparar filosofia à suoi figliuoli. Et non solamente questi tali furono cacciati da i Rè, da gl’Imperatori, & dalle republiche, ma Aristofane, Thimone, & Aristide scrissero libri contra di loro, consacrando all’immortalità l’asneria di questi nemici capitali della fatica,

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in an orderly fashion to return to the consideration of the things produced by him; and in such a manner ascending and descending, I arrive at perfect knowledge of this world, and pass my days with great contentment. And human happiness is derived from this contemplation, and not from prudence as you say. Partenio: Human happiness consists in action and not in speculation, because man (as Aristotle states) came into this world not for himself alone but also for others.6 Therefore I say that living in the city, and trying to be useful to friends, to family, and to the republic, would be more honorable and a greater happiness for a man than going off, as an enemy to all others and a friend only to himself, to live closed up in studies or lost in the woods. Vitauro: I disagree with you that the active life is more honorable and happier than the contemplative life, because to speculate, and to understand, is a very divine thing, and it is that which makes us like the angels. You certainly ought to know that contemplative happiness is worthier and nobler than that produced by civic action. As it is for the nobility of the power of the soul in which it is found, so it is all the more for the greatness of its object, which is God himself. You must certainly know that our speculation is a sample of what we will be doing there in the realm of heaven, and that we are men because of our intellect, the perfection of which is the understanding of the truth of things, from which the health of the republic is derived. Partenio: On the contrary, if a great abundance of these lazy philosophers were to be found in the city, the ruin of the republic would follow, not unlike what would happen to the body if its members were allowed to be lazy. And this being known even by the pagans, they were moved to be their enemies. You may ask the Athenians, who put Socrates to death, if it is true. You may ask the Lacedemonians and the Messani, who did not want to admit into their republics the contemplative philosophers, who still at the time of Domitian were banished from all Italy. And the king Antiochus made a law against fathers who let their sons study philosophy. And not only were these banished by kings, by emperors, and by republics, Aristophanes, Timon, and Aristides wrote books against them,7 consecrating to immortality the stupidity of these prime enemies See Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.7 and 9.9. Aristophanes was a Greek comic poet active around 400 b.c., who wrote The Clouds, in which he ridiculed Socrates as a typical Sophist. His are the only Greek comedies preserved in medieval manuscripts. Plato speaks of him in the Apology and the Symposium. Timon of Phlius (c. 320–230 b.c.) was a Sceptic. Fragments of his numerous works survive. In the Silloi (lampoons) he ridiculed all philosophers. Aristides, mentioned here, is probably the secondcentury Greek author of a polemical work On Rhetoric, Publius Aelius Aristides. 6 7

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& dell’operatione, senza la quale nelle città non vi sarebbono mura, che ci riparassero da uno improviso assalto de nemici; ne si vedrebbono navilii, onde ne nasce tanta commodità alla republica; ne vi sarebbono case, che ci diffendessero  12  dal freddo, dal caldo, & dall’empito de venti, non si vedrebbono tanti magnifichi pallazzi, theatri, anfitheatri, scene, archi trionfai, piramidi, tempii, portici, & infinite altre superbe fabriche, che danno pur maestà , & ornamento grandissimo alle città di. Vitauro. Queste son cose, che se l’ingiuria del nemico, il foco, ò altra calamitdà non le distrugge, nondimeno il tempo le consumerà, però io stimo, che la salute della republica consista, non ne gli edificii, ma ne i buon costumi, & nel vertuoso vivere de città dini. Partenio. Questo è vero; ma la lode dela vertù (come afferma M. Tullio) non risiede ella nell’attione. Vitauro. V ditemi ciò, che vo dire, & poi rispondete. Partenio. Seguite adunque. Vitauro. I buoni costumi de cittàdini, onde nascono? Partenio. dalle buone legge. Vitauro. Chi diffende, & mantien vive le buone leggi? Partenio. La vertiù di quegli, che le usano. Vitauro. La vertè di coloro, che usano le leggi, onde nasce? Partenio. Dalla ragione. Vitauro. Et la ragione, onde piglia il suo vigore. Partenio. Dall’essercitio. Vitauro. La perfettione dell’essercitio, onde procede? Partenio. dalla verità. Vitauro. Et la verità, gia che non si puo havere se non col mezo del discorso, & ocio, che si mette per l’acquisto di lei? Partenio. Ancor questo è cosa chiara. Vitauro. Adunque dal discorso, & dall’ocio deriva la salute della Republica. Partenio. Voi m’havete pian piano condotto à un passo, ch’io  13  son sforzato à dir come voi; Egli è ben vero, che si potrebbe dire, che questo è effetto dell’intelletto prattico, & non del contemplativo. Vitauro. Mentre, che quello intelletto, che voi chiamate prattico va investigando qual veramente sia il giusto, l’honesto, & l’utile, egli è speculativo, ma quando l’applica poi all’attione, et particolari doventa prattico.

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of hard work and action, without which neither would the city have walls that may protect us from a sudden attack by enemies, nor could the ships that bring all the commodities to the republic be seen, nor could houses be built to protect from heat and cold and strong winds, nor could one see magnificent palaces, theaters, amphitheaters, stage sets, triumphal arches, pyramids, temples, porticoes, and countless other superb buildings that impart a certain majesty and very great ornament to the city. Vitauro: These are things that if the injurious action of enemy, fire, or other calamity does not destroy them, time will nevertheless consume them. However, I think that the health of the republic consists not in these edifices but in good morals, and in the virtuous lives of the city dwellers. Partenio: This is true, but the praise of virtue (as M. Tullius says) does not reside in actions.8 Vitauro: Listen to what I want to say, and then respond. Partenio: Go ahead, then. Vitauro: The good customs of city dwellers, where do they come from? Partenio: From good laws. Vitauro: Who defends and maintains good laws? Partenio: The virtue of those who use them. Vitauro: The virtue of those who use the laws, where does it come from? Partenio: From reason. Vitauro: And reason, where does it get its strength? Partenio: From being exercised. Vitauro: The perfection of exercise, whence does it proceed? Partenio: From truth. Vitauro: And truth, how can it be had except by means of discourse and leisure put to good use to acquire it? Partenio: Again, this is clear. Vitauro: Then the health of the republic results from discourse and from leisure. Partenio: You have led me step by step to a point where I am forced to agree with you. It is quite true that it can be said that this is an effect of practical, and not contemplative, intelligence. Vitauro: As long as that intellect you call practical inquires into whatever is truly just, honorable, and useful, it is speculative, but when one applies it to actions and to particular things, it becomes practical.9 Partenio’s phrase is a vague reference to the writings of Marcus Tullius Cicero. The distinction between practical and contemplative intelligence is derived from Pietro Pomponazzi’s De immortalitate animae (1516). 8 9

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Partenio. Hor posto, che cosi sia, mi negherete voi, che piu non habbia del

verisimile, che le cose vicine à Iddio gli sieno piu care, che le lontane? Vitauro. Et che volete voi dir per questo? Partenio. Dico, che tutte le cose dalla natura create, quanto piu s’avicinano al grandissimo Iddio sono piu attuose, et nemiche dell’ocio, & cominciando dall’huomo, non veggiamo noi, che’egli è piu in potenza, che in atto? passando poi à gli elementi non troviamo, ch’eglino per la generatione, & corrutione oprano continuovamente? & venendo finalmente à i cieli, che sono piu vicini alle divine intelligenze, & primo motore, non troviamo, che’essi per lo continovo si movono, & movendosi causano il moto de gli elementi? Vitauro. Questo è vero: ma ditemi, qual è piu avicinarsi al grandissimo Iddio, ò veramente unirsi con essolui? Partenio. Non si puo negare, che non sia piu l’unirsi con lui, che l’accostarsegli. Vitauro. Havete à sapere, che l’huomo quando rotti i legami de lusinghevoli sensi, con la vittoria di se stesso, s’innalza alla speculatione delle cose naturali,  14  & indi felicemente passa alla contemplatione delli spiriti celesti, dove l’imagine d’Iddio, come in un lucido specchio risplende, tutto si accende, e infinama nel vero amor divino; & salendo poi con la mente alla prima intelligenza governatrice del tutto, con esso lei s’unisce, & di nettare, & ambrosia con somma dilettatione si pasce. Partenio. Questa vostra unione mi pare un sogno, & queste sono delle chimere de Filosofi contemplativi, la cui pazzia è tanto grande, che l’Elleboro di tutta la terra non basterebbe à purgarla. Il giudicioso Homero laudò Ulisse, non perche sia stato in ocio, ma perche fece havere à i Greci le saette di Filolette, senza le quali Troia non poteva esser presa; distrusse il sepolcro di Laomedonte; uccise Rheso, entrò nella regal corte d’Alcinoo, guerreggiò con le cicogne, andò à trovar i Lotofagi, accecò Polifemo, navigò alli Lestrigoni, discese allo inferno, fece resistenza à gl’incanti della venefica Circe, passó per mezzo Silla & Cariddi, venne per fortuna di mare à Calisso con l’albero della nave, trovò Eolo re de venti, entrò scognosciuto & vestito da medico in Troia; rubbò il Palladio, et finalmente ritornato nella patria, vinse i rivali. Vitauro. Questa è una fittione d’Homero, il quale niente altro per lei dimostra, se non, che l’huomo trascorrendo per molti vitii, & dapoi purgandosene arriva alla speculatione, ne pensate,  15  ch’altro dinoti Ulisse, quando per lo dono da Mercurio ricevuto resiste a gl’incantamenti di Circe, 3  3  3

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Partenio: Now granted that as it is so, will you deny that it is more likely that

the things closer to God are dearer to him than things far away? Vitauro: And what do you mean by this? Partenio: I am saying that the more all things created by nature draw near to the supreme God the more active they are, and the more adverse to leisure. And, starting from man, don’t we see that he is in potential more than he is in action? Proceeding then to the elements, don’t we find that they are continually operating through generations and corruptions? And coming finally to the heavens, which are closer to the divine intelligence and the First Mover, don’t we find that they continually move there, and that moving they cause the motion of the elements? Vitauro: This is true, but tell me, which is greater, drawing near to the supreme God or truly uniting with him? Partenio: I can’t deny that it is greater to unite with him than to approach him. Vitauro: You must know that when man, having broken the fetters of the alluring senses, with victory over himself, elevates himself to the speculation of natural things and afterward proceeds happily to the contemplation of the celestial spirits, where the image of God shines as in a highly polished mirror, he is all illuminated and inflamed by the true divine love. And ascending then with the mind to the first intelligence governing all, he is united with it, and he is nourished by nectar and ambrosia with supreme pleasure. Partenio: This union of yours seems like a dream to me, and these are of the fancies of contemplative philosophers whose foolishness is so great that the Hellebore of all the earth would not be enough to cleanse it. The judicious Homer praised Ulysses not because he was at leisure but because he gave the Greeks the arrow of Philoctetes, without which Troy could not have been conquered, [because] he destroyed the grave of Laomedon, killed Rhesus, entered the royal court of Alcinoüs, fought with the storks, found the lotus-eaters, blinded Polyphemus, sailed to the Laestrygonians, descended into hell, resisted the spells of the poisonous Circe, passed between Scylla and Charybdis, reached Calypso on the mast of the ship led by a storm, found Aeolus king of the winds, entered into Troy unnoticed and disguised as a physician, stole the Palladium, and finally, having returned home, conquered his rivals.10 Vitauro: This is a fiction by Homer, which shows you nothing except that man arrives at speculation after passing through many vices and then purging himself of them. And don’t think that Ulysses, when he resists the incanta10

Partenio is summarizing Homer’s Odyssey.

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se non l’anima humana, quando con gli habiti delle vertù, & con l’aiuto della ragione à lei da Iddio conceduta, si dà alla contemplatione in maniera, che piu non sente le perturba­tioni dell’animo. Però il mio dolce Partenio, vorrei, che ad imitatione d’Ulisse Hoggimai domaste, & soggiogaste gliafetti dell’animo, accioche in libera, & tranquilla pace vi possiate dare alla contemplatione. Partenio. Et io, il mio dolcissimo Vitauro, vorrei, che hormai vi risolveste di lasciare queste vostre muse in Parnaso, et di ritornarvene ad habitar ale città di, equali son fatte per albergo, commodità, & comercio de gli huomini; & sono, come schole di buone creanze, honorate scienze, & lodevoli vertù; quivi fioriscono tutte le arti, & l’animo duro & silvestre deposta ogni rusticana asprezza, di civile delicatezza si riveste; & per dir breve le città son fatte per gli huomini, & le ville per le bestie. Vitauro. Voi mi dipingete la città per un Paradiso terrestre, & pur in quel loco aprico, & ri­pieno dt tutte le delitie, che dal grandissimo Iddio fu assi­ gnato al nostro primo padre per habitatione sua, non v’era alcuna di queste vostrefavorite città; lequali non sarebbono elle state giamai fondate, se non fosse cresciuta la malitia de gli huomini; entrata la superbia, & nata l’avaritia; & che’l   16  sia vero lo dica l’avaro, crudele, & malvagio Cain figliuolo di Adamo, il quale fu il primiero, che edificasse città con mura in Oriente, & nominolla Enoch da suo figliuolo, che cosi chiamavasi, vi fece habitare d’ogni sorte di scelerati. Onde se mai non fossero state edificate ne città, ne castella, gli huomini vivendo alla campagna con somma concordia, & tranquillità d’animo passerieno gl’anni nella maniera, che facevano le antiche genti nel secolo dell’oro, nel quale (come dice Ovidio) la fede, e la bontà candida e pura Albergavano all’hor in ogni petto, Non v’era error, ne pena, ne paura, Ne desio, ne speranza, ne sospetto; Non legge ancor, ne di giudicio cura: Ma tutti havendo il cuor sincero e netto, Securi da l’offese, e da gl’inganni Viveano quieti, e riposati gli anni.

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tions of Circe by means of the gift he received from Mercury, signifies anything other than the human soul, when, with the habits of virtue and with the help of the reason given him by God, it gives itself to contemplation so that it feels no more the disturbances of the mind. However, my dear Partenio, I wish you would now tame and subdue the affections of the mind in imitation of Ulysses, so that you could devote yourself to contemplation in freedom and tranquil peace. Partenio: And I, my sweetest Vitauro, wish that you would now resolve to leave these muses of yours behind on Mount Parnassus, and go back to living in cities, which are built as places of comfort and commerce of men, and which are like schools of good manners, honorable learning, and praiseworthy virtues. Then all the arts flower, and the hard and wild spirit, having put off every rustic harshness, reclothes itself with civil delicacy. And to put it succinctly, cities are made for men and villas for beasts.11 Vitauro: You describe the city to me as an earthly paradise. Yet in that sunny place replete with all the delights, which was assigned by the supreme God to our first father for his abode, there were none of these favorite cities of yours. They never would have been founded had not the wickedness of men grown, pride entered, and greed been born. And that this is true may well be proven by Cain, the greedy, cruel, and wicked son of Adam, who was the first to build a walled city in the Orient, and he called it Enoch after his son, who was thus called, and he made every sort of villian live there.12 Hence if neither cities nor castles had ever been built, men living in the country with greatest concord and tranquillity of mind would pass their years in the manner in which the ancients did in the golden age, when (as Ovid says) Faith and goodness candid and pure Dwelt then in every breast, There was no so sin, no penalty, no fear, Nor want, nor desire, nor suspicion; There was no law yet, no care about judgment: But everyone, having a sincere and pure heart, Safe from offences and from deceptions, Lived out his years quietly and in repose. 11 Partenio’s phrase recalls the words of Franco Sacchetti and Paolo Da Certaldo. See Martines, The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, p. 36. 12 See Genesis 4:17.

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Non era ancor dal suo natio terreno Tagliato in cima à gli alti monti il Pino; Con che poi I’huomo d’avaritia pieno Cercò del mondo ogni lontan confino; Ma contento godersi il bel sereno Del patrio Ciel, senz’esser peregrino, Possedea con la moglie il proprio sito:   17 Ne conosceva altro paese, ò lito. Non eran cinte le città d’intorno Di grosse mura, e di profonde fossa: Non era tromba, ò bellicoso corno, Che i freddi cuori à l’arme accender possa, Non spade, onde ha veduto, e vede il giorno Spesso & sangue human la terra rossa; Non usberghi, non elmi, e maglie, e scudi; Non petti cosi iniqui, e cosi crudi. Senza esser rotto, e lacerato tutto Dal Vomero, dal rastro, e dal bidente, Ogni soave, e delicato frutto Dava il grata terren liberamente; Et quale egli venia da lui produtto Se lo godea la fortunata gente, Che spregiando condir le lor vivande Mangiavan corne, e more, e fraghe, e ghiande. Febo sempre piu lieto il suo viaggio Facea girando la superna sfera, E con fecondo, e temperato raggio Recava al mondo eterna Primavera, Zefiro i fior d’Aprile, e i fior di Maggio Nutria con aura tepida, e leggiera, Stillava il mel da gli elci, e da gli Olivi  18 Correan nettare, e latte, e fiumi, e rivi. O fortunata età, felice gente, Che ti trovasti in cosi nobili anni, C’havesti il corpo libero, e la mente, Questa da rei pensier, quel da tiranni, Dove era almen sicuro l’innocente Da gli odii, dalle invidie, e da gl’inganni;

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Not yet torn from its native soil At the top of high mountains was the Pine, With which later man full of avarice Would search every distant boundary of the world; But content to enjoy the beautiful serenity Of the sky of the fatherland, without going far, He possessed with his wife his own place: Nor did he know any other country or shore. Around the cities there were no belts Of high walls and deep ditches: There was no trumpet, no battle horn That could raise cold hearts to arms, No swords, by which daylight saw and often sees The earth red with human blood. There were no breastplates, no helmets, mail, and shields; No hearts so iniquitous or so hard. Without being turned and altogether torn By plowshare, by rakes, and by forks, The thankful land freely gave Every sweet and delicate fruit. And as it was produced It was enjoyed by the happy people who, Scorning to season their food, Ate cornelian cherries, blackberries, strawberries, and acorns. Phoebus made even merrier his trip Going around the celestial sphere, And with fertile and temperate ray Brought the world eternal Spring. Zephyrs nourished, with breath warm and light, The flowers of April and the flowers of May. Honey dripped from the holm‑oak, and from the olives Nectar flowed, and milk, and rivers, and streams. O fortunate age, happy people, Who found yourself in such noble years, Who had the body and the mind free This one from sinful thoughts, that one from tyrants, Where the innocent one at least was safe From hatred, from envy, and from deceptions;

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Beato veramente secol d’oro, Dove senza alcun mal tutti i ben foro. Partenio. questa vostra età dell’oro à me pare, che fosse l’età della pol-

troneria, & ignoranza, & stimo, che tanto obligato non sieno gli armenti à i pascoli, l’herbe alle pioggie, et le pecchie al timo, quanto siamo noi mortali alla necessità, & alla sua figliuola industria. Onde nacque la bella arte del navigare, s’imparò à menar le mercantantie fin da le parti d’India, procedette la vostra favorita arte dell’Agricoltura, venne il bel artificio della lana, derivò la necessaria arte dell’edificare; quindi, quasi in un parto, nacquero alle nostre republiche tutte quante le arti mecanice, quindi nacquero le liberali, quindi le leggi, quindi i costumi, quindi la liberta della vita; & quindi finalmente, come rivo da fonte, derivò tutto l’honore, & l’utile della vita humana; il perche noi siamo tenuti d’un legame di perpetuo obligo à Giove, il quale non sofferse, che   19  gli huomini del secolo suo vivessero ociosamente, & in con­tinuova notta d’ignoranza, il che mostrò Vergilio in quel­le parole. esso padre del ciel esser non volle Del coltivar la via facile, ei primo Per arte mosse i campi, à l’aspra cote De le cure sollecite i mortali Cuori aguzzando, ne sofferse i suoi Regni via trappassare e pigri e tardi, Innanzi Giove nulla agricoltore Constrigneva le terre à dar lor frutti; Ne lecito era di partir i campi: Viveva si in commune, et essa terra Senza alcun seme producea suoi parti: E sempre pronta senz’altrui richiesta Porgeo con larga mano il vitto à tutti. Egli’l crudo velen diede à i serpenti; Commise à i lupi andar predando; e al mare Gonfiarsi, & agitato esser da venti. Scosse giu da le foglie’l mele; e’l foco Tolse à mortali, e poi di mano in mano

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Age of gold, truly blessed, Where all good existed without any evil.13 Partenio: This golden age of yours seems to me to have been the age of lazi-

ness and ignorance, and I estimate that the herds were not so obliged to the pastures, the grass to the rain, and the honeybee to the thyme, as we mortals are to neccessity and to its daughter industry. From this the noble art of sailing, learned to take merchants all the way to India, was born, your favorite art of Agriculture issued forth, the fine artifice of working with wool came, the useful art of building descended. Then, almost as in childbirth, all the mechanical arts were born to our republics, then the liberal arts were born, then the laws, then the customs, then the freedom of life. And then finally descended, like a stream from a spring, every honor and every advantage of human life. This is the reason why we are held by a bond of perpetual obligation to Jove, who does not bear it that the men of his age should live leisurely and in continual night of ignorance, as Virgil explained in these words. The Father of the heavens did not will The path of farming to be easy, and he first Tilled the fields by art, sharpening On the rough whetstone with zealous care The mortal hearts, nor did he suffer His kingdoms to pass away lazy and slow. Before Jove no farmers Forced the land to give up its fruits; Nor was it lawful to divide the fields: Life was lived in common, and earth herself Begot the fruit of her womb without any seed: And always ready, without being asked by others, She offered food to everyone with an open hand. He put the cruel venom in the serpents; He ordered the wolves to go preying; and the sea To swell and to be agitated by the wind. He shook the honey off the leaves, and took fire Away from the mortals, and then, in turn, 13 Beginning on p. 16, line 10, and continuing through p. 18, line 9, Vitauro is paraphrasing Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, lines 89–112.

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Ritenne i fiumi, che correan di vino. Solo perche pensando l’uso humano Varie arti partarisse; e del formento  20  L’herba cercando per li solchi andasse: De le selci e trahesse il foco fuore. A l’hor sentiro i fiumi i cavati alni: A I’hor conobbe il numer de le stelle Il buon nocchier, e die lor prima il nome Pleide queste chiamando; Hiade quelle; Artho e di Licaon piu chiara prole. A l’hor per prender questa e quella fera Fur primo ritrovati lacci, e visco Per ingannar i semplicetti augelli: E le gran selve circondar co’cani. Quegli col giacchio’l fiume alto percuaote Questi tragge per mar gli humidi lini: Allhor fu ritrovato il duro ferro; E la stridente lama de la sega, Che pria sfender solean con zepe il legno, Venner arti diverse. Vince’l tutto L’aspra fatica, e la necessitade, Che suol ne casi avversi altrui premendo, Spesso destar gli addormentati ingegni. Et in oltre vi dico, che quegli huomini, che si trovarono nella prima età di Saturno non si potevano veramente chiamar felici; per che non gustavano, ne conoscevano la lor felicità, per non haver alcuna conoscenza del male.  21  Sapete ben, che la fatica rende grato il riposo, la fete fa parere saporite l’acque, & che’l cibo si gusta per la fame. Vitauro. per tutto questo, voi non provate, che le Città non habbiano havuto origine dalla malitia de gli huomini, i quali se fossero vissuti, come si facea nel secolo, non che di Saturno, ma di Giove, nel quale nacque l’industria, che dite, certamente, che non sarebbono state necessarie le città per salvezza della vita, dell’honore, et delle sostanze nostre, perche vivendo del nostro sudore sicuri saremmo stati nelle capanne d’alberi, & di frasche intessuti: ma poi che gli huomini si diedero alle armi & divennero frodolenti, et malitiosi, mutandosi l’oro, & argento in rame & ferro, furono trovate le città, & come dice Ovidio.

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He stopped the streams in which wine ran. So that, only through thinking, human custom Might give birth to various arts; and for wheat Might go searching through the furrows: And might draw the fire out of the flint. Then the rivers felt the hollowed alder: Then the good pilot knew the number of the stars, And first gave them their names, Calling these the Pleiades, those the Hyades; And Lycaon’s brighter offspring Arctos. Then in order to trap this and that wild beast Snares were first discovered, and bird‑lime To trick the simple little birds: And to surround the woods with dogs. One man lashes the deep river with a casting net, Another trails dripping dragnets through the sea: Then hard iron was discovered; And the sharp blade of the saw, Which first man used to split the wood with wedges, Then came diverse arts. Hard labor Conquers all, and necessity, In adverse circumstances pressing others, Often awakens the sleeping mind.14 And I tell you besides that those men who found themselves in the the first age of Saturn could not truly be called happy, because they neither appreciated nor knew their happiness, for they had no knowledge of evil. You well know that work makes rest agreeable, that thirst seems to give water flavor, that food is enjoyed because of hunger. Vitauro: For all this you do not prove that cities did not originate from the malice of men, who, had they lived as people did in the age not of Saturn but of Jove, in which industry was born, as you say, certainly, cities would not have been necessary for the safety of our life, honor and property, because, living by our hard work, we would have been safe in huts of trees and woven branches.15 Beginning on p. 19, line 4, and continuing through p. 20, line 20, Partenio is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, lines 121–146. 15 See Vitruvius, De architectura 2.1.2. 14

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al’hor nel mondo à larga schiera entraro I vitii tutti abominosi e rei: D’honestà, fede, e verità lasciaro Priva la terra, e se n’andar fra i Dei: La vergogna fuggi, fuggi di paro, I buon costumi: ne contar potrei Le fraudi, che vi vennero, e gl’inganni, Empiendo tutto di perpetui affani. Col ferro adunque il cieco mondo in fretta, Si fe per tutto a le rapine via: Merce di quella ingorda, e maladetta  22  Sete d’haver imperio e signoria La terra, che dal mar gli era interdetta, Vago di quel, che tosto fugge via Cercò l’avaro à picciol legno drento; Che ancor non conoscea stella ne vento. E cosi privi gli alberi di frondi, E poscia fatti mondi e secchi legni In varie forme fur posti nel’onde, E solcar di Nettun gli humidi regni; O per condur da le piu ricche sponde Lavori e merci d’artificii degni, E gemme & oro e preciosi odori; O per torre ad altrui stati e thesori. Onde la terra, ch’era d’ogn’intorno Egualmente commune à quello, e à questo; Si come è a tutti noi la luce e’l giorno, Fu poi divisa e terminata presto. E tal sen gia di real pompe adorno, A lontani e à vicin grave e molesto, Tal povero e mendico hebbe si poco, Che à pena à sepellir gli restò loco. Ne sol per sostenar questo terreno Peso, ch’à morte va per varie strade; Al caldo, al gelo, al torbido, al sereno  23  Dalla terra cercò l’usate biade L’huomo, ma dentro al suo profondo seno Per monti, e per solinghe aspre contrade L’oro cavò; ch’al maggior fondo interno

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But after men devoted themselves to arms and became fraudulent and malicious, gold and silver changing into bronze and iron, cities were founded, and as Ovid says, Then into the world in a great squadron entered All the abominable and evil vices: They left the earth bereft of honesty, loyalty, and truth And went among the Gods: Shame fled, good morals fled as well, Neither could I count The frauds that came out, and the deceptions, Filling everything with perpetual worries. With iron then the dark world in haste Plundered itself completely away: For that greedy and accursed Thirst to have power and dominion, The land that had been forbidden him by the sea, Desirous of that which quickly flees away, The miser searched with a small spar That yet knew neither wind nor star. And thus trees trimmed of their branches And then made into cleaned and dried timbers Were placed on the waves in various forms, And sailed the watery kingdom of Neptune: Either to take from the richer shores Works and rewards of worthy artifices, And gems and gold and precious perfumes; Or to take states and treasures from others. Whence the earth, which was on every side Shared equally by that man and by this man, As the light and the day are by all of us, Was then subdivided and soon marked with boundaries. And some went about adorned with royal pomp, Burdensome and bothersome to those near and far, Someone poor and begging had so little, That it barely sufficed to bury him. And not only to sustain this wordly Burden, which goes to its death by various paths; In heat, in cold, in bad weather and fair,

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Sepellito giacea presso à l’inferno. Tratto fu l’oro, & tratto il ferro poi Da la esecrabil cura de mortali; Ambi nocivi al mondo, & ambedoi Sola cagion di tutti i nostri mali; Da questi hebber l’origine fra noi Le guerre al corso human gravi e mortali: Questi lor danno forza: ma di loro Piu noce al mondo e piu dannoso è l’oro. Di qui per terminar l’humano esiglio Piu spedito camin trovò la morte: Predan l’altrui co’l sanguinoso artiglio L’harpie, ch’uscir da le tartaree porte. Non è ‘l patre sicur dal proprio figlio, Il marito non è da la consorte. Sono i soceri à generi rubelli; E di raro è concordia tra fratelli. Ne l’età vie piu bella e piu fiorita, Quando l’April de gli anni è piu ridente, La matrigna crudel toglie di vita  24 ll figliastro meschino & innocente, Per questo la giustitia sbigottita Fuggendo il mondo, e la profana gente, Onde discese pria, ritornò in cielo, Di lei qui non lasciando orma ne velo. Di maniera, il mio Dolce Partenio, che felici faremmo stati, se mai non fosse nata l’occasione di edificar fortezze, ne città; le quali (al giudicio di Solone) non sono altro che ricetti delle miserie humane. Partenio. In che modo disse questo Solone? Vitauro. Veggiendo Solone uno de suoi amici gravemente attristarsi, lo prese per mano, & conduttolo in cima della Rocca di Athene, lo pregò, che guardasse tutti i casamenti, che’rano d’attorno; & poi, ch’egli l’hebbe fatto, disse; pensa hora teco medesimo quanti affani, miserie, & infelicità per I’adietro fossero, hoggi sieno, & per l’avenir saranno sotto questi tetti, & lascia horamai di piangere gli’incommodi communi, come tuoi proprii. Tal che con questa

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Did man take from the earth the crops he was used to, But deep within its bosom, across the mountains, And in solitary stretches of harsh country, He dug for the gold that in the innermost depths Lay buried close to hell. Pried out was the gold and then the iron By the esecrable toil of mortals; Both were detrimental to the world, and together The only cause of all our woes; Wars, burdensome and fatal to human life, Had from these their origin among us. These give them strength: but of them gold is The more detrimental to the world and more damaging. Hence death found a more expedient way By which to terminate the human exile: The harpies, which came out from the gates of hell, Plunder the others with bloody claw. A father is not safe from his own son, Nor is husband from wife. Fathers‑in‑law are despised by their sons‑in‑law; And peace between brothers is rare. In the most beautiful and flourishing age, When the April of the years is smiling more, The cruel stepmother takes from life The stepson poor and innocent. Because of this, disheartened Justice, Fleeing the world and the profane people, Returned to heaven, whence first she had come, Without leaving here a trace or shadow.16 So, my dear Partenio, we would have been happy if the need to build fortresses and cities had never been born; they (in the judgment of Solon) are nothing but cesspools of human misery. Partenio: How did Solon say this? Vitauro: Watching one of his friends grow sad, Solon took him by the hand and led him to the top of the Acropolis at Athens, begged him to look at all the 16 Beginning on p. 21, line 14, and continuing through p. 24, line 5, Vitauro is paraphrasing Ovid, Metamorphoses, bk. 1, lines 127–150.

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nuova maniera di consolatione vuolle dimostrare il prudentissimo greco, che le città erano alberghi miserabili delle afflittioni de gli huomini. E in vero pochi, & per aventura, niuni sono que città dini, à cui gli animi non sieno inquieti, & travagliati, ò d’ambitione, ò da invidia, ò da quella ingorda, & esecrabile sete di havere, & usurpar d’altrui, da le quali tre pestilenze dell’animo  25  lontani, se ne trovano i fortunati agricoltori, cui gia mai non mosse, come afferma Vergilio. di vano Honor Desir alcun, non porpore regali, Non la discordia iniqua, che sovente L’un frate à l’altro suol render nemico; Non Daco, ò Scitha, che da l’Istro altero A i nostri danni congiurato scenda: Non le cose Romane, non di regni Mutationi, ò roine, esso non mai Ó de la povertà trista si duole, Ó porta invidia à le richezze altrui. Esso que frutti, che porgono i rami, E di sua voluntà propria la terra Coglie, e di quei si pasce, ei mai non vide, Ne conobbe gia mai le dure leggi La pazza corte, ò i publichi cancelli. Sollecitano alcuni i ciechi mari Co remi, & altri da furor sospinti Corron precipitosamente à l’arme. Penetran questi le regali sale; Pongon quelli à ruina, à sacco in preda Questa e quella città, questo e quel regno; Sol per poter ne le dorate tazze  26  Trarsi la sete, e per dormire in ostro. Sotterra asconde altri’l thesoro, e sopra Quel, che tolto gli sia temendo giace. Stupisce orando quei ne rostri, questo Dal doppio plauso ne theatri è preso De i gravi Senator, del popol lieve. 3  3  3

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buildings that were around; and then, when he had done that, he said, think now to yourself how many sorrows, miseries, and misfortunes there have been before, there are today, and there will be to come beneath these roofs, and stop complaining about the common suffering as if it were your own.17 So with this novel style of consolation the very wise Greek chose to demonstrate that cities were miserable abodes of the afflictions of humanity. And in truth there are few city dwellers, and perhaps none, whose minds are not restless and troubled, either by ambition, or by envy, or by that greedy and esecrable thirst to have and to usurp another’s: three long‑lasting pestilence of the mind from which the fortunate farmers, whom they never stirred, are far, as Virgil says. Of vain honor No desire, no purple of kings, No iniquitous discord, that often Makes one brother enemy to the other; No Dacian or Scythian who, from Istria proud, Scheming, descends to our loss. No action of Rome, no changes Or collapses of kingdoms, never does he Either lament sad poverty, Or envy the wealth of others. He plucks those fruits that the branches bear, And that the land gives of its own free will, And he feeds on those. He never saw, Nor did he ever know, the iron laws, The madness of the court or the public gates. Some search the dark seas With oars, and others, driven by rage, Rush headlong to arms. These break into the royal chambers; Those pillage and plunder This and that city, this and that kingdom; Only to be able from a guilded cup To quench their thirst, and to sleep in purple cloth. Another hides treasure under ground, and over That which he has stolen he lies in fear. 17

Solone is Solon, the Athenian politician, poet, and archon (594 b.c.).

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Godon del sangue de fratelli sparsi; E con amaro esilio le lor dolci Proprie case cangiando, un’altra patria, Sott’anco un’altro Sol; cercando vanno. Muove agricoltor col curvo aratro La terra ogn’anno, sua dolce fatica, Quinci la patria, e i pargoli nepoti, Quinci sostien gli armenti, e le sue gregge. Ne mai s’arresta, ò posa infin, che l’anno Fertile non li renda frutti in copia; O de le pecorelle i parti, ò ch’empia Di biade i solchi prima, e i grannar poi. Viensene’l verno, fassi l’oglio, e i porci Riedon grassi di ghiande, dan le selve Selvaggi frutti, & vari parti Autunno Ne colli aprici si matura l’uva. Pendon in tanto i cari figli intorno A dolci basci de parenti loro;  27 La casta casa pudicita serva. Pien di latte le mamme han le giovenche, Sin à terra pendenti, urtan l’un l’altro Ne verdi prati con le corna spesso, Scherzando insieme i teneri capretti. Essi le feste su per l’herba sparsi Col fuoco in mezzo incoronan le tazze, Sacrificando à Bacco; è’n cima à gli olmi Pongon segno, u’ drizzar possan gli strali; Ne senza premio pastori, e bifolchi Essercitano ancor nudi à la lotta Le forti membra, e lor robusti corpi.

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This one speaking in the Forum astonishes, That one is taken by the double applause in the theater Of important senators and of unimportant people. They rejoice in the shed blood of brothers; And for bitter exile they exchange Their own sweet homes, they go seeking Another country under yet another sun. With curved plow the farmer turns The soil every year, his sweet labor. Thus his country and his little grandsons, Thus his herds and his flocks, he sustains. He never stops, or rests at the end, lest the Productive year not pay him back fruits in abundance Or the newborn of the little sheep, or fill With corn the furrows first, and then the barns. Winter comes, the oil is pressed, and the swine Become fat with acorns, the woods yield Wild fruits, and Autumn varied produce. On sunny slopes the grapes ripen. Meanwhile on every side the dear children hang On the sweet kisses of their parents. The chaste house preserves its purity. The young cows have udders full of milk, Hanging down to the ground; playfully together, The tender kids jostle one another On the green field horn to horn. On holidays, spread out on the grass With a fire in the middle, They crown the cups (with garlands), Sacrificing to Bacchus, and on top of the elms They place a target where they can aim the darts; Not without reward the shepherds and plowmen, Naked, condition their strong limbs And their robust bodies for wrestling.18 Beginning on p. 25, line 3, and continuing through p. 27, line 12, Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 495–531. 18

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Et in oltre vi dico, che la vita rusticana è molto piu nobile della civile (se vero è, che tanto piu nobile sia una cosa, quanto è piu antica) percioche nella prima età del mondo gli huomini habitavano alla campagna, & l’agricoltura trasse l’origine sua dal nostro primo parente, quando per la sua disubidienza fu cacciato da i giardini vestiti di eterna Primavera: Il divin Platone hebbe à dire, che la piu utile, & piu dolce cosa di tutte l’altre è il viversene alla villa. Il che essendo conosciuto da Vergilio, lo indusse ad esclamare Fortunati e felici agricoltori, E molto piu felici e fortunati,  28 Se datto havesse lor natura, o’l cielo Poter conoscer quanto de suoi beni Lor si mostrò cortese e quella e questo. A cui da le discordi armi lontano, La giusta terra il facil vitto porge Se ben tra lor le case alte e superbe Non si vedon gettar fuor si grand’onda Di que, ch’à salutar, & riverire La mattina ne vanno i lor maggiori. Ne bramano agognando le gran porte Ricche di molti varii, e bei lavori; Ne le d’oro vergate, & sparse gonne; Et di Corintho i pretiosi vasi; Ne bianca lana in sirio color tinta; Ne con la cassia si corrompe l’oglio, Ma sicuro riposo & senza inganno Semplice vita ivi si vive; ricca Di varie cose, ivi non mancan mai Gli ocii sicuri, e le spelonche grate, I vivi laghi, i freddi ombrosi boschi, Il mugiti de buoi, soavi i sonni, Sott’alberi frondosi à l’aura estiva, Non selve e grotte, non ampie campagne Atte à le caccie di diverse fiere  29 Evvi la gioventù gagliarda, avezza 3  3  3

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And I tell you besides that country life is much nobler than city life (if it is true that the older something is, the nobler it is) since in the first age of the world men lived in the countryside, and agriculture took its origins from our first parent, when, for his disobedience, he was expelled from the gardens clothed in eternal springtime: the divine Plato once said that the most useful and the sweetest thing of all is living in the villa.19 That being known by Virgil, it induced him to exclaim, Fortunate and happy farmers, And the happier and more fortunate, If nature or heaven had given them To know how much with their blessings They both had shown themselves generous to them. For whom, far away from the arms of discord, The just earth pours forth easy sustenance Though among them no high and lofty mansions Are seen disgorging a great tide Of those who go to salute and reverence Their betters in the morning. Neither do they covetously desire great doors Rich with much various and beautiful work, Nor robes lined and covered with gold, Nor precious vases from Corinth, Nor white wool tinted with Assyrian dye, Nor with cassia do they corrupt the oil, But with secure repose and without fraud, A simple life is lived there, rich In various things; never lacking there are The secure leisures, and the pleasant caverns, The lively lakes, the cool shady woods, The lowing of the cattle, the soft slumbers Beneath leafy trees in the summer breeze, Not forests and coves, not wide open countryside Apt for the hunting of various game There is the vigorous youth, accustomed 19

Vitauro is misrepresenting Plato. See Plato, Phaedrus 230d.

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A viver parcamente à le fatiche; Religiosa la vecchiaia, e santa. Della medesima opinione mostrò d’esser Horatio, quando disse beato chi lontan da le facende, Senza debito alcun stassi à la villa; Et si come facea la gente antica Co’ bovi suoi coltiva i propri campi, Ne sente mai l’horribil suon di tromba, Ne teme l’altro mar, quando s’adira. Fugge’l romor del contentioso foro, Et le superbe case de potenti. A dunque, ò ch’ei congionge con i popoli La cresciuta propagin de le viti, O che i giovench’in qualche chiusa valle Va riguardando con l’errante gregge, Over che innesta le selvaggie piante, O ne i politi vasi il mel ripone, O le pecore tonda humili e inferme, Over quando ne campi Autonno innalza Il capo ornato di mature mele Gode spiccando gl’innestati peri; Et l’uva, che contende con la porpora,  30 Con che Priapo à te si fanno i doni, E à te Silvan padre, e tutor de campi Hor gli piace di starsen sott’un Elce, Hor di giacer ne gramignosi prati. Cadon fra tanto da le balze l’acque, Si lamentan gli uccelli per le selve, Van mormorando gli correnti fonti Invitando ciascuno à dolci sonni; Ma quando il verno porta neve e poggia, Egli col molto numero de cani I porci caccia ne le reti tese,

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To living frugally by hard work; Old age religious and holy.20 Horace showed himself to be of the same opinion, when he said Blessed is he who, far from wordly cares, Stays at the villa free of worries; And, as the ancient people did, With his oxen works his own fields. He neither hears the trumpet’s dreadful sound Nor dreads the high sea when it gets angry. He shuns the din of the contentious forum, And the lofty mansions of the powerful. And so either he weds to the poplar trees The burgeoning growth of the vines, Or he goes into some secluded valley Tending the steers with the ranging herds, Or he grafts the wild plants, Or he puts up honey in polished jars, Or he shears the lowly and helpless sheep, Or rather when Autumn in the fields rears Its head adorned with ripe apples He delights to pluck the grafted pears; And the grape, which vies with the purple To honor thee, Priapus, And thee, Father Silvanus, guardian of fields. It pleases him now to sit under an Ilex tree, Now to lie on the matted turf. The waters tumble among the crags, The birds sing mournfully in the woods, The flowing fountains go murmuring, Inviting everyone to sweet slumber; But when the winter brings snow and rain, He with his great number of hounds Drives the boars into the waiting snares, 20 Beginning on p. 27, line 23, and continuing through p. 29, line 3, Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 458–474.

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Over, ch’à i tordi va tendendo insidie, E preda fa de la timida lepre, E la grù peregrina in laccio accoglie; Chi dunque fia colui, che in queste gioie Non sgombri da la mente i pensier tristi? Et perche è giusto, che da i nobili huomini essercitate sieno le nobili cose, gl’Imperatori Romani, i potentissimi Re, e i famosi Capitani, non si sdegnarono di lavorare i campi, innestare gli alberi, et tagliar con la falce i ramuscelli inutili: Et se di ciò dubitate, domandatene à Dioclitiano, che deposto l’Imperio si diede all’agricoltura? Dicalo Attolo, che lasciato il governo del Regno fece il medesimo? fede ne faccia Manio Curio Dentato, che dopo le vittorie  31  havute contra di Pirro con tutte le forze del corpo et del’animo s’applicò al lavorar’ il solito suo terreno? che diremo noi di M. Attilio Serranno, & di Cincinnato huomini eccellentissimi, i quali da i campi, & dall’aratro furono chiamati à i maggiori, & piu honorati Magistrati, Et poi voluntariamente deposti, ritornavano al coltivar le proprie terre, & possessioni loro? non dobbiamo metter nel numero di questi Mario Regulo, il quale curò piu di tornar al governo del suo terreno, che di stare in Affrica Capitano generale de gli esserciti? che dirassi di Attilio Colatino, che per la vertù sua dall’aratro, et dalla zappa fu fatto il primo huomo di Roma; Della qualcosa ne facea poco conto; percioch’egli era piu vago dell’agricoltura, che della Dittatura? Dove lasciamo noi il gran Scipione Affricano, ilquale molte volte se n’andava in villa à trastullarsi con l’agricoltura? con quai parole loderò io la industria & diligenza di Seneca, il quale di sua mano piantò de i platani, cavò vivai, & condusse acque? vergogna del presente secolo, che quello, che l’antico à honore si reputò, questo à vituperio s’arreca. Da questo nobile esercitio dell’agricoltura vennero i cognomi di quelle nobilissime famiglie de Fabii, Lentuli, Pisoni, & Ciceroni; & se in tranto pregio & honore era questa arte appresso de gli antichi, che non solamente havevano per cosa honorata  32  & magnifica lo scrivere l’arte del

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Or goes stretching nets for thrushes, And makes the timid hare his prey, And catches the wandering crane in the noose; Who then is he who amid these joys Does not clear away sad thoughts from the mind?21 And because it is just that noble matters be handled by noble persons, the Roman emperors, the most powerful kings, and famous military leaders did not disdain to work the fields, to graft the trees, and to cut with the scythe the useless twigs: and if you have doubts about this, why don’t you ask Diocletian about it, who gave up the imperial treasury for agriculture?22 Attalus, who left the leadership of the kingdom, did the same thing.23 Don’t you trust Manius Curius Dentatus, who after he was victorious over Pyrrhus applied all the forces of body and mind to working his old plot of land?24 What shall we say of M. Atilius Serranus and Cincinnatus, most excellent men, who were called from the fields and the plow to the highest and and most honored magistrates, and then, having voluntarily resigned, returned to cultivating their own lands and properties?25 Shouldn’t we number among these Marcus Regulus, who cared more about the management of his land than about being captain general of the army in Africa?26 What have we been told about Atilius Calatinus who, because of his virtue, from the plow and the hoe was made first man of Rome;27 something which to him was of little account; because he was fonder of farm-

21 Beginning on p. 29, line 6, and continuing through p. 30, line 16, Taegio is paraphrasing Horace, Epode 2, lines 1–38. Horace does not use the word villa where Taegio does, on p. 29, line 7. Where Vitauro has “stassi à la villa” (stays at his villa), Horace has “paterna rura bobus exercet suis” (works his ancestral acres). 22 The Roman emperor Diocletian (Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus) abdicated in a.d. 305 and retired to his villa in Salonae (Split), where he enjoyed growing vegetables. 23 Attalus III (ca. 170-133 b.c.) the last king of Pergamum, who bequeathed his kingdom to Rome, studied botany. 24 Manio Curio Dentato is Manius Curius Dentatus, early third-century b.c. Roman consul, who was instrumental in victoriously concluding the Third Samnite War. 25 Cincinnato is Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Roman dictator in 458 b.c., and a legendary hero who left his plow to save Rome from a military crisis. 26 Mario Regulo is Marcus Atilius Regulus, the Roman consul who defeated Carthage and captured Tunis in 256 b.c. 27 Attilio Colatino is Aulus Atilius Calatinus, third-century b.c. Roman consul and censor, and the first dictator to take an army outside Italy.

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coltivare i campi, come fece Hierone, Epicarmo, Attalo, Filometore, Diodoro, Archelao, Mago, Filone, Aristandro, Lisimaco, Hesiodo, Marco Varrone, Columella, Catone, Vergilio, Plinio, Pietro Crescenzo, Palladio, et molti altrui piu novi di questi, ma etiandio i Prencipi volsero romper col rastro le dure zolle della terra, et maneggiar l’aratro, la falce, la marra, la vanga, il vomero, i carri, i triboli, le treggie, gli arpici, le corbe, il vaglio, & altri rusticani instrumenti, perche dovete voi dubitare della nobiltà dell’agricoltura? Partenio. ancora che voi altamente ragioniate dell’agricoltura, & che tanti illustri Contadini habbiano con le invitte, & filosofiche mani, con le quali conseguirono tante vittorie, & tanto scrissero, governato l’aratro, & stimulato i buoi, nondimeno questa arte non mi puo venire in gratia, considerando la faticosa vita, & le miserie de gli agricoltori, à cui hor la tempesta gli rovina i campi, hor gli moiono i buoi, hor i soldati gli menano via le bestie: Onde la sbigttita famiglia se ne more di fame, et i meschini da capo ritornano à certa fatica con dubbiosa speranza, et questi sono i vantaggi, questi i comodi, & queste le felicità de contadini. Vitauro. Non sapete, che dalla necessità nasce l’industria (come pur dianzi ho detto) & che le fatiche, che soffrono gli agricoltori l’estate in campagna,  33  sono quelle, che gli fanno gustar l’ocio & riposo del verno? la

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ing than of dictatorship? Should we leave out the great Scipio Africanus, who often went to his villa to amuse himself with farming?28 With what words shall I praise the industry and diligence of Seneca, who with his own hands planted Plane trees, dug fishponds, and conducted waters?29 It is the disgrace of the present age that what the ancient world regarded with honor is brought to shame by this one. From this noble practice of agriculture come the last names of those noblest families of the Fabii, Lentuli, Pisoni, and Ciceroni. And if that art was held in much esteem and honor not only by the ancients, who held writing about the art of cultivating fields to be an honorable and noble thing, as did Heron, Epicharmus, Attalus, Philomelus, Diodorus, Archelaus, Mago, Philon, Ariston, Lysimachus, Hesiod, Marcus Varro, Columella, Cato, Virgil, Pliny, Pietro Crescenzo, Palladius, and many others more recent than these,30 but also by the princes, who turned to break up with the rake the hard sod of the earth and to handle the plow, the scythe, the hoe, the spade, the plowshare, the carts, the threshing sledges, the threshing machines, the harrows, the large wicker baskets, the winnow, and other rustic implements, why should you doubt the nobility of farming? Partenio: Although you reason ably about farming and though many illustrious country folks have guided the plow and goaded the oxen with the Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236–183 b.c.). Seneca is Lucius Annaeus Seneca, first-century a.d. Stoic philosopher and author of the dialogue De otio. 30 Hierone, mentioned here and on p. 93, line 14, is Heron of Alexandria, the first-century a.d. mathematician and inventor. Epicharmus was a fifth-century b.c. Sicilian Greek writer of comedy, to whom a number of philosophical and quasi-scientific works were attributed in antiquity. Diodoro is probably Diodorus of Alexandria, first-century b.c. mathematician and astronomer, who wrote a book, Analemma, on the construction of sundials. Mago, mentioned here and on p. 40, is Mago of Carthage, the writer on agriculture mentioned by Varro in his Rerum rusticarum. Filone is probaby Philon of Byzantium, second-century b.c. author of a lost book on the making of automata, to whom Heron refers. Hesiodo is Hesiod, one of the oldest known Greek poets and author of Works and Days, which contains practical instruction on agriculture. Marco Varrone is Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 b.c.), author of Rerum rusticarum. Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella was the author of De re rustica (65 a.d.). Catone is Marcus Porcius Cato, “Cato the Censor” (239–149 b.c.), the author of De agri cultura. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70–19 b.c.), Latin poet, was the author of the Georgics. The Plinio mentioned here is probably the elder Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus, a.d. 23–79), whose Naturalis historia Vitauro paraphrases on pp. 153–154 (i.e, 157–158). Pietro Crescenzo is Pier de Crescenzi, author of Liber ruralium commodorum (a.d. 1305). The Palladio mentioned here is Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus Palladius, author of the only surviving agricultural treatise from late antiquity (fifth century a.d., date disputed). 28 29

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dove godono non altrimenti, che facciano i naviganti, quando dopo un faticoso viaggio allegri si riducono in porto; in confirmatione della qual cosa dice Vergilio i villani Rende ociosi il pigro inverno, ond’essi De l’acquistato ben godonsi allegri: Fanno à vicenda lor conviti insieme, A ciò far la stagion fredda gl’invita, Piu piaceri, e del riposo assai, Che del disagio, e de travagli amica, Lor facendo obliar ogn’alira cura. Si come al’hor, che già toccaro il porto Sbattuti, e stanchi i legni, soglion lieti I naviganti coronar le navi. Dalla fatica ne deriva ancora la quiete dell’animo, es’ sendo dall’ambitione, dall’avaritia, & dall’invidia rimoti, & lontani gli agricoltori. Partenio. Hormai io non vi so piu, che rispondere, se non, che l’agricoltura & vita rurale vi restan debitrici di molto, innalzando voi tanto, come fate le sue lodi, sol vi ricordo, che’l soverichio amore, che portate alla villa, vi fà dir cose dal vero molto lontane. Vitauro. Anzi quel c’ho detto è vero, come se fosse uscito dalle  34  cortine di Febo; Et tanto sono alti meriti di questa non mai à bastanza lodata arte dell’agricoltura, & basse le forze del mio debole ingegno, ch’io son sforzato à dire insieme con Vergilio

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indomitable and philosophical hands with which they achieved many victories and wrote so much, nevertheless this art does not appeal to me, considering the laborious life and the miseries of the farmers, for whom now the storm ruins the fields, now the cattle die, now the soldiers plunder the livestock, so that the dismayed family dies of hunger, and the poor wretches return again to unavoidable hard work with doubtful hope. And these are the advantages, these the comforts, these the joys of the peasants. Vitauro: Don’t you know that industry was born of necessity (as I also previously said ) and that the labors farmers endure in summer in the country are those that allow them to enjoy leisure and repose in the winter? There they are happy in much the same way the sailors are when after an exhausting voyage they quickly return to port; and in confirmation of this Virgil says: The peasants Are given leisure by the lazy winter When they cheerfully enjoy their gain: By turns they have banquets together, To this the cold season calls them, Friendlier to pleasures and to plentiful rest Than to uneasiness and to sufferings, Making them forget every care. Even as, when vessels battered and tired Finally return to port, it pleases The sailors to crown the ships.31 From hard work also results peace of mind, farmers being far removed from ambition, greed and envy. Partenio: At this point I don’t know what more to say to you except that farming and rural life remain great debtors to you, lifting up their praises as much as you do, only I remind you that the excessive love you carry for the villa makes you say things that are very far from the truth. Vitauro: On the contrary what I have said is true, as if it had come out from the veils of Phoebus; and so superior are the merits of this never enough praised art of agriculture, and so inferior the power of my weak mind, that I am forced to say, together with Virgil, 31

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, lines 300–304.

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non abbracciar desio co’ versi miei Il tutto, ne potrei volend’ancora, Che cento lingue havessi e cento bocche, Con le voci d’acciar sonanti e forti. Partenio. Io mi dubito, che voi non habbiate tolto à confettare un sterco; voi non farete mai, che l’essercitio di lavorar la terra non sia vile; & mi rido di quegl’ Imperatori, Re, & nobilissimi Cavallieri, che con quelle istesse mani, con le quali combattendo lanciavano dardi, & conseguivano tante honorate vittorie, zappe, falci, & aratri adoperassero, et stimulassero i buoi, cose (ch’al parer de Savi) ponto non si convengono ad animo nobile & generoso; & di poco giudicio mi paiono quelli, che prepongono l’agricoltura alle arti liberali, ancora, che gl’Imperatori anticamente l’havessero in tanto pregio; circa alla qual cosa udite ciò, che ne dice il Petrarca in persona della ragione, dove tratta de rimedi dell’una, e l’altra fortuna.

hora io ritorno all’arte dell’agricoltura, la quale essendo operata da grandi huomini, & da grand’ingegni fu già in pregio, nella quale, come in molte altre cose il primo  35  loco tiene Catone Censorino, di cui, benche sia scritto con verità, ch’egli fosse ottimo Senatore, ottimo Oratore, & ottimo Capitano, finalmente alla moltitudine delle sue lodi fu aggionto agricoltore al suo tempo, senza emolo & senza essempio. Chi si vergognerebbe adunque lavorar la terra con Catone? Chi si penserebbe, che fosse brutto quello, ch’egli si imaginò bellisimo, havendo egli oltre le vertù del corpo & dell’animo, & la gloria delle imprese fatte, trionfato della Spagna? Chi si vergognerebbe di stimulare, & ammonire i buoi, i quali drizzava quella voce, che haveva accesi tanti esserciti alla guerra, &, che havea elegantissimamente snodate mille dubbiose cause? Chi havrebbe in odio & l’aratro e’l rastro, essendo stati tocchi da quella dotta & vittoriosa mano, la quale haveva riportate tante vittorie de suoi inimici, & haveva scritto tanti ottimi libri appartenenti alla filosofia, alla historia, ò all’uso della vita; come son quelli, ch’egli scrisse di colui, che noi hora ragionamo? Apresso di voi egli primo diede i precetti del coltivar la terra, & gli mise in scritto, il quale fu poi seguitato da molti, de quali certi inalzarono quell’humile et basso essercitio, con nobilissimi, altissimi versi; de quali ricordandomi, & con quelli della necessità della natura humana non biasimò l’agricoltura. Nientedi3  3  3

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I do not want to embrace with my verses Everything, nor could I, even wanting to, If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, With voices like steel resounding and strong.32 Partenio: I suspect that you have been candying excrement; you will never make it so that the practice of working the land is not vile. And I laugh about those emperors, kings, and noble knights who, with the same hands with which they launched spears fighting and with which they achieved many honorable victories, used hoes, scythes, and plows—things that (in the opinion of the wise) are not appropriate to a noble and generous mind. And those seem to me of little sense who put agriculture before the liberal arts, although the ancient emperors held it in such high esteem; with regard to which, listen to what Petrarch says in the person of reason, where he treats of remedies of one fortune and the other.

Now I return to the art of agriculture, which being practiced by great men and by great minds was already in high esteem, in which, as in many other things, Cato Censor holds first place, of whom, although it has been written with truth that he was the best senator, the best orator, the best captain, finally to the multitude of his praise was in time added farmer, peerless and without equal. Who, then, would be ashamed to work the land with Cato? Who would consider ugly what he imagined most beautiful, he himself having, in addition to every other virtue of body and mind and the glory of deeds accomplished, triumphed over Spain? Who would be ashamed to goad and to admonish the cattle, which that voice guided, which had ignited so many armies to war and which had most eloquently settled a thousand dubious cases? Who would hate both the plow and the rake that have been touched by that scholarly and victorious hand, which brought back so many victories over his enemies, and wrote so many great books pertaining to philosophy and to history, and to the common needs of life, such as those about which he wrote that we are discussing now? Among you he was the first who gave the precepts of cultivating the earth, and he put them into writing, which was afterward done by many, of whom some raised up that lowly activity with noblest, most exalted verses; remembering which and with those also the hardship of the human condition, I do not 32

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 42–44.

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meno non fia, che ò la chiarezza de gli scrittori, ò la paura della  36  povertà mi sforzi à dire, che questa debba esser preposta alle arti liberali, ne anco farla loro uguale, benche quegli huomini fossero insieme & illustri Imperatori, & buoni agricoltori; perche per amor del tempo la cosa è mutata, ne ancora gl’ingegni nostri sono bastevoli à tante varie operationi, per esser la natura diventata men forte, & in questi tempi non permette à gli huomini di qualce ingegno attendere all’agricoltura, come à principale arte; ma ben per fuggir l’ocio, et per un certo sgravamento di pensieri, & lasciogli qualche volta annestar i teneri rami in sule giovani gemme, & tagliar le inutili foglie con la falce, & piantar i giovani tralci nelle cavate fosse, perche elleno facciano frutto, & volger i rivi à gli affettati prati; ma arare, & zappare pertinacemente, & volgersi tutto à questo studio (se già la necessità non ne sforza) non è conveniente ad animo virile & dotto, non potendogli à fattica mancar piu nobile essercitio; la madre natura, quando ella diede l’arte à gli huomini, fece gl’ingegni diversi, accioche ogn’uno desse opera à quello à che egli era piu atto. Et vedrai qualch’uno di mediocre ingegno, il quale tanto mae’ strevolmente solcherà mari, et arerà le terre, che l’acutezza dell’ingegno di qual si voglia filosofo non gli potrà in questa cosa porgere industria alcuna; & sarebbe cosa pazza & sciocca contendere non nella tua arte; ma nell’altrui,  37  potendo rimaner vinto in cosa si vile, essendo stato nelle grandissime vincitore. Vitauro. Il Petrarca questo disse piu per dimostratione d’ingegno, che di verità, & voi potete dire ciò che vi piace; basta che i giusti stimatori delle cose confessano, che l’arte del coltivar i campi è molto nobile, utile, & necessaria. Partenio. Se vero è , che una cosa tanto piu nobile si reputa, quanto ella è piu antica, per esser stato prima la vita rusticana, che la civile, la ragion vostra

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disapprove of agriculture. Nevertheless, neither the clarity of the writers nor the fear of poverty will force me to say that this must be placed in front of the liberal arts, or made equal to them, although those men were at the same time both illustrious emperors and good farmers, because, in the course of time, things have changed. Still, our minds are insufficient to so many various operations, for nature has become less strong, and in these times she does not allow men of some talent to attend to farming as a principal art, but to safely flee idleness,33 and to unburden one’s cares somewhat, by grafting sometimes the tender branches onto the budding stock, and by cutting the useless leaves with the scythe, and by planting the young vine shoots in their dug beds, so that they bear fruit, and turn streams into orderly fields. But plowing and hoeing persistently and turning oneself completely to this activity (if necessity does not force us) is not appropriate to the virile and scholarly mind, since it can hardly lack a nobler exercise. Mother Nature,34 when she gave the arts to men, made minds different, so that everyone would go into work to which he was most suited. And you will see someone of mediocre mind, who so masterfully plies the seas, and plows the fields, that the acumen of mind of any philosopher will not be able to contribute any practical knowledge in this matter; and it would be a crazy and foolish thing to compete not in your art but in others’, since you could be defeated in something so low, having been victorious in the greatest.35 Vitauro: Petrarch said this to show intelligence more than truth, and you can say what you please; it is enough that the just appraisers of things confess that the art of cultivating the fields is very noble, useful, and necessary. Partenio: If it is true that the more ancient a thing is the nobler it is reputed

Taegio uses the word ocio, which is simply a translation of the Latin word otium, throughout the dialogue. Here it is used in the sense of negative otium, something one ought to flee. Petrarch, in the passage of De remediis utriusque Fortunae Taegio is paraphrasing, refers to otium in the positive sense: “Thus in this age I see that outstanding men engage in agriculture, not for personal or business needs, but for leisure and a change of pace” (Rawski’s translation, vol. 1, pp. 172-173). 34 Petrarch’s phrase is natura parens optima. 35 Beginning on p. 34, line 22, and continuing through p. 37, line 2, Partenio is paraphrasing Petrarch, De remediis utriusque Fortunae, Dialogue 57, “Fertile Land,” lines 23–61. See Petrarch’s Remedies for Fortune Fair and Foul, vol. 1, pp. 172-173. 33

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havrebbe qualche colore; pur non farete mai, che’l vostro favorito Vergilio nel suo rusticano poema non la stimi cosa da persone vili, rozze, & di pigro ingegno, quando dice se freddo sangue intorno al cor mi siede, Si ch’io non possa intender di natura Questi si belli, e gloriosi effetti, Grate mi fian le ville, e’l veder d’alti Monti cadendo, andar rigando i fiumi, Con grato mormorar l’herbose valle; Senza gloria amerò le selve e i fiumi. Et per esser anco il soggetto dell’agricoltura la terra, la quale è di natura fredda & pigra, molto per le sue qualità si conforma al freddo et pigro ingegno de zotichi contadini. Vitauro. Per questo Vergilio non intende, che l’arte del coltivare i campi non sia nobile; ma vuol significare,  38  che se’l suo ingegno non sarà atto cognitione delle cose naturali, ch’egli si darà all’agricoltura; per esser la vita de gli agricoltori innocentissima, & priva d’ogni perturbatione: ben è vero, ch’egli prepone la Fisica all’arte dell’agricoltura: ma tutto, ch’egli desideri la cognitione delle cose naturali, & chiami felici quegli, à cui l’alte cagioni delle cose non son nascoste; pur appresso alla felicità del filosfo pone quella dell’agricoltore, dicendo e quegli ancora fortunato, il quale Tutti gli agresti Dei conobbe, come Pan, a’l vecchio Silvano, e le sorelle Vezzose Ninfe leggiadrette e caste. Partenio. Hor posto, che l’agricoltura fosse arte nobile, perche la chiamate voi tanto utile & necessaria? Vitauro. Perche fra tutte le arti cosi liberali, come mechaniche niuna ve ne ha, ch’à mortali apporti piu giovamento, ò sia piu necessaria all’uso della vita loro. Partenio. Questa ragione non vale per essere una cosa istessa col detto vostro.

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to be, country life being so much more ancient than city life, your argument would have some strength; only, you will never make it so that your favorite Virgil in his rustic poem regards this thing not to be for persons low, crude, and slow witted, when he says If cold blood sits about my heart So that I cannot understand These beautiful and glorious effects of nature, They make me fond of villas, and seeing rivers That stream down, falling from high mountains Through the grassy valley, murmuring pleasantly; Without glory I will love the woods and the rivers.36 And since the subject of agriculture is the land, which is by nature cold and slow, by its qualities it is also well suited to the cold and slow mind of the uncouth peasant. Vitauro: By this Virgil does not mean that the art of cultivating the fields is not noble; he means to say that if one’s mind is not suited to the understanding of natural things, then he will devote himself to farming, because the life of the farmer is most innocent and free of every care; it is, however, true that he puts Physics before the art of agriculture. Nevertheless, although he desires an understanding of nature and calls happy those from whom first causes are not hidden, he places next to the happiness of the philosopher that of the farmer, saying, And he is also happy who Knew all the rustic gods, such as Pan, old Silvanus, and the sisters, Pretty Nymphs, graceful and chaste.37 Partenio: Now admitting that agriculture is a noble art, why do you call it useful and necessary? Vitauro: Because among all the liberal as well as the mechanical arts, none brings more benefit to mortals, or is more necessary to their life. Partenio: This reason doesn’t count, because it is the same thing you were saying. 36 37

Partenio is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 483–486. Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 493–494.

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Vitauro. Senza l’agiuto di costei, come potrebbero gli artefici continovare

nelle fatiche, come l’oratore persuaderebbe, Il poeta imiterebbe, & il dialetico distinguerebbe il vero dal falso? come l’etico costumatamente menerebbe la vita, l’iconomico reggerebbe la famiglia, et il politico governerebbe le cose publiche? come il filosofo naturale con felice ocio vacherebbe  39  intorno alla cognitione di quelle cose, che sono cosi somerse nella materia, che ne trovare, ne intendere si possono senza essa giamai? come il Mathematico filosoferebbe circa all’intendimento di quelle cose, che se ben ritrovare non si possono senza materia; pur col nostro intelletto possiamo dalla materia spogliarle et intenderle senza quella; Et finalmente come sarebbe il Maetafisico ad alzarsi con la mente alla contemplatione di quelle cose, che senza materia sono, & senza quella intendere si possono, se dal vigore & vertù dell’agricoltura i corpi non venessero sostenuti? M. Terentio Varrone dice, che non senza causa i nostri maggiori dalla città à i campi mandavano i suoi cittadini; percioche ne’ tempi di pace eglino erano pasciuti da rustichi Romani, & ne tempi di guerra da loro erano difesi. Il Platonico Massimo Tirio con molte vive ragioni, & fortissimi argomenti prova, che alle cittadi sono piu utili gli agricoltori, che i soldati. Circo insegnava à suoi soldati la militia, & l’arte di coltivar i campi, accio ch’essi con quella si potessero difendere, & con questa sostenersi. Gelone Tiranno dell’isola Focaia, dopo c’hebbe vinto i Carthaginesi mandò i soldati di Siracusa à lavorar i campi affine, che con la fatica & essercitio si facessero piu robusti et forti per le cose della guerra. Gli Sciti giudicando l’arte dell’agricoltura necessaria alla vita dell’huomo, in lei  40  solamente mettono le lor fatiche, & studii; & per l’utile, che nasce da questa arte de Romani fu in tanta reputatione l’agricoltura, che havendo già presa Carthagine, donarono via ad altri Re amici loro tutte le librarie, che vi ritrovarono; ne altro di quelle riportarono à Roma, per far tradurre in lingua latina, se non certi libri dell’agricoltura, et delle facultà delle piante di Magone Carthaginese. Et se volete piu chiaramente vedere, quanto sia utile questa piacevole & honorata arte dell’agricoltura udite quel, che dice Socrate appresso di Xenofonte. queste cose Critobolo t’ho detto solamente, perche tu vegga, che i grandi, e i potenti hanno in pregio l’agricoltura, però che conoscono, ch’ella ha in se un non so che di fatica dilettevole, che augumenta le case, e le sostanze meravigliosamente, essercita i corpi, e gli assuefà à

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Vitauro: Without her assistance how could craftsmen continue in the work,

how would the orator persuade, the poet imitate, and the dialectician distinguish the true from the false? How would the ethical philosopher conduct a well-mannered life, the economist support the family, and the politician govern public affairs? How would the natural philosopher with happy leisure38 be free to devote himself to the knowledge of those things that are so submerged in matter that they can never be either discovered or understood without it? How would the mathematician theorize about the understanding of those things that although they cannot be retraced without matter; still, with our intellect can we strip them of matter and understand them without it. And, finally, how would the metaphysician lift himself up with the mind to the contemplation of those things that are without substance, and can be understood without it, if the body were not sustained by the vigor and virtue of agriculture? M. Terentius Varro says that not without reason our elders sent their citizens from the cities into the fields; so that in times of peace they were nourished and in times of war they were defended by the Roman peasants.39 The Platonist Maximus Tirius proves with many lively reasons and strong arguments that farmers are more useful to cities than soldiers. Circus taught his soldiers the profession of arms and the art of cultivating the fields, so that they could defend themselves with the one and sustain themselves with the other. Gelus, tyrant of the island Focaia, after he had conquered the Carthaginians, sent the soldiers of Syracuse to work the fields, so that with hard work and exercise they would be made stronger and more robust for the things of war. The Scythians, judging the art of agriculture necessary to the life of man put hard work and study into it alone; and because of the profit that is born from this art, agriculture was held in high regard by the Romans who, having already taken Carthage, gave away to other kings their friends all the libraries that they recovered; and they brought back to Rome for the purpose of translating them into the Latin language only certain books on agriculture and on the properties of the plants by Mago of Carthage. And if you want to see more clearly how useful this pleasant and honored art of agriculture is, hear what Socrates says in Xenophon. These things I have told you Critobolus only so that you see that the great and powerful hold agriculture in esteem because they know that it is in itself a kind of delightful work, that it increases houses and properties wonder38 39

Here Taegio uses the word ocio to mean otium in the positive sense. Vitauro is paraphrasing Varro, Rerum rusticarum, introduction, line 1.

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poter sostener, occorrendo tutte quelle fatiche, che si convengono ad un’ huomo, che habbi l’animo libero & generoso; oltre à questo, quel di che noi viviamo, nasce dalla terra, tutte quelle cose, con le quali noi adorniamo gli altari, e le statue, e noi medesimi, come sono ghirlande, odori, di piu sorti, e simili cose, vengon dalla terra; gli ossonii, e l’altre cose necessarie, la terra solo, ò le produce, ò le nutrisce, però che la cura ancor de bestiami, si puo chiamar specie di agricoltura, dalla quale habbiamo con che sacrificando  41  possiam mitigar l’ira de gli Dii; E se ben la terra è cosi liberale al tenerci abondanti di tutti i beni, non per questo ci lassa goder i frutti suoi, vivendo noi infangati nell’ocio, e nella pigritia, anzi assuefà gli huomini, che la godono à sopportar agevolmente caldi e freddi, dando forza e gagliardia à coloro, che con le man proprie l’essercitano, facendo diligenti, e solleciti quegli altri, c’hanno cura, che la sia coltivata, però, che si sforza à levarsi la mattina à grand’hora, et andar con sollecitudine à procurar gli operatori faccino l’ufficio loro; però, che nella villa, come nelle città gli essercitii hanno i tempi loro determinati; oltre à questo, se voi occorrendo, poter aiutar, e difender la città tua, à cavallo, ò à piedi, la terra è quella, che ti porgerà da poter nodrir cavalli, e ti farà sanissimo, e resistente alle fatiche. Essa t’invita alle caccie, dandoti da nodrir cani, e porgendo nodrimento alle fiere; e i cavalli, e i cani medesimamente si godono del frutto della terra, & delle fatiche tue ti rendono il cambio; però, che’l cavallo ti darà commodità di poter andar la mattina à riveder le cose della villa, e la sera medesima tornarsene alla città. Et i cani guardano amorevolmente, che ne à frutti tuoi, ne à bestiami faccin danno le fiere, ò altri: rendono altrui sicuro in ogni loco quantunque solitario, però, che occorendo sveglian chi dia soccorso al patron loro; oltre à questo, quale essercitio  42  piu dell’agricoltura, rende gli huomini dispostial correre, saltare, lanciar dardi, e simili altri belle, & utili operationi? Qual arte ricompensa piu le fatiche, che si durano in essercitarla? Quale è di piu contentezza, à chi è avido di guadagno, che questa, la quale porge à qualunque si impaccia con essa, tutto quel ch’è necessario? Qual fa ricever piu copiosamente i forestieri, dove si

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fully, and that it exercises the body, and makes it accustomed to bearing, as necessary, those strenuous activities that are appropriate to a man who has a free and generous mind. Furthermore, that by which we live is born of the earth. All those things with which we adorn altars and statues, and ourselves—such as garlands, scents of many kinds, and similar things—come from the earth. The edible delicacies, and the other necessary things—the land alone either produces them or nourishes them, since also the breeding of cattle can be called a kind of agriculture, from which we have to sacrifice to mitigate the wrath of the gods. And even if the good earth is so generous in keeping us well provided with all good things, she does not on account of this let us enjoy her fruits, living besmirched with idleness40 and laziness, but she makes men accustomed to bearing hot and cold easily, giving strength and robustness to those who work her with their own hands, making diligent and solicitous those others who take care that she is cultivated, so that they force themselves to get up in the morning at an early hour to go with solicitude to see that the workers do their job; because in the villa as in the city all activities have their set times. Besides this, if you want, in case it is necessary for you to help defend your city either on horseback or on foot, it is the earth who helps you feed the horses, and makes you most healthy and resistant to fatigue. She invites you to the hunts, allowing you to feed the dogs, and offering nourishment to the wild animals; both the horses and the dogs likewise enjoy the fruits of the earth, and they repay you for your efforts; since the horse gives you the convenience of being able to go in the morning to oversee the things of the villa, and to return to the city the same evening.41 And the dogs lovingly keep watch, that wild animals or others steal neither your produce nor your cattle: they make people safe in every place however solitary, since, it being necessary, they arouse him who may give help to their master. Besides this, what activity more than farming disposes people to running, jumping, throwing darts, and other similar beautiful and useful activities? What art compensates more the hard work one endures in practicing it? What [art] is more satisfying to him who is eager for gain than this one that offers everything that is necessary to anyone Here Taegio uses the word ocio to mean otium in the negative sense. Xenophon’s phrase, in Oeconomicus 5.4, is “she does not allow men to take them without work” (Pomeroy’s translation, pp. 130–131). 41 Xenophon does not use a word that can be translated “villa.” His phrase, in Oeconomicus 5.6, is “work of supervision” (Pomeroy’s translation, pp. 131–132). 40

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puo vernata haver piu commodità di buon fuochi, e di caldi bagni, che nelle ville, dove la state poi si puo goder piu bell’ombre e dolci aure, e fresche acque? dove si possan porgere à gli Dii primitie piu convenevoli, e far feste piu allegre? Che cosa puo tenere i servi piu lieti, e la moglie, i figli, e gli amici piu contenti? à me certo parrà sempre gran meraviglia, se quelli, che son liberi di se medesimi, stimeranno, che altra vita apporti piu dolcezza e commodità, et utile insieme, che questa d’haver cura, che le cose delle villa sien ben governate, e custodite. Si vede poi, che la terra spontaneamente, dà essempi à gli huomini nella giustitia, però che secondo, che ò trascuratamente, ò con diliogenza è coltivata, cosi rende il cambio, ò buono, ò cattivo co’ frutti suoi; E se accade, che da nemici in tempo di guerra sia impedita la sua coltura, essa ha cosi nodriti & avezzi, animosi e valenti i suoi seguaci, che essi prontissimi, & con gli animi, e co’ corpi, posson facilmente (se Dio non gli contrario) ricacciar  43  in dietro i nemici, e predar per lo continuo, tanto, che ne vivanio abondantemente. Però, che in tai tempi, é piu sicuro procacciarsi il vitto con l’arme, che con gl’instrumenti della villa. Par, ch’ammonisca medesimamente gli huomini l’agricoltura, non men, che la guerra, ad aiutarsi, e sovenirsi l’un l’altro, essendo, che queste due cose hanno in se molto del simile, perciò, ch’è necessario, che colui, che vuol far frutto nella villa sua usi ogni ingegno di procacciarsi, e mantenersi i lavoratori amici, e presti, e spontanei ad esserli obedienti, e doni, e rimeriti quelli, che diligentemente fan quel, che se li conviene, e punisca gli ociosi & negligenti. E spesse volte gli esserciti con parole, & inanimisca, e gli empi di speranze, conciosia che non men giovino le speranze à servi, che à liberi: anzi molto piu, e cosi li facea voluntariamente far l’ufficio loro. Tutte queste cose, medesimamente si appartengono à far ad un buon Capitano, verso de soldati suoi; onde saviamente giudicava quello, che disse, che l’agricoltura è matre, & nutrice di tutte altre arte: la quale, s’ella è ben essercitata, tutte altre piglian forza, e se per lo contrario ella è spezzata, et abandonata; l’altre medesimamente si corrompono, e dormono inutili, cosi di mare, come di terra.

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who bothers himself with it? What [art] enables one to receive guests more graciously? Where can one pass the winter more comforted by good fires and warm baths than in the villas?42 Where, in the summer, can one enjoy more the sweet breezes and fresh waters? Where can one offer more appropriate firstfruits to the gods, and make gladder feasts? What pleases the servants more, and makes the the wife and the children and the friends happier? To me it certainly seems a great marvel that those who are free of worries reckon that another life may carry more sweetness and comfort and profit, than that in which one takes care that the things of the villa43 are well managed and looked after. One can see, then, that the earth spontaneously gives men examples of justice since, according to whether she is carelessly or diligently cultivated, she pays back in kind with good or bad fruits. And if it happens that her cultivation is prevented by enemies in time of war, she has so nourished and trained her courageous and worthy followers that they, most ready with minds and bodies, can easily (if God is not against them) drive their enemies into retreat and plunder them continually, so that they may live abundantly off her. For in such times it is safer to procure sustenance with arms than with the instruments of the villa. It seems that agriculture no less than war equally admonishes men to help and to aid one another, being that these two things have a lot in common with each other, since it is necessary that he who wants to make his villa fruitful use every talent to procure laborers and to keep them friendly and quick and readily obedient to him, and reward and bestow gifts, as he sees fit, on those who diligently perform their duty, and punish the lazy and negligent. And often he should train them with words, and encourage and fill them with hope, because hopes are important to servants no less than to free men, indeed much more; and thus he inspires them to do their work willingly. All these things pertain equally to making a captain good to his soldiers; so that he judged wisely who said that agriculture is the mother and wet nurse of all the other arts: from which, if she is practiced well, all others take strength, and if on the contrary she is despised and abandoned, the others, both of the sea and of the land, are equally corrupted and lie uselessly dormant.44 42 Taegio’s word villa here corresponds to Xenophon’s word kepos (“estate” or “piece of land”—“farm” in Pomeroy’s translation, p. 132) in Oeconomicus 5.9. 43 Not the word kepos but ktema (“piece of property”) appears here in Xenophon, Oeconomicus 5.11. 44 Beginning on p. 40, line 11, and continuing through p. 43, line 22, Vitauro is paraphrasing Xenophon, Oeconomicus 5.1–17. See Pomeroy’s translation, 129–133.

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Partenio. Io non sò, che cosa si possa dir di piu di quello, che disse Xeno-

fonte in favor dell’agricoltura. Vitauro. Quanto piu si parla,  44  piu cresce materia da dire; non sapete voi, che Catone appresso di M. Tullio dice cose meravigliose in favor di questa bellissima arte? Partenio. Si come mi havete recitato l’istesse parole di Xenofonte, dove altamente parla dell’agricoltura, vorrei, che faceste il medesimo di Cicerone. Vitauro. M. Tullio nel lib. che face della vecchiezza in persona di Catone ragionando con Lelio, et Scipione, parla in questo modo. vengo hora alle voluttà de gli agricoltori, di che prendo diletto incredibile, li quai da niuna vecchiezza impediti non sono, & mi paiono accostarsi alla vita del savio, percio che hanno comercio con la terra, la quale mai non rifiuta lo imperio, ne mai quel, che ha ricevuto rende senza usura; ma talhor con minore, & molte volte con maggior guadagno; benche non solo il frutto certamente, ma la vertù etiandio, & la natura di essa terra mi diletta, la quale, poi che lo sparso seme nel suo intenerito, & coltivato grembo ha ricevuto, quello primieramente coperto constringe; onde la copertura, la quale fa [sic] tal effetto è nominata, dapoi dal vapore, & abbracciamento di lei riscaldato diffonde, & trahe da lui la herbescente verdezza, la quale firmata alle estremità delli grani à poco à poco cresce, & drizzato lo annodato gambo, già quasi mettendo la prima barba nelle vagine s’inchiude, dalle quali ella, poi che fuori n’e uscita la biada à ordine  45  di spica tessuta ne sparge, et con lo steccato dall i minori uccelli si difende. A che mi stenderò io in dirvi per quante maniere si piantino, et come tosto nascono, et quanto grandemente crescano le viti? non posso per la molta dilettatione di cotai cose satiarmi, accio che conosciate qual sia il riposo, & refrigerio della mia vecchiezza; percio, ch’io pospongo la propria forza di tutte quelle cose, che nascono dalla terra, la quale da uno si picciolo granuccio, quanto è quello del fico, ò pur dell’uva, overo dalle minutissime semenze de gli altri frutti, tanto gran tronchi, & rami produchi. Li maioli, le piante, gli sarmenti, le viti, le radici, gli raffossi non fanno nò cotai cose, che ciascuno con admiratione dilettino? la vite, che per natura è caduca, se non è sostenuta per la terra si stende, accio ch’ella se stessa si dirizzi, abbraccia con suoi caprioli, & quasi mani qualunche cosa ritrova; la quale mentre con vario et errante tracorso se ne và aggrappando, l’arte de gli agricoltori col taglio la ritiene, accio, ch’ella riempiendosi di rami, non se inselvi, ne troppo si diffonda in ogni parte. Il perche in quelli

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Partenio: I don’t know what more can be said on that subject than Xenophon

said in favor of agriculture. Vitauro: The more one speaks, the more there is to be said; don’t you know that Cato, after M. Tullius, says marvelous things in favor of this very beautiful art? Partenio: As you have recited to me Xenophon’s own words, where he speaks highly of agriculture, I would like you to do the same for Cicero. Vitauro: M. Tullius, in the book that he wrote on old age, speaks this way in the person of Cato arguing with Lelius and Scipio. I come now to the pleasure, in which I take incredible delight, of the farmers, who are not impeded by old age, and who seem to me to approach the life of the wise man because they have commerce with the land, who never refuses them dominion, nor gives back without interest what she has received, but sometimes with less and very often with greater gain. However, I enjoy not only the fruit certainly but even the virtue and the nature of the land, who, after she has received the scattered seed into her softened and cultivated womb, presses that which was first buried, so that the covered seed, which is so called from this operation, warmed by her moistness and by her embrace, grows and brings forth the grasslike verdure. This, taking root at the end of each grain, grows little by little and, the jointed stalk raised, encloses itself in husks already almost putting forth fuzz. After the grain has come out of these, it spreads out arranged in a woven ear, and defends itself from small birds with its palisade. At what length will I tell you in how many ways vines are planted and how quickly they grow and how tall? With much pleasure, I cannot say enough of these things, that you may know what is the repose and solace of my old age; hence I put forth the very strength of all those things that are born from the earth, which from such a small seed as that of a fig, or of grapes, or from the tiniest seeds of other fruit, produces such big trunks and branches. The slips, the plants, the cuttings, the roots, the drainage ditches: can such things fail to delight anyone with admiration? The vine, which by nature is a creeper, if it is not supported spreads throughout the land. Yet, if it is pulled up, it embraces whatever it finds with its tendrils, almost hands. While it clings to things, following a changing and wandering course, the farmers’ skill checks it by pruning, so that, filling itself out with branches, it neither grows wild nor spreads too much everywhere. Thus on those branches that remain in the Spring there is, almost at the nodes, that which is called the eye, from which

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rami, che alla Primavera rimangono ecci quasi, come à gli nodi quel, che si chiama l’occhio, dal quale l’uva nascendo si dimostra, che per lo succo della terra, & per lo caldo del Sole crescendo, prima è acerbissima al giusto; poi maturata si addolcisce, et vestita  46  de pampani di moderata stagione non manca, et da gli eccessivi ardori de Sole si difende. Della quale, che cosa puo essere, ò di frutto piu lieta, ò piu formosa d’aspetto? di lui certamente non solo l’utilità (come di sopra io dissi, ma etiandio la cultura, & la propria natura mi diletta, gli ordini delle piante, lo accompagnar de gli capi, la religatione, lo refossare, il tagliar de sarmenti, ch’io dissi, & lo inserire. A che dirò adunque delle adacquationi, del fossadare, & del zappare, & ammotar le viti, per le quai cose la terra si fà molto piu fertile? à che etiandio dirò dell’utilità del ledamare? percio che ne ho detto in quel libro, ch’io scrissi delle cose da villa, della quale il dotto Hesiodo scrivendo del coltivamento della terra non ne fece mentione alcuna; ma Homero, il quale (per la mia opinione) fu molti secoli innanzi, introduce Laerte padre di Ulisse, per mitigar il dolore dell’assenza del figliuolo à coltivar la terra, & ledamare. Ne perciò le cose della villa sono dilettevoli solo per cagion delle biade, de prati, delle vigne, & delle piante; ma ancor per li giardini, per gli horti, per li pascoli de gli animali, per la congregatione delle api, & per la varietà de fiori. Ne solamente lo incalmar à tagliatura, ma etiandio à fissura diletta, delle quali niuna cosa piu artificiosa l’agricoltura ritrova. Io potrei per molte dilettationi di cose da villa discorrere, ma  47  quelle, che ho raccontato conosco esser state longhissime; & nondimeno mi perdonerete, perciò, ch’io mi sono invecchiato nello studio delle cose della villa, & la vecchiezza etiando è per natura loquace, acciò, ch’io non appaia lei da tutti i vitii liberare. Quinci adunque ne avvenne, che Marco Curio, poscia, ch’egli hebbe de Sanniti, de Sabini, & di Pirro trionfato, consumò in tal vita l’ultimo tempo de suoi giorni. La villa del quale in vero, mentre io la contemplo (perciò, ch’ella da me non è molto distante) non posso à bastanza hora la continenza di quello huomo, hora la regola di que tempi lodare. Gli Sanniti havendo à Curio, che al fuoco sedeva portato grande quantità di oro, furono da lui sprezzati, percioche non havere oro, ma commandar à quegli, che n’havessero, disse parergli cosa honorevole. Poteva uno tanto animo non havere gioconda la vecchiezza? nò certamente. Ma io ritorno à gli agricoltori della terra, accioche da me medesimo io non mi parti. Habitavano nelle ville à que tempi gli Senatori, cioè li vecchi; percioche à Lucio Quinto Cincinato arante fu nunciato se esser stato fatto Dittatore per commandamento del quale, Caio Servilio Hala Siniscalco

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is seen the developing grape, which, growing by the juice of the earth and by the heat of the sun, first is very sour to the taste. Then ripened, it grows sweeter and, clothed with grape leaves, it does not lack a temperate climate, and it is protected from the excessive heat of the Sun. What could be more pleasing than this for its fruit, or more beautiful in appearance? Certainly not only its usefulness (as I said above) but even its cultivation and its peculiar nature delight me, the rows of plants, the supporting of the vine shoots, the tying up, the draining with ditches, the pruning, as I said, and the grafting. What then shall I say of the watering, the digging, and the hoeing and the transplanting of the vines, by means of which the land is made much more fruitful? What indeed shall I say of the usefulness of manuring? For I have discussed this in that book I wrote about the things proper to the villa, of which the learned Hesiod, writing on the cultivation of the land, did not make any mention. But Homer, who (in my opinion) lived many centuries earlier, describes Laertes father of Ulysses cultivating and fertilizing the land in order to mitigate the pain of the absence of his son. Therefore the things of the villa are delightful by reason not only of the crops, fields, vines, and plants but also for the gardens, for the orchards, for the pastures for animals, for the swarms of bees, and for the variety of flowers. The grafting, not only by cutting but also by splitting, is delightful; nothing more artful than this can be found in agriculture. I could discuss many pleasures of the things proper to the villa, but those that I have recounted I know to have been very long, and you will nevertheless pardon me because I myself have grown old in the study of the things of the villa, and besides, old age is by nature loquacious, so that I may not appear to find it free of all faults. It so happened that Manius Curius, after he had triumphed over the Samnites, the Sabines, and Pyrrhus, spent the rest of his days in such a life. While I am looking at his villa (since I am not very far from it), in truth I cannot praise enough now the moderation of that man and the discipline of those times. The Samnites, having carried great quantities of gold to Curius, who was sitting by the fire, were despised by him, since he said that not having gold, but ruling over those who had it, seemed to him an honorable thing. Could such a soul have anything but an enjoyable old age? Certainly not. But I return to the farmers of the land, so that I may not depart too far from my own subject. The senators, that is, the elders, lived in villas in those days. So, while he was plowing, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus received word that he had been made dictator, and upon his order Caius Servilius Hala Siniscalcus, of our camp, murdered Spurius Melius, while he expected to win

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del nostro campo uccise Spurio Melio, mentre attendeva à conseguir et occupar l’Imperio. Erano Marco Curio, & molti altri vecchi chiamati dalle ville al Senato, dal che quelli, che gli  48  andavano à domandare furono detti viatori. Parvi adunque, che la vecchiezza de si fatti huomini, che si sieno dilettati del coltivamento della terra fosse mirabile? Io per me certamente non sò, se vita alcuna piu beata possi essere; ne ciò solamente per la qualità del beneficio, che da cotal cosa ne risulta, perciò che’l coltivamento della terra sia salutare à tutta l’humana generatione, ma etiandio per quella dilettatione, ch’io ho raccontato, & per la società & abondanza di tutte quelle cose, che al vitto de gli huomini, & al culto etiandio delli Dii appartengono; ma perche questo alcuni desiderano torniamo hoggimai à gli agi & piaceri della villa; percioche sempre la cella del vino, &quella dell’olio, & la salvarobba del buono et sollecito patrone è piena, & la casa della villa è tutta ricca; perche abonda di porci, becchi, agnelli, galline, latte, caso, & mele. Gli horti veramente quanto sieno utili, già è manifesto; conciosia che quelli i contadini un’altra carne salata esser dicono. Et oltre à ciò l’uccellare & il cacciare (cose tuttavia di opera estraordinaria) fanno cotai cose esser piu saporite. che debbo dire della verdura de i prati, overamente de gli ordini de gli alberi, ò pure della bellezza delle vigne, & de gli oliveti? Io conchiuderò brevemente che della terra ben coltivata niuna cosa puo essere ne all’uso piu grassa, ne di bellezza piu ordinata. Partenio. Per quanto  49  potesse mai dire Xenofonte, & Cicerone in lode dell’agricoltura, & della vita rusticana con quanti pregiati, & famosi scrittori le habbiano nell’opere loro lodate, & celebrate, non sia mai, ch’io non stimi gran biasimo, & sommo vituperio di quelli, che con le proprie mani maneggiando la terra si danno à questa faticosa & maledetta arte, la quale (come voi dite) già fu cotanto lodata, & essercitata da gli antichi. Vitauro. Ne solamente fu questa bella; nobile, & gloriosa arte di coltivare i campi insieme con l’aurea, & dolcissima libertà del viver rurale anticamente da honoratissimi personaggi & lodata, & essercitata; ma non le mancò ancora chi di lei si gloriasse, & à somma lode si tenesse l’esercitarla bene, come chiaramente si puo vedere nell’essempio di Ciro Rè de Persi, il quale essendo venuto

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and occupy the empire. Manius Curius and many other elders were called from their villas to the Senate, for which reason those who went to find them were called viatores. Do you think, then, that the old age of men who delighted in the cultivation of the land was admirable? I myself certainly do not know if life could be any more blessed, not only for the quality of the benefit that results from such a thing, since the cultivation of the land is salutary to every human generation, but even for that pleasure that I have recounted, and for the company and for the abundance of all those things that pertain to the sustenance of men and even to the cult of the gods. But because some desire these, let us return now to the comforts and pleasures of the villa. While the storeroom of the wine and that of the oil, and the cupboard of the good and solicitous patron, are full, the whole household of the villa is rich because it is full of pigs, goats, lambs, hens, milk, cheese, and honey. How truly useful the gardens are is already apparent; another meat to be salted, as the peasants say. And beyond that, the birding and the hunting (things, however, outside the routine) nevertheless make these more pleasant. What should I say of the greenness of the fields, or of the rows of trees, or still of the beauty of the vineyards and of the olive groves?45 I conclude in short that there can be nothing more usefully productive or more beautifully ordered than well-cultivated land. Partenio: However much Xenophon and Cicero may have said in praise of agriculture and country life, however many esteemed and famous writers may have praised and celebrated it in their works, let it never be that I should not place much blame or heap the greatest reproach on those who, working the land with their own hands, devote themselves to this toilsome and accursed art that (as you say) was so praised and practiced by the ancients. Vitauro: Not only was this beautiful, noble, and glorious art of cultivating the fields together with the golden and sweetest freedom of rural life praised and practiced by the most honorable personages of old, but among those he was not lacking who gloried in it, and considered practicing it well to be most worthy of praise, as can be seen clearly in the example of Cyrus king of Persia who, Lysander having come to him with ambassadors and gifts on behalf of his allies, after he had received him graciously into his royal lodgings, led him Beginning on p. 44, line 8, and continuing through p. 48, line 22, Vitauro is paraphrasing Cicero, De senectute 15.51–57. 45

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da lui Lissandro Lacedemonio con doni in nome de’ confederati & legati con esso, dapoi che amorevolmente l’hebbe accolto nel suo Regale albergo, lo menò in un bellissimo giardino à sollazzo, il quale haveva in Sardi; dove veggiendo Lissandro l’ordine meraviglioso, la leggiadria, & il compartimento delle piante, che v’erano poste tutte in forma di quinconce, cioè con una parità & misura angolare, & dirittezza da non credere (come piu chiaramente si puo vedere nella figura, che segue,) la quale è la vera pianta del detto quinconce,  50  & infinite altre meraviglie, disse al Re, veramente Ciro, considerando la vaghezza et ordine di questo giardino, mi stupisco dell’eccellenza di quelli, che cosi misuratamente, et con tanto ordine han posto ciascuna cosa al che Ciro rallegrandosi, rispose, queste cose, Lissandro, io stesso le ho ordinate disposte,  51  et una buona parte piantate con le mie mani proprie. Meravigliandosi Lissandro, e mirando la ricchezza del vestir suo, & veggiendolo pieno di gioie di grandissimo pregio, e di riccami, tutto ripieno di delicatura, et di buono odore gli disse, che cosa mi dici Ciro, come puo essere, che coteste mani habbin piantato alcuna di queste cose? Ciuro riprese le parole e disse, ti meravigli forse Lissandro; ti giuro per quel Sole, che quando io mi sento ben disposto della persona non oso di mangiar mai, se prima non m’affatico fin al sudore, ò in qualche essercitio utile alla militia, overo in qualche operatiuone dell’agricoltura, delle quali due cose sono principalmente desideroso. il che

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for his amusement into a very beautiful garden46 that he had in Sardis; where, seeing the wonderful order, the gracefulness, and the careful distribution of the plants that were arranged in the form of a quincunx, that is, with an unbelievable evenness and angular measure and straightness (as can be seen more clearly looking at the figure that follows), which is the true plan of the quincunx,47 and countless other wonders, Lysander said to the king, truly Cyrus, considering the beauty and the order of this garden, I am astonished by the excellence of those who placed everything so regularly and with such order, to which Cyrus, delighted, answered, Lysander, I myself arranged these things and placed them, and I planted a good part of them with my own hands. Lysander, marveling at and admiring the richness of his clothing, and seeing him covered with jewels of the greatest value and with embroidery all delicate and perfumed, said to him, Cyrus, what are you telling me? How can it be possible that those hands planted some of these things? Cyrus resumed the conversation and said, Perhaps it amazes you, Lysander; I swear to you by the Sun that when I feel physically fit I never venture to eat if first I do not exert myself to the point of perspiration, either in some useful military exercise or truly in some agricultural activity, the two things of which I am principally desirous. Hearing that, Lysander, being delighted with it, said, Now I know that you can justly be called blessed, because to your virtues are joined the blessings of fortune.48 So you see, my beloved Partenio, that agriculture, besides being very useful, is even delightful in practice, most pleasing to God, esteemed by kings, and, what’s more, it is easily learned and acquired by him who wants it. Therefore, who doubts (as Ischomachus says to Socrates in the presence of Xenophon) that agriculture can be called a magnanimous and generous science, just as we call generous those animals that, being beautiful and useful to humans, are also tame and domesticated?49 Partenio: Do you have more to say in favor of farming? Vitauro: What? Do you not know that the Milesians ordained that those Xenophon’s word is paradeison. Here Taegio inserts a reference to a quincunx, which is not contained in Xenophon’s text, and the figure on the following page. 48 In this story about Cyrus beginning on p. 49, line 15, and continuing through p. 51, line 15, Vitauro is paraphrasing Xenophon, Oeconomicus 4.20–25. For other retellings of the same story, see also Cicero, De Senectute, De Amicitia, De Divinatione, p. 70, and Palmieri, Della Vita Civile, p. 153. 49 Vitauro is paraphrasing Oeconomicus 15.4 and 19.17. Taegio’s words magnanima and generosa correspond to Xenophon’s philanthropos (humane and gentle). 46 47

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sentendo Lissandro, rallegrandosi con esso disse, hor conosco, che giustamente puoi esser chiamato beato, percio che alla tua vertù ne sono aggionti i beni della fortuna. Di maniera, il mio caro Partenio, vedete, che oltre all’essere l’agricoltura ultissima ella è ancor dilettevole nell’operatione, gratissima appresso à Dio, è stimata da i Re, & che piu, agevolissamente si lassa imparare, & havere da chi la vuole; Il perche, chi dubita (come dice Iscomaco à Socrate appresso di Xenofonte) che l’agricoltura non si possa chiamare scienza magnanima e generosa? si come noi chiamiamo generosi quelli animali, che essendo bellissimi et utili à huomini sono ancora mansueti   52  e domestici. Partenio. Anco havete che dire in favore dell’agricoltura? Vitauro. Come non sapete, che i Milesii ordinarono, che quegli dovessero governar le città, i cui poderi haveano trovati ben coltivati? & Romulo prepose sempre i faticosi agricoltori à gli ociosi cittadini. Non vi ricordate d’haver letto nelle historie, come Numa Pompilio con doni & carezza senza fine honorava i solleciti, diligenti, & industriosi lavoratori? non sapete voi, che anticamente solevasi dire in proverbio, che male agricoltore era colui, che comprasse cosa, che’l suo terreno havesse potuto produrre, & che pessimo era quel padre di famiglia, che nel tempo sereno lavorasse piu tosto in casa, che alla campagna? Marco Cattone afferma, che i nostri maggiori, quando volevano grandemente lodare un’huomo solevano dire, egli è buono agricoltore; et in oltre dice, che’l guadagno, che nasce dall’agricoltura è pio, stabile, & senza invidia. M. Tullio anch’egli vuole, che niuna sorte di guadagno piu honesto, & degno di persona libera si possa trovare, che quello, che si trahe dall’agricoltura. Tal che per tutte queste ragioni, essempi, & auttoritati, concludo, che l’agricoltura è un’arte dilettevole, nobilissima, utile, necessaria, maestra di diligenza, essempio di giustitia, & spoecchio di persimonia. Partenio. Hora il cittadino potrebbe ragionevolmente dire al villano, come disse il  53  magno Alessandro nell’arivar, che fece alla sepoltura d’Achille O’ fortunato, che si chiara tromba Trovasti, e chi di te si alto scrisse. Vitauro. Anzi trattando io un tal soggetto col mio basso stile scemo le lodi

dell’agricoltura, Ch’e d’Homero degnissima, e d’Orfeo, O’ del Pastor, ch’ancor Mantova honora.

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whose lands they had found well cultivated ought to govern the cities? And Romulus always preferred the industrious farmers to the lazy city dwellers. Don’t you remember having read in the histories how Numa Pompilius honored the solicitous, diligent, and industrious laborers with gifts and endless endearments? Don’t you know that of old it was customary to say proverbially that the bad farmer was the one who bought something his land could have produced, and that the father of a family was terrible who in fair weather worked harder on the house than in the fields? Marcus Cato says that our elders, when they wanted to greatly praise a man, were in the habit of saying he is a good farmer, and elsewhere he says that the profit that is earned from farming is pious, stable and without envy.50 M. Tullius also thinks that no kind of profit more honorable and worthy of free persons can be found than that which is derived from farming.51 So that from all these arguments, examples and authorities, I conclude that agriculture is a delightful, very noble, useful, and necessary art, a teacher of diligence, an example of justice, and a mirror of frugality. Partenio: Now the city dweller can reasonably say to the peasant, as Alexander the Great said on arriving, as he did, at the grave of Achilles, O fortunate one, who found so clear a trumpet, And one who wrote such high things of you. Vitauro: Indeed, treating such a subject in my low style, I diminish the praises of agriculture,

Which is most worthy of Homer, of Orpheus, And of the Shepherd, and which Mantua still honors.52 But even as Alexander, when he arrived at the famous tomb of Achilles sighing and calling him fortunate, showed himself grieved by that one’s good fortune; so the city dweller, if he tasted a trace of the very sweet bitterness of country life, I am most certain, also would envy the peasant.

Vitauro is paraphrasing Cato, De agri cultura 1.1. Vitauro is referring to Marcus Tullius Cicero, author of De senectute. 52 Partenio is quoting Petrarch, Rime sparse, Poem 187, lines 3–4. Vitauro is quoting lines 9–10. See Durling’s translation in Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, p. 332. Durling notes that Petrarch derived this incident from Cicero’s Pro Archia. Castiglione put the same words in the mouth of Pietro Bembo in Cortegiano. 50 51

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Ma si come Alessandro gionto, che’egli fu alla famosa tomba d’Achille, sospirando, et dandogli del fortunato mostrò d’haver havuto dolore della sorte di quello; cosi il cittadino, se gustasse un tratto le dolcissime amaritudini della vita contadinesca, son certissimo, che anch’egli porterebbe invidia al contadino. Partenio. Essendo l’invidia dolore del bene altrui, et l’agricoltura cosa mala’come porterà mai invidia l’huomo civile all’agricoltura? Vitauro. Voi fate un presuposito falso; perche l’agricoltura non è cosa mala. Partenio. Se l’agricoltura non fosse cosa mala, ella non sarebbe stata effetto del peccato, & maledittione del grande Iddio, il quale cacciando Adamo dal Paradiso delle delitie, disse maledetta sia la terra, nell’opera, & nelle fatiche tue mangerai de i frutti suoi: Et se la pena del peccato fosse peccato, l’agricoltura, che fu pena della disubidienza d’Adamo sarebbe cosa mala;   54  percioche solamente il peccato è male: ma sendo il castigo del peccato cosa giustissima e santa, segue, che l’agricoltura è cosa buona; & se non fosse tale Adamo con le fatiche, et sudore del volto suo, nonhavrebbe ricourata la gratia del guarde Iddio, che perdette nelle delitie del terrestre Paradiso, le quali delitie, chi le assimigliasse alle delicatezze de gli ociosi gentil’huomini, che vivono alle città, non commetterebbe errore, si come anco non errerebbe chi dicesse le fatiche de contadini esser freno al peccato, & gli ocii de cittadini sprone al fallire; se adunque l’agricoltura fu castigo, & purgatione del male, voi non dovreste dir mal di lei, anzi che sete tenuta à lodarla, per lo buono effetto, che da lei nacque. Partenio. Io non posso lodare un’arte, che’nsegni ad offender la natura, & far molti mali effetti. Vitauro. In che maniera? Partenio. In che maniera ah? non ne mostra costei molte mostruose fabriche di piante, strani innesti, & methamorfosi d’alberi, non ne insegna rinchiuder nelle gabbie, nelle peschere, & ne’ vivai quegli animali, che dalla natura furono fatti liberi? Onde habbiamo noi imparato il far congiungere i cavalli con l’asine, e i lupi con le cagne, onde mule & licische ne nascono contra la legge di Natura, se non da questa arte? con la quale, & la pastura, & la pescagione, & la caccia vanno. Che cosa fu se non l’agricoltura, che ci assottigliasse l’ongegno  55  nel lino, il quale di pianta fatto vela col fiato de venti sforza gli huomini ad affogare in mare, come se fosse poco à morire in terra? Ma che piu, gli agricoltori superstitiosi, & contrarii alla legge divina, credono con certi lor segret, osservationi, & incanti di poter accrescere i seminati, acquetar le tempeste, cacciar i lupi, fermar le fuggitive fiere, incantar le infirmità delle pecore,& altre cose meravigliose. Vitauro. Voi fate, che molte cose sieno male, & son buone, & molte altre ne attribuite à gli agricoltori, che non appartengono al loro ufficio: ma quanto

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Partenio: Envy being grief over someone else’s good fortune, and agriculture

being a bad thing, how could the civil man envy agriculture? Vitauro: You make a false presupposition, because agriculture is not a bad thing. Partenio: If agriculture were not a bad thing, it would not have been the cause of sin, and of the curse of the great God, who, chasing Adam out of the Paradise of delights, said cursed be the land, and by labor and your hard work you will eat of its fruits: And if the punishment for sin were sin, agriculture, which was the punishment for the disobedience of Adam, would be a bad thing, if only for the reason that sin is bad. [Vitauro:] But punishment for sin being a most just and holy thing, it follows that agriculture is a good thing; and if it were not so, Adam, by hard work and the sweat of his brow, would not have had recourse to the grace of the great God, which he lost with the delights of the earthly paradise, and he would not be wrong who compared such delights to the ease of the lazy gentlemen who live in the city, even as he would not be wrong who said that the hard work of the peasants is a brake to sin, and the idleness of the city dweller a spur to failing. If, then, agriculture was punishment and purification from evil, you ought not to speak badly of it, indeed you ought to praise it for the good effect that resulted from it. Partenio: I cannot praise an art that teaches to offend nature and to make many bad effects. Vitauro: In what way? Partenio: In what way? Doesn’t it show us many monstrous fabrications of plants, strange grafts. and metamorphoses of trees, and doesn’t it teach locking up in cages, fishtanks. and warrens those animals who were made free by nature? How have we learned the crossing of horses with she-asses, and wolves with female dogs, how are mules and wolf-dogs born contrary to nature, if not by this art? The same goes for cattle breeding, fishing, and hunting. What was it, if not agriculture, that sharpened the mind in the flax, the sail made from which plant forces men to drown at sea with the breath of the winds, as if it were too small a thing to die on land? But what’s more, the farmers, superstitious and contrary to divine law, believe that with certain of their secrets, observations, and spells they can increase the crops, quell storms, keep wolves away, stop runaway beasts, miraculously cure the sicknesses of sheep, and other marvelous things. Vitauro: You make out many things to be bad which are good, and you attribute many other things to farmers that do not pertain to their office. But,

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à miracoli, che dite creder gli agricoltori di poter far con certi loro incanti; vi rispondo, che dal volgo molte cose sono tenute per miracoli, le quali sono però naturali; se voi haveste quella gran cognition della Natura, che anticamente haveano i Persi, l’Indiani, gli Ethiopi, & i Caldei, non parlereste in questo modo; non sapete voi, che i diligentissimi esploratori della natura, conducendo quelle cose, che sono da lei preparate, & applicando gli attivi à passivi, molte volte innanzi al tempo ordinato dalla natura, producono effetti, che dalla gente, à cui si fa notte innanzi sera, sono tenuti stupendi miracoli, & pur sono cose naturali, non v’intervenendo altro, che la sola anticipatione del tempo, come s’alcuno di Marzo, facesse nascer rose, ò crescer l’uve mature in poco spatio  56  d’hore, & di piu facesse nascer nuvole, piogge, tuoni, & animali di diversi sorti: ma lasciando questi segreti di natura, volete, ch’io vi dica quali sieno le malie, & incanti, che usano i buoni agricoltori per accrescer’ i lor seminati? Partenio. Quali sono? Vitauro. La fatica, l’industria, & la diligenza; & se à me non credete, domandatene à C. Furio Cresino, il quale essendo invidiato, perche traheva maggior frutto d’un suo picciolo campicello, che non facevano gli molti del gran terreno, fu accusato da Sp. Albino per incantatore, che distrugesse le altrui biade; onde egli nel giorno ordinato al giudicio, s’appresentò in piazza con tutte l’armi rusticane, con una sua figliuola giovane, & robusta, & con un paio di buoi ben pasciuti, & gagliardi, & poi rivolto verso i giudici disse. Questi sono Romani, questi sono gl’incanti, con i quali ho danneggiato la messone altrui; mi duole di non haver potuto condur qui al vostro cospetto le fatiche, i sudori, & le vigilie, ch’io ho durato per render fertile il mio terreno. Partenio. Adunque anticamente si facevano giudicii sopra la maniera di coltivar la terra. Vitauro. Senza dubbio, non sapete voi, ch’appresso Romani, v’era una legge, che dava auttorità al Censore di castigar quegli, che fossero negligenti nella coltura de suoi poderi. Gran diligenza circa al coltivar della terra si usava ancora appresso de Persi,  57  nel tempo, che regnava Ciro, come si puo vedere in queste parole di Xenofonte dette per bocca di Socrate. Quanto poi alla salvezza de popoli, & abondanza delle città, e contadi, noi sappiamo, che quei luoghi, ch’egli istesso poteva ricercare, lo faceva prontissimamente; ne gli altri poi teneva del continuo persone di gran credito, che facessero questo medesimo; e se luoghi vedeva,ò intendeva esser frequente d’habitatori, & di ville ben coltivate, & arborate, e fruttifere honorava quegli, che v’havevano posti principi in nome suo in tai luoghi, & gli accresceva dominio, & di doni, & specialmente

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with regard to the miracles that you say farmers believe they can perform with certain of their spells, I answer you that there are many things held by the common folk to be miracles that are nevertheless natural. If you had that great knowledge of Nature that the Persians, the Ethiopians, and the Chaldeans had of old, you would not speak in this way. Don’t you know that the most diligent explorers of nature, following those things that have been prepared by her, and applying the active forces to the passive ones, often produce, before the time ordained by nature, effects that the people, to whom night happens before evening, have held to be stupendous miracles—and yet they are natural things, nothing happening other than only the anticipation of time—as if some made roses bloom in March, or made grapes mature in the space of a few hours, and more produced clouds, rain, thunder, and animals of various kinds. But, leaving these secrets of nature, do you want me to tell you what the charms and spells that good farmers use to increase their crops are? Partenio: What are they? Vitauro: Hard work, industry, and diligence. And if you do not believe me, ask C. Furius Cresinus, who—being envied because he harvested more produce from his tiny little plot than most men did with much land—was accused by Spurius Albinus of destroying other people’s crops by incantation, so that on the day he was ordered before the judge, he presented himself in the public square with all his rustic arms, his young and strong daughter, and a pair of his well-fed and vigorous oxen, and then he turned toward the judge and said: These, Romans, these are the spells with which I have damaged the others’ crops. I am sorry not to have been able to bring into your presence the hard work, the sweat, and the sleepless nights that I have endured in order to render my land fertile. Partenio: Then of old judgments were made concerning the way of cultivating the land. Vitauro: Without doubt, don’t you know that among the Romans there was a law that gave the Censor authority to punish those who were negligent in the cultivation of their farms? Great diligence about cultivating the land was used also among the Persians in the time when Cyrus reigned, as one can see in these words of Xenophon said through the mouth of Socrates. Regarding the safety of people and richness of the cities and countryside, we know that those places that he could examine he did very eagerly; in the others he then always retained very trustworthy persons, so that they would do the same; and if he saw or understood places to be teaming with inhabitants and villas well cultivated and planted with trees and fruitful, he honored those whom he had placed in his

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di sedie honorate li rimeritava: & per lo contrario puniva, e privava di principato quelli, che lassavano le città, & il contado mancar d’huomini, e di fertilità, e nodrirsi nell’ocio. Partenio. Guai à me se anco hoggidi vivessero coteste leggi, & costumi, percio, ch’io non vado mai à visitare i campi miei, ne mi curo, che vadino inculti; pur, che da tal negligenza ne nasca la coltura dell’animo mio; meglio è (come solea dir Aristippo) che’l poder vadi mal me, ch’io per lui. Vitauro. Voi in villa commodamente potreste attendere alla coltura del campo & dell’animo, percioche questi due ufficii non sono incompatibili. Partenio. Se circa all’agricoltura anco hoggidi si servassero le leggi de Romani, & de Persi, non sarebbe meglio fare attendere alle vostre possessioni  58  per un diligente fattore, & starvene voi all città; dove quando pur voleste ancor dar opera alli studii di Filosofia, trovareste maggior commodità, che in villa. Vitauro. Cotesto nò, perche lo strepito, & comercio delle città è capital nemico delli studii delle buone lettere, i quale con l’agricoltura felicemente si congiongono, & il silentio delle campagne piacque sempre alle persone studiose; & che’l sia vero lo dica Marco Tullio, quando congrandissimo diletto filosofava hor nel Tusculano, hor nel Cumano, hor nel Formiano, & hor nel Pompeiano; lo dica Seneca, quando nel suo Sabino con felice ocio, & gran quiete d’animo attendeva à suoi honoratissimi studii; & quando con mirabile artificio conduceva acque, che i suoi giardini irrigassero; lo dica M. Caton Censorino, che tanto fu vago della villa, c’hebbe à dire non potersi trovar vita piu beata di questa; Taccio L. Lucullo, Tario Russo, Q. Scenola, C. Martio, & molti altri, che godettero la felità della villa: della quale non solamente gli huomini, ma anco i Dii, & le Dee ne furono studiosissimi, come fu Bacco, Pan, Saturno, Cerare, Diana, Flora, Pale, Satiri, Fauni, Silvani, Driadi, Oriadi, Napee, Amadriadi, Naiadi, & altre tali Deità. Partenio. Per dar opera alli studii piu commodi sono le città, che le ville, del che ne puo dir testimonio la studiosa Athena.  51 [i.e., 59] Vitauro. Se cosi fosse il divin Platone non havrebbe lasciato Athene per la villa, che elesse per la tanto sua celebrata Academia; Non sapete voi, che la solitudine delle campagne fu sempre amica delle persone letterate, di spirito, & di valore? non vi ricordate voi d’haver letto, che Seneca, scrivendo à Lucilio Balba, lo avertisce, che desiderando di coglier frutto dalle lettere si debba sequestrar dalla moltitudine de gli huomini, & da tumul ti delle città, & ritirarsi in loco

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name as governors in such places, and increased their dominion, and rewarded them with gifts and especially with seats of honor: and by contrast he punished and deprived of principality those who left the cities and the countryside in need of men and fertility, and enjoyed themselves in idleness.53 Partenio: I would be in trouble if such laws and customs still existed today, because I never go to visit my lands, nor do I care that they go uncultivated, because from such negligence is born the cultivation of my mind; better (as Aristippus used to say), that the land be harmed by me than I by it. Vitauro: In villa you could conveniently attend to the cultivation of the field and the mind, because these two activities are not incompatible. Partenio: If the laws of the Romans and the Persians concerning agriculture were observed still today, would it not be better to attend to your properties through a diligent overseer, and stay in the city; where, when you still wanted to devote work to the studies of Philosophy, you would find greater ease than in villa? Vitauro: Not so, because the noise and commerce of the city is the chief enemy of the studies of literature, which, are combined happily with farming, and the silence of the countryside was always pleasing to studious persons. And Marcus Tullius would say that this is true, since with the greatest delight he philosophized now in the Tusculan [villa], now in the Cumaen, now in the Formaeian, now in the Pompeian; Seneca would say it, when in his Sabine [villa] he attended to his very honorable studies with happy leisure and great quiet of mind; and when he conducted waters with marvelous artifice, that they might irrigate his garden; M. Cato Censor, who was so great a lover of the beauty of the villa that he said that he could not find a more blessed life than this, would say it. I say nothing of L. Lucullus, Tarius Rufus, Q. Scenola, C. Martio, and many others who enjoyed the happiness of the villa: of which not only men but also gods and goddesses were very studious, as were Bacchus, Pan, Saturn, Ceres, Diana, Flora, Pale, Satyrs, Fauns, Silvans, Driads, Oriads, Napee, Amadriads, Naiads, and other such deities. Partenio: For devoting work to studies, cities are more accommodating than the villa, to which studious Athens can testify. Vitauro: If this were so, the divine Plato would not have left Athens for the villa that he chose for his greatly celebrated Academy. Don’t you know that the solitude of the country has always been a friend to literary persons of spirit

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Vitauro is paraphrasing Oeconomicus 4.8. See Xenophon, Oeconomicus, p. 125.

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remoto, ove non vegga, ne oda cose, che lo ritraghino dal suo proposito? il medesimo ricordo diede Plinio nipote al suo Fondano; in confirmatione della qual cosa il dotto Filone Hebreo dice esser necessario à chi vuol caminare per lo faticoso calle delle vertù il lasciar à dietro il pensiero d’ogni altra cosa; per questo i poeti non finsero, che le muse habitassero ne’romori delle città, ma nella solitudine del monte Parnaso; per questo il Petrarca, fiore, per cui sempre fiorirà Fiorenza consumò la maggior parte de suoi giorni in villa; ove (come egli solea dire) non v’erano palazzi, non theatro, ò loggia, Ma in lor vece un’ Abete, un Faggio, un Pino. Tra l’herba verde, e’ l bel monte vicino, Onde si scende poetando e poggia, Levan di terra al ciel nostro intelletto.  52 [i.e., 60] Per questi rispetti fu molto amico della villa il dottissimo Politiano, in fede della qual cosa, udite quel, ch’ei disse Quanto è piu dolce, e quanto è piu sicuro Seguir le fiere fuggitive in caccia Fra boschi antichi fuor di fossa, ò muro, E spiar lor covil per longa traccia; Veder la valle, e’l colle, e l’aer puro, L’herbe, e fior, l’acqua viva, chiara, e ghiaccia, Udir gli augei suernar, ribombar l’onde, E dolce al vento mormorar le fronde. Quanto giova à veder pender da un’erta Le capre, a pascer questo, e quel virgulto, E’l montanaro à l’ombra piu conserta Destar la sua sampogna, e’l verso inculto,

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and courage? Don’t you remember having read that Seneca, writing to Lucullus Balbus, advised him that he who desires to reap fruit from letters ought to sequester himself from the multitude of humanity and from the tumult of the city and withdraw to a remote place, where he may neither see nor hear anything that may distract him from his purpose? I remember Pliny the Younger said the same thing to his Fondanus;54 in confirmation of which Philo, the scholarly Jew, says that for him who wants to walk along the hard path of virtue it is necessary to leave behind the thought of every other thing.55 For this reason the poets imagined that the muses lived not in the noise of the city but in the solitude of Mount Parnassus; for this reason Petrarch, flower for whom Florence will always flower, spent the greater part of his days in villa, where (as he used to say) there were No palaces, no theater or loggia But in their stead a fir, a beech, a pine— Amid the green grass and the lovely mountain nearby, From which one descends rhyming and rests— Lift our intellect from earth to heaven.56 In these repects the scholarly Poliziano was a great friend of the villa, in testimony to which, hear what he said: How much sweeter and how much more secure To follow the fleeing beasts in the hunt Through ancient woods outside of moat or wall, And to spy their den after long tracking; To see valley and hill, and purer air, Grass, flowers, clear icy living water, To hear birds’ winter song, thundering waves, And leaves murmuring sweetly in the wind.

54 Taegio is referring to Pliny the Younger’s letter “To Minicius Fundanus,” in which Pliny refers to the seclusion he enjoys at his villa at Laurentum. See Radice translation in The Letters of the Younger Pliny, pp. 42–43. 55 Filone Hebreo is Philo Judaeus, Alexandrian-Jewish philosopher of the first century a.d. 56 Vitauro is quoting Petrarch, Rime sparse, Poem 10, lines 5–9. See Petrarch’s Lyric Poems, pp. 44–45.

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Veder la terra di pomi coperta, E ogni alber da suoi frutti quasi occulto, Veder cozzar monton, vacche mughiare, E le biade ondeggiar, come fa’l mare. Hor delle pecorelle il rozzo mastro Si vede à la sua torma aprir la sbarra, Poi quando move lor col suo v’incastro, Dolce è à notar come à ciascuna garra, Hor si vede il villan domar col rastro  53 [i.e., 61] Le dure zolle, hor maneggiar la marra, Hor la contadinella scinta e scalza Star con l’ocche à filar sotto una balza. Per simil cagione il Ficino si ritirò nel suo monte vecchio. Il Pico della Mirandola habitava volentieri nella villetta Fesulana. Il Sannazaro se ne stava al suo favorito Pausilipo. Il medesimo fece il Bembo, quel inesausto fonte di scienza. Ma piglieremo noi gli essempi solamente da i morti? Non habbiamo noi hoggidi il prudentissimo S. Gio. Angelo de Medici Cardinale famosissimo, & tempio di Santità & religione? nelle cui lodi non voglio entrare al presente, potendo piu agevolmente trovarne il principio, che’l fine, basta, che in vero si puo ben dire, ch’egli sia uno de’ primi protettori, & ferme colonne della Christiana fede. Questo nobile, & generoso spirito anch’egli è si vago della villa, che nel tempo, che l’alta sua mente da luogo à i piu gravi pensieri, lascia Melano per godere il giocondissimo, anzi beato loco di Frascarolo, ove gli antichi marmi, le superbe muraglie, l’ampie strade, le vive fontane, anzi lucenti & purissimi cristalli; i lieti & felici giardini, gli ameni & foltissimi boschi, l’aura soave, che levando la rabbia del celeste Cane ammollisce il grave & acuto caldo del Sole, quando ritorna ad albergare col fiere Leone; la bella vista, et naturale perspettiva del  54 [i.e., 62]  verde & festeggiante colle, con tutte altre doti della Natura e dell’arte, che desiderare si possano, riempiono gli spettatori della gratiosa villa di gioia, & di meraviglia infinita. Qui viene il saggio & gran Taverna, supremo Cancelliero del Sereniss. Rè di Spagna, & chiarissima luce della gloria Milanese, questi quelle poche hore, che puo rubbare da gl’importantissimi suoi negotii, le dispensa hora ne suoi vaghi giardini di Melano, hora nel fecondissimo suo

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What a joy to see clinging to the slopes The goats grazing on this new shoot and that, And the mountaineer in the densest shade Rousing his reed pipe and his simple verse, To see the ground carpeted with apples, And every tree nigh hidden by its fruit, To see rams locking horns, cattle lowing, And the fields of grain waving like the sea. Now the rude master of the sheep is seen Opening the barricade for his flock, Then, when he goads them with his shepherd’s crook, It is sweet to see how he chides each one, Now one sees the peasant breaking with the rake The hard clods of earth, now wielding the hoe, Now the peasant girl, undressed and barefoot, Stays to spin under a cliff with the geese.57 For similar reasons Ficino withdrew into his Montevecchio. Pico della Mirandola lived happily in the little villa in Fiesole. Sannazaro stayed at his favorite Posillipo. Bembo, that inexhaustable fount of knowledge, did likewise.58 But shall we take these examples only from the dead? Don’t we have today the very prudent Signor Giovanni Angelo de’ Medici, very famous cardinal and temple of saintliness and religion? Into his praises I do not wish to enter at present, being able more easily to find their beginning than their end. It suffices, as can be said truthfully, that he is one of the first protectors and solid pillars of the Christian faith. This noble and generous spirit, even he is so fond of the villa that when his high mind is occupied by the most serious thoughts, he leaves Milan in order to enjoy that very cheerful, indeed blessed place, Frascarolo, where the antique marbles, the proud ramparts, the wide roads, the lively fountains, indeed sparkling and very pure crystals, the delightful and happy gardens, pleasant and very dense woods, the gentle breeze that, dispelling the anger of the celestial Dog, tempers the serious and intense heat of the sun when it returns to lodge with the fierce Lion; the beautiful view and natural perspective of the green and merry hill, with all the other endowments of Nature and of art 57 Vitauro is quoting Angelo Poliziano, Stanze, bk. 1, stanzas 17–19. See Quint’s translation in The Stanze of Angelo Poliziano, p. 11. 58 Vitauro is referring to Pietro Bembo (1470–1547).

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contado di Landriano, et piu nell’aprica villa della famosa Canonica, per la cui vicinanza il Laubro et Monza se ne vanno tanto altieri. Questo luogo è si allegro giocondo, et meraviglioso, che quanto scrisse già mai la Grecia, & Roma delle superbe fabriche, & del gli ameni giardini di Alcinoo, di Atlante, & de gli antichi Re di Media è nulla à paragone del lieto, & ridente colle ch’ivi si vede, la cui vaghezza è tale, che mi fa stupire, qual’hor di lui considero la presenza, l’arte, gli honori, i frutti peregrini, gli arbuscelli, i fiori, l’herbe, gli odori, i ben misurati sentieri, l’acque chiare, che scorrendo per gli herbosi calli, vanno à trar la sete alla verde famiglia di Priapo con si soave mormorio, che fanno invidia à quelle, che in Helicone sono tanto pregiate d’Apollo & dalle dotte sorelle. Taccio le folte selve, ove i Satiri et Pani con le Driadi stanno lieti à cantare i pregi, le pompe, & le  55 [i.e., 63]  richezze dell’ameno luogo. Taccio l’herbe, le radici, & i frutti portati da i longhi confini di Persia, d’India, & di Libia, i quali menano felice vita tra noi, non temendo il freddo spirito di Aquilone, ne la mutatione dell’aria, & del terreno; onde chiaramente si vede come la natura cede alla industria, & per longo uso muta costume. Taccio infinite altre cose degne di consideratione & meraviglia, ch’ivi si veggono, & concludo che tanta è la piacevolezza di questo amenissimo colle, che quelli che vi vengono gli pare di venire in luogo simile à quello, ove dicono habitar gli animi nostri, quando partiti di qua come da un tempestoso mare arrivano in parte, dove fermati, per non estendersi piu oltre il desiderio loro, contenti godono una tranquillità infinita. Hor dove lascio il mio Padrone, & vertuosissimo Monsignor Boromeo, specchio veramente di bontà & di vertù; questi alle volte per ricreare l’animo affaticato nelli suoi honoratissimi studii & discorsi di cose di grandissima importanza, lascia Melano per andarsene à visitare la Regina del laco Maggiore, dico Arona contado suo, & luogo si ameno & gratioso per la bontà dell’aria, per la vicinanza dell’acqua, & per la fertilità del terreno, che la bella riviera non che di Lario, & Benaco, ma di Partenope, & Gaieta con la vaghezza del lor mare Thirreno, & continova verdura  56 [i.e., 64]  di aranzi, limoni et cedri, portano grandissima invidia alle sponde del ricco, famoso, & beato Verbano. Ma dove sete voi signor Gio. Battista Rainoldo Senator meritissimo? à voi tocca pur di honorare questo Dialogo del vostro affettionatissimo Taegio con la chiarezza del vostro nome, à voi tocca di abbellire questa sua Villa, anzi Parnaso, che sete (se la vostra modestia consente, ch’io il dica) supremo ornamento del sacro coro delle Muse, & amicissimo della villa. Hor venga il mio leale, sincero, et cortese Monsignor Ennio Riccio meco congionto in legami d’oro d’amore, 3  3  3

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that can be desired, fill the spectators of the gracious villa with joy and infinite wonder. Here comes the wise and great Taverna, high chancellor of the Most Serene King of Spain, and most brilliant star of Milanese glory. Those few hours he can steal from his very important business affairs, he now conducts in his beautiful gardens in Milan, now in his most fertile county of Landriano, and more in the delightful villa of the famous Canonica, because of the proximity to which Laubro and Monza take so much pride. This place is so very cheerful and wonderful that as much as Greece and Rome wrote of the superb buildings and of the pleasant gardens of Alcinoüs, of Atlas, and of the ancient king of Media, it is nothing by comparison to the delightful and laughing hill that one sees here, the beauty of which is such that it astonishes me, when I consider its appearance, its art, its honors, its peculiar fruits, its shrubs, its flowers, its herbs, its smells, its well-measured paths, its clear waters that, flowing by the grassy paths, quench the thirst of Priapus with their sweet murmurs that arouse the envy of those in Helicon who are so dear to Apollo and the learned sisters. I say nothing of the thick forests, where the Satyrs and Pan’s followers with the Dryads like to sing the praises, and the pomp and the riches of the pleasant place. I say nothing of the herbs, the roots, and the fruits carried from the faraway borders of Persia, India, and Libya, which lead a happy life among us, fearing neither the breath of Aquilo nor the variation of the air and of the land. Hence one clearly sees how nature yields to industry, and how, through long use, it changes custom. I say nothing of countless other things worthy of consideration and wonderment that can be seen here, and I conclude that such is the pleasantness of this very pleasant hill, that to those who come here it seems that they come to a place like the one they say our souls inhabit when, having departed from this life as from a tempestuous sea, they arrive where, rested, never again to reach beyond their desires, content, they enjoy an infinite tranquillity. Now how can I forget my master and most virtuous Monsignor Borromeo, true mirror of goodness and virtue, who at times in order to refresh the mind tired of its studies and to discourse on things of great importance, leaves Milan to go visiting the Queen of Lake Maggiore. I am speaking of his country district Arona, and a place so delightful and pleasing for the goodness of its air, for its proximity to water, and for the fertility of its soil, that the beautiful coast not only so much of Lario and Benaco but also of Naples and Gaeta with the beauty of the Tyrrhenean Sea, and the continual verdure of oranges, lemons, and citrons, greatly envy the shores of the rich, famous, and blessed Verbano.59 59

Lake Maggiore was called Verbanus by the ancient Romans.

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& tale, ch’ei vive nel vuoler mio, & io nel suo di maniera, che fra noi due si verificano que versi d’Horatio, dove dice al suo amato Aritio E quel, che l’uno vuole, e l’altro ancora Vuol parimente, e nega ciò ch’ei nega, Essendo in ambi un’animo fraterno, E vivendo fra noi schietti e sinceri, Si come puri e candidi colombi. In questo honoratissimo gentil’huomo è una cortesia infinita, una bontà fondata con altissime radici, una dottrina varia degna veramente d’huomo nobile, et tutte quelle honorate qualità si possono desiderare; questi è si amico della villa, che sovente fugge la città di Melano per andarsene à Villante suo feudo, & loco si piacevole, & ornato di  57 [i.e., 65]  superbe fabriche, & delicatissimi giardini, quanto altro sia nello stato Melano. Tra questi honoratissimi personaggi viene il cortese & dottissimo Monsignor Sfondrato grande & illustre Senator di Melano, & rarissimo essempio di vertù? questi dopo le molte cure, che gli apporta l’honoratissimo grado suo lascia spesse volte la città per godere l’aperto cielo, & amenità della splendidissima villa di Bellasio. Ma dove resta il dottissimo, & giudicioso signor Cesare Simonetta, il quale con grandissima recreatione d’animo consuma i giorni suoinella piacevole villa di Castellazzo, dove fra infinite cose degne di meraviglia, ha il piu bello & delicato giardino, ch’io mi vedessi mai. Partenio. Deh se non vi annoia, ditemi come è fatto questo giardino. Vitauro. Il loco è cinto d’attorno d’una pongentissima, folta, & larga siepe, la quale non solamente lo difende dalle greggie, & dal furor d’Aquilone: ma alla stagion novella, spargendo soave odore, allegra il ben posto sentiero, & presta il nido à mille vaghi augelletti, che non nove & dolci rime l’aria adolcendo cantano i lor amori. Esso ha d’intorno da se, & per lo mezzo in molte parti con dritta ragione si ben misurate; & a dritto occhio tirate; che essendo pari i cantoni, & faccie uguali, l’occhio al mirar non ne sente offesa alcuna, ne sono le strade troppo ampie, ne strettissime;  58 [i.e., 66]  ma tali, che ben confanno al delicato giardino. l’altre parti poi di questo piacevol loco, ove deono albergare i fiori, & l’herbe surgono quadrate con vago aspetto, & tra lor distinte, et pari. Longo i calli, che s’avolgono intorno à detti quadri s’alza la palidetta salvia, il

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But where are you, Signor Giovanni Battista Rainoldo, very worthy senator? It’s your turn to honor this dialogue of your most devoted Taegio with the splendor of your name. It’s your turn to adorn this your villa, or rather Parnasus, you who are (if your modesty allows me to say it) the supreme ornament of the sacred choir of the muses, and dearest friend of the villa. Now come my faithful, sincere and polite Monsignor Ennio Riccio, tied to me with golden bonds of love, and such that he lives in my will and I in his so that between the two of us those verses of Horace come true, where he says to his beloved Aristius, And what one wants, the other wants, And desires whatever he desires, A brotherly heart existing in both, And living together frank and sincere, Like doves pure and white.60 In this most honored gentleman is an infinite kindness, a goodness established with deepest roots, a varied erudition truly worthy of a noble man, and all those honorable qualities that can be desired; this one is such a friend of the villa that he often escapes the city of Milan in order to go to Villante, his country seat and place as pleasant and adorned with both superb buildings and very delicate gardens as any other in the state of Milan. Among these most honored personnages comes the kind and very scholarly Monsignor Sfondrato, great and illustrious senator of Milan, and very rare example of virtue. This man, after the many cares that his very honorable rank brings him, often leaves the city in order to enjoy the open sky and the amenity of the very splendid villa of Bellasio. But where rests the very scholarly and judicious Signor Cesare Simonetta, who with greatest repose of mind spends his days in the pleasant villa of Castellazzo where, among countless things worthy of wonder, he has the most beautiful and delicate garden that I have ever seen? Partenio: Oh! If you don’t mind, tell me how this garden is made. Vitauro: The place is encircled about by a very prickly, dense, and wide hedge, which not only defends it from the grazing herds, and from Aquilo’s fury, but in Spring, diffusing sweet smells, it gladdens the well-placed path, and it serves as nest to a thousand pretty little birds, which, filling the air with new and sweet songs, sing to their mates. Around its sides, and through the middle in 60 Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Epistles 1.10, “To Aristius Fuscus,” lines 2–5. See Fairclough’s translation in Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica, p. 315.

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verde rosmarino, l’olente spigo, il vago mirto, il crespo buffo, il teneril lentisco, il pongente genebro, il parnasico alloro, l’humil corbazzolo, & altri simili arbuscelli, che ordinatamente posti, & tenuti bassi dalla maestrevol mano del saggio cultore, serrano tutti i sentieri del felice giardino. Il camino principale, che parte il luogo in croce, è cooperto di pergolati di novelle vit, i cui lati sono quasi tutti chiusi di rosai, & gelsomini, che si grande & grato odore rendono per lo giardino, che in vero pare, che vi sieno tutte le specierie dell’Oriente. Et le strade sono si ben difese dal Sole, che d’ogn’hora sotto odorifera et piacavol ombra senza esser tocco da’ raggi di quello vi si puo per tutto andare. Le piante poi sono con meraviglioso ordine poste, e di quelle, che sono tanto lodevoli, che l’aer nostro patiscono quivi n’è grandissima copia; quivi sono senza fine gl’ingeniosi innesti, che con si gran meraviglia al mondo mostrano, quanto sia l’industria d’un accorto giardiniero, che incorporando l’arte con la natura fà, che d’amendue ne riesce una terza natura, la qual causa, che i  67  frutti sieno quivi piu saporiti, che altrove. A’ man destra in capo del giardino n’è un praticello dipinto di mille varietà di fiori, ove l’aure soavi, quasi fra lor scherzando dolcemente fanno tremolar le tenere et minutissime herbette, & in oltre questo amenissimo prato è chiuso intorno di verdi & vivi limoni, aranzi, & cedri, che pendenti, freschi, acerbi, & maturi haveano i pomi loro insieme con i suoi fiori. Taccio gli odorati, pretiosi, & rari arbuscelli, portati fin dalle parti d’India, che illustrano la belezza di questo aprico loco. Taccio uno ombroso, & dilettevole boschetto, ove sorger si vede il drittissimo Abete, la robusta quercia, l’alto frassino, il nodoroso castagno, l’eccel so pino, l’ombroso faggio, il fragile tamarisco, l’incorruttibil tiglia, l’Oriental palma, il funebre cipresso, il durissimo cornio, l’humil salcio, l’amenissimo platano, & altri bellissimi alberi, i quali non sono si discortesi, che con le loro ombre vietino del tutto intrar i raggi del Sole nel bel boschetto, anzi l’herba, che v’e per dentro per diverse parti gratiosamente gli riceve. Quindi poi nascono diverse maniere di canti d’uccelli, i quali si dolcemente cantano, che mentre l’huomo sta intento all loro harmonia spesse siate non s’accorge, che’l loco è pieno forse di mille varietà d’animali. Taccio mille risposti recessi dell’amenissimo giardino, intorno al quale acanto alla siepe con soave mormorio  68  discorre un ruscello d’acqua procedente da una chiara fontana, che sorge nel mezzo d’un grotta, che giace dal canto sinistro del giardino; & dell’acqua, che soprabonda pieno della fontana, parte attornia il giardino, & parte intra in una bellissima peschiera intorno cinta di poggiolo di marmo bianchissimo, & ornata di meravigliosi intagli, marmoree figure, & infinite bellissime antichaie, che pare, che stiano à contemplar la vaghezza della notabile peschiera, ove si veggono i pesci in frotta andar notando,

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many parts it has been well-ordered with right proportions and drawn with sure eye; so that, corners being the same, and sides equal, the eye by looking cannot see anything wrong, nor are the alleys too wide, nor very narrow; but such that they agree well with the delicate garden. The other parts of this pleasant place, where the flowers and the herbs are obliged to dwell, then give rise to squares of beautiful appearance, both distinct one from another, and equal. Beside the paths that wind along the aforementioned squares, the pale salvia grows, the green rosemary, the fragrant lavender, the pretty myrtle, the crinkled box, the tenacious mastic, the prickly juniper, the poetical bay laurel, the lowly strawberry bush, and many other similar shrubs, placed regularly and kept low by the masterful hand of the wise cultivator, enclose all the paths of the successful garden. The main walkway, which subdivides the place in a cross, is covered by a pergola of new vines, whose sides are nearly all covered with roses and jasmine, so that their big and pleasing fragrance makes the garden seem in truth like all the spiceries of the Orient are there. And the alleys are well shaded from the sun, so that one can at all times go everywhere under fragrant and pleasant shade without being touched by its rays. The plants are placed with marvelous order, and there is the greatest abundance of those that are praised so much that they grieve the air here. Here are without end the ingenious grafts that show with great wonder to the world the industry of a wise gardener, who by incorporating art with nature brings forth from both a third nature, which causes the fruits to be more flavorful here than elsewhere. On the right hand at the head of the garden there is a little meadow painted with a thousand varieties of flowers, where the soft breezes, almost joking among themselves, sweetly make the tender and very thin blades of grass tremble, and besides, this very pleasant meadow is closed around by green and living lemons, oranges, and citrons, which have their fruit, hanging fresh, unripe and ripe, together with their flowers. I say nothing of the sweet-smelling, precious, and rare shrubs, brought from parts of India, that make famous the beauty of this sunny place. I say nothing of a shady and delightful wood, where one sees growing the very straight fir tree, the mighty oak, the tall ash, the knotty chestnut, the lofty pine, the shady beech, the delicate tamarisk, the incorruptible linden, the oriental palm, the mournful cypress, the very hard cornel, the humble willow, the very pleasant plane tree, and other very beautiful trees, which are not so inconsiderate that they with their shadows prevent all the rays of the sun from entering the beautiful wood, so that the grass, which grows within various parts, receives it gratefully. Thus different kinds of bird songs arise, which they sweetly sing, so that while a man is absorbed in their close harmony, he does not notice that

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& talhor sguizzando uscir à galla; & l’acqua è si pura, tranquilla, & chiara, che gli occhi de riguardanti senza impedimento alcuno mirano la diversità delle pietruzze, che sono al fondo; & le statue, che sono intorno, come in un ben polio specchio si veggono parimente nell’acqua; ond’io vi prometto e giuro, che alcuna volta nel nascere, & tramontar del Sole, ho visto cose si belle, & meravigliose nella detta peschiera, che mi parea vi fosse un’altro mondo; & si dolce m’era questo errore, che non v’è certezza, che l’agguagliasse. Taccio infiniti altri miracoli di questo loco; Et se non fosse, ch’io non voglio mescolar le favole col vero, dirrei, che quivi, & non in Cipro fosse il regno di Venere, & del suo figliuol Cupido; quivi ogni cosa ride, & è ripiena d’amore, do gioia, & di stupore; quivi sempre si veggono nuove meraviglie et  69  piaceri. Ma che piu, quivi i fiori & l’herbe non solamente dilettano gli ochi corporei de spettatori; ma d’un soavissimo cibo pascono ancora quegli della mente; percio che dentro de quadri si veggono di bellissime imprese con motti molto arguti, & ingenuosi; & cosi quelle come questi sono composti di fiori, & di minute herbette; tal che bisogna ben che siano diligenti quegli occhi, che per spesso, ch’ivi si torni non ritrovino sempre cose nove, & degne di consideratione. Di maniera, che ragionevolmente à questo amenissimo giardino ceder deono gli horti dell’Hesperide, et d’Adoni, et in sua lode sparger si dovrebbono tutti i piu purgati inchiostri. Partenio. Voi havete detto di gran cose; ma (come si dice) mi dubito, che non siate stato per un porro à fare un bel mazzo: ma (se non v’incresce) seguite à dirmi quali sieno quegli huomini di spirito, che lascino le città per le ville. Vitauro. Conoscete il S. Aurelio Cattaneo. Partenio. Conoscolo per un gentilissimo spirito, et huomo di buone lettere. Vitauro. Non ne lascia egli la città di Melano, dove puo starsene agiatamente, per viver nella sua amenissima villa di Cernuschio. Et che dirò di messer Gio. Ambrogio Moneta; Ferrante, & Lodovico, fratelli, i quali, mercè di quegli animi, che si per tempo hanno dato luogo à i maturi & santi pensieri, lasciando gli amori, le feste, e i giochi, che la scapestrata giovenezza porge innanzi à  70  gli altri, nella piacevol villa di Ponte di Seusia, attendono à quella vera Filosofia, che non s’innalza con mentite penne, ne s’aggira per le vanità delle inutili questioni; ma con certi, & fidati passi ne scorge alla salute. Che diremo noi di Monsignor Giulio Simonetta, chiarissima luce della gloria Italiana, non lascia egli sovente la città di Melano per goder la dolcissima compagnia d’Apollo, & delle Muse nell’amena et felicissima villa di Toresella? dove egli

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the place is full of a thousand varieties of animals. I say nothing of the thousand hidden recesses of the very pleasant garden, beside which near the hedge with soft murmur runs a rivulet of water, flowing from a clear fountain that springs forth in the middle of a grotto that lies to the left side of the garden. And of the water that overflows from the fountain; part goes around the garden and part into a very beautiful fishpond surrounding a parapet of whitest marble ornamented with wonderful carving, marble figures, and countless very beautiful antique [statues] that seem to contemplate the beauty of the notable fishpond, where the fish are seen playing in schools and sometimes coming up to the surface splashing. And the water is so pure, calm and clear that the eyes by looking without any impediment gaze on the diversity of the pebbles that are on the bottom. And the statues that are around it are seen likewise in the water as in a well-polished mirror. For I promise and swear to you that sometimes in the rising and the setting of the sun I have seen things so wonderful and beautiful in the aforementioned fishpond that it seems to me there could be another world, and so sweet to me was this delusion that there is no certainty that compares with it. I say nothing of countless other miracles of this place. And if it were not that I would not want to mingle fables with the truth, I would say that there and not in Cypress would be the reign of Venus and of her son Cupid. There everything laughs and is full of love of joy and of amazement; there always new wonders and pleasures are seen. But what’s more, there the flowers and herbs not only delight the corporeal eyes of the spectators, with very sweet food they nourish even those of the mind; for inside frames are seen very beautiful devices with very witty and ingenious mottoes; and so those like these are composed in flowers and tiny herbs; so that it is necessary that those eyes be diligent because, unless they return there frequently, they will not discover some things new and worthy of consideration. So that arguably the gardens of the Hesperides and of Adonis ought to yield to this very pleasant garden, and more purified ink ought to be issued in its praise. Partenio: You have spoken of great things, but (as one says) I doubt that you have stayed by a leek to make a beautiful bouquet. However (if it doesn’t displease you), proceed to tell me who those men of spirit are, who leave the city for the villa. Vitauro: You know Signor Aurelio Cattaneo. Partenio: I know him to be a very gentle spirit and a man of literature. Vitauro: Doesn’t he leave the city of Milan, where he cannot stay comfortably, in order to live in his very pleasant villa of Cernuschio? And what shall I say of Master Giovanni Ambrogio Moneta, Ferrante and Lodovico, brothers, who—

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per la soavità della dottrina, & candore della eloquenza sua è spesse volte visitato da i dotti ingegni, et pellegrini giudicii. Dove lascio il gentil, cortese et vertuoso signor Felippo Rainoldo; il quale nella cognitione delle buone lettere non solo contende con la gloria de gli antichi, ma poggiando per le lor pedate è pervenuto à tanta altezza di lode, & honore, che se gli lascia à dietro; questi è si amico della dolce libertà della villa, che si come il Sole co’raggi sta in terra, non partendosi dal cielo, cosi egli sta co’ pensieri alla sua favorita villa di Novato, non partendosi dalla città di Melano. In questo numero viene il signor Camillo Castiglione specchio della prudenza Milanese, il quale, tutto che l’honoratissimo grado suo lo tenga occupato in un cupo pelago de negocii, pur robba qualche hora per goder un suo amenissimo giardino, c’ha poco discosto di Melano. Perche taccio il generoso,   71  & magnanimo Conte Lodovico Secco, il quale è si vago della villa, et studio delle belle lettere cotanto amiche del silentio delle campagne, che spesse siate abbandona Melano per la sua amenissima villa di Vimercato? In questa nobile compagnia viene il vertuosissimo signor Pomponio Cotta, lucentiss. lume di divinità, il quale fuggendo talvolta dalle noiose carceri di Melano, hor cerca nelle solitudini della sua villa di Varè di perder gli altri huomini per ritrovar se stesso, hor si dà alla caccia, hor al legger cose appartenenti all’agricoltura, et quando al far dipingere imprese con motti tutti pieni di spirito et argutia, che al mondo fan chiara fede della bontà del suo favorito ingegno; & fra le mirabili pitture, che vi sono, si vede l’alta, et incomparabile fabrica del meraviglioso theatro dell’eccellentissimo Giulio Camillo; dove egli con longa fatica nelle sette sopracelesti misure rappresentate per li sette pianeti, trovò ordine capace, bastante distinto, et tale, che tiene sempre il senso sveglisto, & la memoria percossa; & fà non solamente ufficio di conservarci le affidate cose, parole, & arti, che à man salva ad ogni nostro bisogno si possano trovare; ma ci dà ancora la vera sapienta, ne i fonti della quale veniamo in cognitione delle cose dalle cagioni, & non da gli effeti. Partenio. Fra le notabil cose, che dette mi havete di haver visto nelle ville da voi nominate, questo   72  artificioso, mirabile, & divino trovato di Giulio Camillo ottiene il principato; ma (se per cortesia mi concedete, che si faccia una breve digressione) vorrei, che con uno essempio piu chiaramente mi esprimeste l’ultimo effetto, che dite fare questo tanto celebrato & famoso Theatro.

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thanks to their minds, which had early made room for mature and saintly thoughts, leaving their loves, feasts, and games, which the dissolute youth hold out in front of others—in the pleasant villa of Ponte di Seusia, attend to that true philosophy that neither arises from false pens nor concerns itself with the vanity of useless questions; but by sure and reliable steps discerns well-being. What do we say of Monsignor Giulio Simonetta, brightest light of the Italian glory? Doesn’t he frequently leave the city of Milan in order to enjoy the very sweet countryside of Apollo, and of the Muses in the pleasant and very happy villa of Toresella, where he is often visited by brilliant scholars and judicious visitors for the sweetness and splendor of his eloquence? How can I forget the gentle, kind, and virtuous Signor Felippo Rainoldo who in the knowledge of literature not only rivals the glory of the ancients but, following in their footsteps, has reached such heights of praise and honor that if he leaves them behind, he is such a friend of the sweet freedom of the villa that, just as the sun with its rays stays on earth without leaving the sky, so he in his thoughts stays at his favorite villa of Novato without leaving the city of Milan. In this number comes Signor Camillo Castiglione, mirror of Milanese prudence, who, as much as his very honored status holds him captive in a dark sea of business matters, still steals some time in order to enjoy the very pleasant garden that he has a short distance from Milan. For I say nothing of the generous and and magnanimous Count Lodovico Secco, who is himself eager for the villa and the study of literature, such friends of the silence of the countryside, who often leaves Milan for his very pleasant villa of Vimercato? Into this noble countryside comes the very virtuous Signor Pomponio Cotta, very bright light of divinity, who, fleeing sometimes from the tiresome prisons of Milan, now in the solitude of his villa of Vare seeks to lose other men in order to find himself, now to devote himself to the hunt, now to read things pertaining to agriculture, and occasionally to paint devices with mottoes all full of spirit and wit, that give to the world clear testimony of the goodness of his favored genius. And among the admirable pictures that are there, one sees the high and incomparable construction of the wonderful theater of the very excellent Giulio Camillo, where he with sustained effort in the seven supercelestial ranks represented by the seven planets discovered suitable arrangement, distinct enough, and such that it always keeps the faculties aroused and the memory jogged; and not only performs the function of conserving the things, words, and arts entrusted to it, so that satisfaction of our every need can be found on hand,but even gives us true wisdom, from whose founts we come to the knowledge of things by their causes, and not by their effects.

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Vitauro. L’istesso Giulio Camillo vi risponde cosi dicendo. Se noi fossimo in

un gran bosco, & havessimo desiderio di ben vederlo tutto, in quello stando, al desiderio nostro non potremmo sodisfare: percioche la vista intorno volgendo, da noi non se ne potrebbe vedere, se non una piccola parte, impedendoci le piante circonvicine, il vedere delle lontae: ma se vicino à quello vi fosse un’erta, la quale ci condusse sopra un’ alto colle, del bosco uscendo, dall’erta cominciaremo à vedere in gran parte la forma di quello; poi sopra il colle ascesi, tutto intiero il potremo raffigurare. Il bosco è questo nostro mondo inferiore, l’erta sono i cieli; & il colle il sopraceleste mondo. Et à voler bene intendere queste cose inferiori, è necessario di ascendere alle superiori, & di alto in giù guardando di queste potremo havere piu certa cognitione. Partenio. Gran cose in vero si contengono sotto la gran fabrica di questo Theatro: ma perche gli occhi del mio intelletto non possono sofferire la luce de i divini concetti di Giulio Camillo, vorrei, che tornando al vostro propositi perseveraste nella nominatione di quelli, ch’amano la  73  dolcissima libertà della villa. Vitauro. Apresso il mio dolcissimo S. Pomponio Cotta viene il gentile, cortese, & amorevole S. Iacopo Felippo Seregno, il quale con lo splendore della presenza sua spessissime volte illustra la florida villa di Caponago. Questo istesso fà il mio caro, & dolce S. Girolamo da Elle con la sua favorita villa di Niguarda, Et quanto credete voi che siano amici della villa, il S. Pietro Antonio Chiocca, & il S. Ferrante d’Ada, se sequestrati dalla frequentia de gli huomini, et tumulti, che sono nelle città, se ne stanno continuamente in villa. Et, perche lascio à dietro il cortese, et amorevole Monsignor Antonello Arcimboldo, il quale gran parte della sua vita consuma in villa; ne si de’tacer il S. Alessandro Piola, che tutto quel tempo, che puo rubbare da suoi negocii lo dispensa ne’ piaceri della villa d’Inzago. Et quanto dovemo noi pensar, che sia ardente l’animo del gentilissimo S. Gio. Paolo Casato ne’ piaceri della villa, s’egli ha posto tutto il riposo, & tutto il contento dell’animo nel godersi la piacevolissima villa di Robecco. Potrei addurni l’essempio del generoso S. Pietro Novato, della cui vertute mi fa di mestieri, ch’io taccia, per non dir d’alto soggetto, & roco, & poco; questi è tanto amico della villa, che solamente mette à conto di vita quegli anni, che stando ne suoi poderi, trapassa con molta sua sodisfattione.  74  Potrei questo istesso dirvi del S. Enea Torniello academico pastore,

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Partenio: Among the notable things that you told me you had seen in the

villas named by you, this artful, admirable, and divine invention by Giulio Camillo holds the first place; but (if by courtesy you will let me make a brief digression) I would like an example that expresses more clearly the effect you said this so celebrated and famous theater has. Vitauro: The same Giulio Camillo answers you explaining thus. If we should find ourselves in a vast forest, and if we should desire to see it all well, we should not be able to satisfy our desire from that position because the view turning around, except for a small part, could not be seen by us, the nearby surrounding plants impeding the view of the distance. But if, near to this [forest], there were a steep path, which were to lead us up a high hill, coming out of the forest, we would begin to see from the slope a large part of the form of that [forest]. Then, climbing to the top of the hill, we would be able to recognize everything around. The forest is this our inferior world, the steep path is the heavens; and the hill the supercelestial world. And in order to understand well these inferior things, it is necessary to ascend to the superior, and by looking down from on high, we can have more certain knowledge of these [inferior things].61 Partenio: Great things in truth are contained within the great construction of this Theater; but because the eyes of my intellect are not able to endure the light of the divine concepts of Giulio Camillo, I would like to return to your persistent purpose in the naming of those who love the very sweet freedom of the villa. Vitauro: After my very sweet Signor Pomponio Cotta comes the polite, kind, and loving Signor Iacopo Felippo Seregno, who with the splendor of his presence very often makes famous the flourishing villa of Caponago. My dear, sweet Signor Girolamo da Elle did the same thing with his favorite villa of Niguarda. And how many you know who are friends of the villa, Signor Pietro Antonio Chiocca and Signor Ferrante d’Ada, who, having sequestered themselves from the frequency of men and tumults, remain continually in villa. And why shall I leave out the kind and loving Monsignor Antonello Arcimboldo, who spends a great part of his life in villa; not to mention Signor Alessandro Piola, who allots all the time he can steal away from his business affairs in the pleasures of the villa of Inzago. And we ought to consider as well how passion61 Vitauro is quoting Giulio Camillo’s description of his Memory Theatre published in L’Idea del Theatro (Florence, 1550), pp. 11–12. Cited in Frances A. Yates, The Art of Memory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1966), p. 143.

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alla cui zampogna piu à gloriami terrei di poter metter la bocca, ch’alla Tibia di Pallade, per cui l’insolente Satiro con suo danno provocò Apollo. Ma dove resta il nobile & vertuoso S. Gio. Francesco Torniello Giureconsulto eccellentissimo, il quale, come si puo sbrigar, ò per dir meglio, far un poco di tregua con i negocii, che quasi continuamente lo tengono occupato in Novara, per rispetto del suo honoratissimo grado, se ne fugge all’aprico, et felicissimo colle di Vergano, dove con gran tranquillità d’animo gode la libertà & i piaceri della villa? Che debbo dire del giudicioso & amorevole S. Camillo Gallarato, il quale col corpo stà in Novara, & con la mente va filosofando per li riposti lochi del monte Parnaso? Et perche non illustro il mio ragionamento con lo splendore del chiaro nome della Signora Violante Sforza, la quale tra le donne è un Sole, che con la vertù de raggi suoi accende, & infiamma ciascuno, che per sua buona sorte la vede à vero desio d’honore; questa generosa Donna è si vaga de gli honesti diporti della villa, che spesse volte lascia Melano per visitare gli ameni giardini di Caravaggio. Dopo lei viene la nobilissima, & magnanima Contessa Massimigliana, la quale, non come donna; ma come cosa non mortale riverir si deve;  75  perciò ch’ella di vera religione ornata è tutta piena del timor di Dio, & ogni sua parola, gesto, & atto è chiaro testimonio di somma modestia, & di quella tanto lodata honestà, che tra le vertù delle donne ottiene il primo loco; Questa miracolosa donna, per sapere quanto sia accomodata la villa all’altezza de suoi santi pensieri, et quanto l’ingegno svegliato dal loco spinga gli spirti generosi alla contemplatione, sovente cangia Melano col suo feliciss. Cusago. Hor dove lascio l’honoratissima S. Ginevra Bentivoglia, che in compagnia di Diana, & delle caste sue ninfe per colli, piaggi, valli, & boschi va tutto di seguendo le fuggitive fiere? Ne si dè lasciar à dietro la divinissima Cavalliera Visconte & Fiesca, rarissimo essempio di honestà, con la quale coronando et adornando l’incomprensibile bellezza sua, che dal volto, dalle parole, & dalle maniere fulgentissima splende, rende felice questa nostra etade; & à quelli, che hanno si forte intelletto, che non si abbagliano nello splendore delle vertù & bellezze, che sono in lei, fà palese quanto in donne possa porre di perfettione la natura; Et perche, come buona moglie arde nella voglia del suo amatissimo consorte agghiacciando ne’ proprii affetti, conoscendo, che’l magnanimo Cavalliero Visconte è molto vago della caccia, & de gli altri honesti trastulli della villa, anch’ella vuole ciò ch’ei vuole;  76  & lascia volontieri Melano per goder insieme con esso lui l’amenità della felicissima villa di Gropello; ne di ciò

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ate about the pleasures of the villa is the very gentle Signor Giovanni Paolo Casato, who put all the repose and all the contentment of his mind into enjoying the very pleasant villa of Robecco. I could cite the example of the generous Signor Pietro Novato, whose virtue is such a marvel to me that I would rather say nothing than to speak in a low manner of a high subject. This man is such a friend of the villa that he counts worthy of life only those years he passes staying on his estate, to his great satisfaction. I could say the same of Signor Enea Torniello, academic pastor, to whose pipes I consider myself more able to put the mouth for glory, than to the leg bone of Athena, with which the insolent Satyr, to his loss, provoked Apollo.62 But where is the noble and virtuous Signor Giovanni Francesco Torniello, very excellent jurist, who, as he is able to free himself, or, to put it better, as he is able to make a little truce with the business affairs that continually keep him busy in Novara, with respect to his very honored status, he escapes to the sunny and very happy hill of Vergano, where with great tranquillity of mind he enjoys the freedoms and pleasures of the villa? What should I say of the judicious and loving Signor Camillo Gallarato, who with the body remains in Novara and with the mind goes philosophizing toward the restful places of Mount Parnassus? And why don’t I illustrate my argument with the splendor of the brilliant name of Signora Violante Sforza, who is a sun among women, which rises with the virtue of its rays, and inflames everyone, because through her good fortune one looks into the true desire of honor; this generous woman is so fond of the honest pastimes of the villa that she often leaves Milan to visit the pleasant gardens of Caravaggio. After her comes the very noble and magnanimous Countess Maximiliana, whom one ought to revere not as a woman but as an immortal, for she, adorned with true religion, is completely full of the fear of God, and every word, gesture, and act of hers is clear testimony to the highest modesty, and to honesty so praiseworthy that among the virtues of women it occupies first place. This marvelous woman, in order to know how much the villa is suited to the heights of holy thoughts, and how much ingenuity aroused by the place propels the generous spirits toward contemplation, often exchanges Milan for her very happy Cusago. Now how can I forget the very honored Signora Ginerva Bentivoglia who, in the company of Diana and her caste of nymphs, goes everywhere following the wild beasts through hills, coasts, valleys, and woods? Neither ought I to leave out the very divine Cavalliera Visconte and Fiesca, very This is a reference to the story of the contest between Apollo and Marsyas. See Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, vol. 1 (Baltimore, Penguin Books, 1960), p. 77. 62

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mi meraviglio, sendo ella un ricchissimo & abondantissimo fonte d’ogni vertù, & per esser nata & nodrita nello allegro, fiorito, & beatissimo colle di Cravacuore; dove la bontà dell’aria, lo perpetuo verdeggiar delle costiere, la vaghezza di fiori, la vivezza de fonti, l’ombra delli boschetti, la piacevolezza delle grotte, il refrigerio dell’aura, il mororar dell’acque, il lamentar de gli uccelli, con infinite altre cosi simili, serbano sempre & giovani, & lieti gli habitatori del felicissimo colle; & per me certamente mette solamente à conto di vita quel tempo, che (già fuggito per le guerre) stetti nel castello di Cravacuore in compagnia del gentilissimo et vertuosissimo S. Pietro Luca Fiesco, lucentissimo specchio di divinità, & huomo si amico della quiete della villa, che lascia la floridissima città di Genova per vivere nel suo piacevole, et non mai à bastanza lodato colle di Cravacuore. Et perche taccio la bellissima & honestissima S. Faustina, che fu moglie dell’honorata et felice memoria del S. Felippo Sacco Presidente dell’eccellentissimo Senato di Melano, questa rara & gloriosa donna il piu del tempo se ne sta in una sua florida & splendissima villa; dove ha un bellissimo, et mirabile girdino copioso di pellegrine piante, & pretiosi fiori, che da una  77  chiarissima fontana per diversi ruscelli vengono bagnati. Et perche passo con silentio la bella, leggiadra & vertuoissima S. Isabella Vistarina, nella quale risplende un raggio di divinità; onde non solamente qualunche gran donna de nostri tempi; ma ciascuna delle antiche (al giudicio mio) aggualia di valore, bellezza, & leggiadria; questa sapendo quanto meglio l’ingegno fiorisca nelle fiorite & apriche piagge, che nelli chiusi alberghi delle città, buona parte dell’anno dispensa nelle sue amenissime ville. Taccio la gentilissima S. Giovanna de Bosii, che ogni anno lascia la città di Vigevano per venir in compagnia del suo dolcissimo consorte à godere l’amenità della gioconda & gloriosa villa di Robecco. Taccio la nobilissima & vertuosissima S. Vittoria Amadea, & Crivella; la quale parte dell’anno dispensa della vaga et gratiosa villa d’Inzago insieme col suo caro consorte. Taccio l’honoratissima & valorosa S. Bianca Pansana Carcana, la quale col suo amatissimo consorte spende la maggior parte del tempo nel suo favorito Taserra, & ameniss. colle della Piene d’Anzino; one si veggono meraviglie infinite, & Gratie, ch’à pochi il ciel largo destina. Taccio

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rare example of honesty, with whom crowning and adorning her incredible beauty that shines by turns through words and through resplendent manners, renders happy this our age; and to those who have such strong intellect that they are not dazzled by the splendor of the virtues and beauties that are in her make clear how much perfection nature can put in women; and as a good wife, disavowing all other affections, burns with desire for her very beloved husband, so she, knowing that the magnanimous Cavalliero Visconte is very fond of the hunt and by the other honorable amusements of the villa, even wants what he wants;63 and freely leaves Milan in order to enjoy together with him the amenity of the very happy villa of Gropello. Nor do I wonder at it, she being a very rich and a very abundant fount of every virtue, and by being born and raised in the cheerful, flowery, and very blessed hills of Cravacuore, where the goodness of the air, the perpetual verdure of the coasts, the prettiness of the flowers, the liveliness of the fountains, the shade of the little woods, the delightfulness of the grottoes, the coolness of the breeze, the murmuring of the waters, the singing of the birds, with countless other similar things, keep the inhabitants of the very happy hills always both young and cheerful; and in my opinion certainly only that time is worthy of counting as life64 that (already having escaped the wars) is spent in the castle of Cravacuore in the company of the very gentle and virtuous Signor Pietro Luca Fiesco, very clear mirror of divinity and a man who is such a friend of the quiet of the villa that he leaves the very flourishing city of Genoa in order to live in his delightful and not yet sufficiently praised hills of Cravacuore. And why do I say nothing of the very beautiful and honorable Signora Faustina, who was wife of the honored and happy memory of Signor Felippo Sacco, president of the very excellent Senate of Milan, this rare and glorious woman most of the time stays in her thriving and very splendid villa; where she has a very beautiful and admirable garden full of exotic plants and precious flowers, which are watered from one very clear fountain through diverse rivulets. And why do I pass over in silence the beautiful, graceful, and very virtuous Signora Isabella Vistarina, in whom glitters a ray of divinity; so that she equals not only any great lady of our times

63 Here Vitauro is recalling Horace, Epistles 1.10, “To Aristius Fuscus,” line 2, which he paraphrased on p. 56 [i.e., 64]. 64 Vitauro recalls Petrarch, who, in his old age, reflected that only the years he spent at his villa in Vaucluse merited the name “life,” the rest having been “torture.” See Francesco Petrarca, Rerum Senilium libri, bk. 10, letter 2, in Letters from Petrarch, trans. Morris Bishop (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), p. 268.

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infinite altre Illust. belle, & honestissime donne, che nominar potrei; le quali sono piu amiche della quiete della villa, che del romore della cità, & vengo al giudicioso  78  S. Francesco Saoli; il quale, oltre l’esser nobilissimo, & de i piu chiari lumi della sua patria, tale si dimostra ne suoi componimenti tutti ripieni di dottrina, di spirito, & d’artificio, che non è, che non prezzi, & ammiri i pretiosi frutti della sua dotta penna; questi anch’egli lascia spesse siate i lascivi amori delle città per trastullarsi in villa, quando co’ libri, & quando con la caccia. Ma voi Monsignor Terracina, dove sete? à voi piace pur la solitudine delle campagne, à voi diletta pur la coltura, & splendidezza de giardini, & à voi le sacre Muse prestano pur i calami suoi bagnati ne dottissimi inchiostri, che solgliono temprare nell’acque Castalie, quando dalle lor fatiche vengono asciugati; & chi m’allontana dalla memoria lo svegliato & pellegrino ingegno del S. Giulio Claro grande & illustre Senator di Melano, ornato di bellissime lettere, & huomo tanto universale, che quegli, che leggono gli scritti suoi, dubitano s’egli piu filosofo sia, che oratore, piu leggista, che mathematico, piu mathematico, che naturale, piu naturale, che theologo, piu theologo, che profeta, & finalmente piu profeta, che miracol di natura; questi anch’egli è tanto amico della villa, che buona parte dell’anno vi consumerebbe, se non fosse l’impe dimento del suo honoratissimo grado. Et perche non viene in compagnia di questi spiriti generosi l’honoratissimo & divino  79  S. Cabrio Panigarola, soggetto da stancar tutte le dotte penne de i piu pregiati scrittori; questi con una mirabil vaghezza di parole, & regal maestà di sententie, passando per tutte le vie de gli humani affetti, con piacevol movimento & dolcezza in maniera se insignorisce dell’altrui voglie, & regge il freno de gli animi nostri, che fa stupir il mondo con la gran forza della sua felice lingua; questi anch’egli è si vago de i piaceri della villa, & de i giardini, che dallo splendore & vaghezza de suoi ameni poderi, ben si conosce quanto sia rara la ballezza dell’animo suo. Hor venga il Conte Girolamo Crotto Cavaliero honorato, Giureconsulto eccellente, oratore meraviglioso, & illustre agricoltore; questi nella sua bellissima villa di Robbio ha fatto far giardini delicatissimi, dove spiegate si veggono tutte le pompe della nobile arte dell’agricoltura. Ma che dirò di voi S. Annibal carro, che per le meravigliose vostre qualità in luogo d’incensi meritate sempre i soavissimi odori di que fiori, che tutto di cogliono le dotte ninfe nella sommità di Parnaso, à voi piace pur sommamente la liberta della villa, come quella, che è molto piu atta alli nostri honoratissimi studii, che la servitù della città . In questo numero viene il S. Alessandro Piccolomini filosofo eccell. il qual compose la maggior parte dell’opere sue in villa, & in quel suo felice & tanto meraviglioso   80  giardino di Siena, del quale è sparsa la fama per tutta Italia.

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but every one of the ancient ones (in my judgment) in valor, beauty, and gracefulness. This woman, knowing how much better the mind flourishes on the flowery and sunny slopes than in the closed dwellings of the city, allots a good part of the year to her very pleasant villa. I say nothing of the very gentle Signora Giovanna de Bosii, who leaves the city of Vigevano every year in order to go in the company of her very sweet husband to enjoy the pleasures of the jolly and glorious villa of Robecco. I say nothing of the very noble and virtuous Signora Vittoria Amadea and Crivella, who allots part of the year to the pretty and gracious villa of Inzago together with her husband. I say nothing of the very honorable and valorous Signora Bianca Pansana Carcana, who with her very beloved husband spends most of the time in her favorite Tassera, and the very pleasant hills of the Piene d’Anzino, where countless marvels are seen, and Graces, which heaven generously decrees for a few. I say nothing of countless other illustrious, beautiful, and very honorable women, whom I could name, who are friends more of the quiet of the villa than of the noise of the city. And I come to the judicious Signor Francesco Saoli, who, besides being very noble, and of the brighter lights of his country, as is shown in his writings all full of learning, spirit, and artifice—for there is no one who does not prize and admire the precious fruits of his learned pen—also frequently leaves alone the overripe and wanton loves of the city in order to amuse himself in villa, sometimes with books, and sometimes with the hunt. But you, Monsignor Terracina, where are you? To you only the solitude of the countryside is pleasing, to you only the culture and splendor of the gardens is delightful, and to you the sacred muses present only their quills bathed in the most learned ink, which they used to temper in the Castalian waters when from use they had become dried; and who takes me away by memory to the wide-awake and far-reaching mind of Signor Giulio Claro, great and illustrious senator of Milan, adorned with very beautiful letters, and such a universal man that those who read his writings suspect that he is more philosopher than orator, more lawyer than mathematician, more mathematician than naturalist, more naturalist than theologian, more theologian than prophet, and finally more prophet than miracle of nature. This man too is such a friend of the villa that he would consume a good part of the year there if it were not for the impediment of his very honored status. And why doesn’t the very honored and divine Signor Cabrio Panigarola, liable from wearying all the learned pens of the more esteemed writers, join the company of these generous spirits. This man, with a marvelous beauty of words and regal majesty of sentences, passing through all the ways of human affections with pleasing movement and sweetness of manner, makes himself master of the wills

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Hor venga il divinissimo S. Spron Sproni, il quale in si fatta maniera l’anima de suoi vaghi & dotti componimenti toglie da i sacri fonti della filosofia, & il corpo da i fioriti giardini della poesia, & dell’arte oratoria, che, se (come dice Pithagora) l’anime nostre passassero dall’un corpo all’altro dirrei, che Demosthene, Cicerone, Homero, & Vergilio fossero tutti insieme in lui, per la meraviglia, che dà al mondo dell’altezza del suo divino ingegno; questi anch’egli è tanto amico della villa, che niente piu. Ma perche passo con silentio l’eruditissimo S. Claudio Tolomei, il quale gran parte dell’anno sequestrato dalli romori delle città, se ne gode il silentio, & solitudine della villa, rinforzando la sua vechiezza con lo accrescer de i beni dell’animo. Hor dove sete voi il mio S. Gioseppe Bettusi, voi chiamo in testimonio dell’amicitia, che fu sempre tra la villa, & la vita contemplativa; noi provate pur tutto di quanto sia dolce la libertà delle campagne, & soave lo studio della filosofia. Ma dove resta il dotto & valoroso S. Conte Clemente da Preda, il quale è si vago della villa, c’ha lasciato Melano, & Pavia, per andarsene à goder gli ameni colli di Firenze in compagnia del dottissimo, & facondissimo S. Lodovico Domenichi, il. quale s’è procacciato vita dopo la morte con l’anima de gli  81  inchiostri, & con lo spirito delle penne; ne manca tutto il giorno di far cose, che al mondo fanno chiaro testimonio della finezza del suo ingegno, & danno altrui piu tosto causa di meravigliarsi, che ardire di poterle imitare; questi anch’egli è molto amico della villa, et dell’allegria delle campagne. Et perche taccio il nobile, & gentilissimo Monsignor Landriano con la sua favorita villa di Vidigolfo, dove ha un florido & incomparabile giardino, nel quale oltre l’arte infinite meraviglie, ch’ivi sono, in mezzo d’una bellissima peschiera giace una si molle, delicata, & piacevole isoletta, copiosa d’aranzi, cedri, & limoni, & ripiena di diversi, & mansueti animali, che ragionevolmente alla vaghezza di lei ceder dovrebbe la bella isola di Citharea, di Colco, d’Ithaca, di Ogigia, di Baia, d’Andro, di Cipro, d’Utica, di Etalia, di Leno, d’Ischia, con quante altre famose isole furono mai? Et perche non si mette in questo rollo il divino ingegno del mio S. Antonio Volpe, il quale ha con la dottrina delle buone arti accompagnato il conoscimento delle poetiche, et oratorie discipline in si fatta maniera, che non v’è huomo, per dotto, facondo, & giudicioso, che sia, che si bene, come egli, l’humili cose alzando, le alte abbassando, le lascive honestando, & alle lievi dando gravità, i suoi concetti spieghi; questi qualhor fa tregna con le facende sue si ritira in villa,  82  overamente al famoso museo della felice memoria del dottissimo Giovio, & quivi (con gran quiete d’animo) se ne gode i piaceri della villa. Et dove resta lo svegliato, raro, & divino ingegno di Monsignor di Brera, il giovane dico, il quale ne i pretiosi frutti di suo pellegrino ingegno, con

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of others, and governs control of our minds, so that he amazes the world with the great force of his happy language. This man also is so fond of the pleasures of the villa, and of the gardens, that by the splendor and charm of his pleasant estates one knows well how rare the beauty of his mind is. Now come, honored Count Girolamo Crotto Cavaliero, excellent jurist, marvelous orator, and illustrious farmer. This man has made very delicate gardens in his very beautiful villa of Robbio, where all the pomp of the noble art of agriculture is seen unfolded. But what shall I say of you, Signor Annibal Carro, who for your wonderful qualities esteems in place of incense the very sweet smells of all those flowers that the learned nymphs on the summit of Parnasus gather? You are greatly pleased only by the freedom of the villa, as that which is much more conducive to our very honorable studies than the slavery of the city. In this number comes Signor Alessandro Piccolomini, very excellent philosopher, who composes the greatest part of his works in villa, and in his happy and so wonderful garden of Siena, the fame of which has spread throughout all Italy. Now come, very divine Signor Spron Sproni, who takes the soul of his charming and learned essays from the sacred forests of philosophy, and the body from the flowery gardens of poetry and of the art of rhetoric, in such a way that if (as Pythagoras says) our souls pass from one body to the other, I would say that Demosthenes, Cicero, Homer, and Virgil were all together in him, on account of the marvel that he gives to the world from the height of his divine mind; this man also is such a great friend of the villa that nothing more [need be said]. But why do I pass with silence the very erudite Signor Claudio Tolomei, who, sequestered from the noise of cities for a great part of the year, enjoys the silence and solitude of the villa, fortifying his old age with the increase of the gifts of the mind? Now where are you, my Signor Gioseppe Bettusi? I call you in testimony of the friendship that always will be between the villa and the contemplative life. You show to all how many are the sweet freedoms of the countryside, and how sweet the study of philosophy. But where is the learned and valorous Count Clemente da Preda, who is himself fond of the villa? He left Milan and Pavia in order to get to enjoy the pleasant hills of Florence in the company of the very learned and eloquent Signor Lodovico Domenichi, who has obtained life after death with the soul of the inks, and with the spirit of the pens; nor does he neglect every day to do things that provide clear testimony of the fineness of his mind, and that give others, who yearn to be able to imitate him, better reason to marvel at him. This man also is a great friend of the villa, and of the cheerfulness of the countryside. And why don’t I speak of the noble and very gentle Monsignor Landriano with his favorite villa of Vidigolfo, where

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una fiorita Primavera di parole scielte, & con un fruttifero Autonno di leggiadri concetti, va si ben tessendo l’utile col diletto, ch’ei viver à immortale nella memoria de gli huomini; & tutto, ch’egli habbia nel piu alto loco dell’anima sua la deità di Pallade, non si scorda però di Diana, in compagnia della quale spesse volte cacciandole fiere à visitar se ne và tutti gli boscarecci Dii. Et perche passo con silentio lo Illust. splendido, & liberalissimo Monsignor Ottaviano Arcimboldo, huomo di lettere, & costumi, tempio di vera religione, & si rara essempio di bontà, che ogn’uno ama, osserva, & quasi adora la bellezza & candore dell’animo suo; questi anch’egli è si affettionato alla villa di Viboldone, che’l piu del tempo vi dimora con tutti quelli honesti piaceri, che si possano pigliare in simili luoghi. Hor dove resta il valorosa S. Vicenzo Falcultio Senator eccellente, & persona di gran merito, & tanto vaga della villa, che tutto il tempo, che gli avanza dall’ufficio suo lo spende nello piacevole, & felice Mirabello veramente bello da mirare, quanto altro ameno  83  luogo si trovi nell’Insubria. Et perche non si de ascrivere à questo honorato rollo il gentillissimo, & dottissimo S. Gio. Francesco Sormano Vicario generale dell’ Arcivescovo di Melano, & amicissimo della villa? Et che diremo del Magnifico & liberale S. Gio. Paolo Cusano col suo famoso, segnalato, & felicissimo giardino, c’ha nella splendida & floridissima villa di Cusano, dove tutta la nobilità d’Italia concorre à vedere le meraviglie dell’amenissimo loco, quivi l’ordine meraviglioso, la eleganza & novità de fiori, le zifere, & groppo fatti di minutissime herbette, la bella dispositione delle piante forestiere tutte poste con una parità, ordine, misura, & dirittezza incredibile; i pretiosi semplici, ch’ivi si veggono si verdi & lieti d’ogni tempo, che quasi dir si potrebbe, ch’ivi entro fosse La Sythia, l’Ethiopia, i Gadi, e gl’Indi; Le piacevoli verdure intessute di busso; l’artificioso monticello, dove si veggono tanti pastori, luoghi di Heremiti, grotte, Satiri, Fauni, Selvani, Driadi, et acque chiarissime, che da tutti i lati surgendo porgono alli spettatori non manco meraviglia, & piacere, che già si facesse à Lissandro Lacedemonio lo mirabile, & celebratissimo giardino di Ciro Rè de Persi. Hor dove lascio il generoso S. Gio. Battista Zarbellone; huomo si ripieno di vertù,  84  & gentilezza, che spira sempre fuor qualche bello effetto conforme alla nobiltà dell’animo suo, questi mena parte de suoi giorni tranquilli nella gratiosa villa di Gorgonzola, loco si bello & ameno, che fa istupire chi lo vede. In questo numero viene il magnanimo & illustre Conte Mauritio da Preda Vescovo di Vigevano, & Senator di Melano, il quale non è meno amico de gli honesti piaceri della villa, ch’ei sia de gli honoratissimi studi delle belle lettere. Hor dove lascio il gentile, cortese, & vertusissimo signor Camillo Porro Giureconsulto eccell. & huomo di si gran valor, & consiglio,

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he has a flourishing and incomparable garden, in which, besides the countless marvelous arts that are there, in the middle of a very beautiful fishpond lies a smooth, delicate, and pleasant island, full of oranges, citrons, and lemons, and replete with diverse and tame animals, so that arguably, shouldn’t the beautiful islands of Cythara, Colchis, Ithaca, Baia, Andros, Cypress, Utica, Etalia, Lemnos, Ischia, and however many other famous islands there might be, yield to its beauty? And why doesn’t one put on this list the divine mind of my Signor Antonio Volpe, who has, coupled with the doctrine of the fine arts, the knowledge of the poetical and rhetorical disciplines, in such a way that there isn’t a man who is as good for learning, eloquence, and judiciousness as he, raising up the humble things, bringing low the high, chastening the lascivious, and to lightness giving weight, his ideas explained. This man, whenever he takes a rest from working, retires in villa, moreover to the famous museum of the happy memory of the very learned Giovio, where (with great quietude of mind) he enjoys the pleasures of the villa. And where is the quick-witted, rare, and divine mind of Monsignor di Brera, the young man I say, who in the precious fruit of his far-reaching mind, with a flowery Spring of words chosen, and with a fruitful Autumn of lovely ideas, holds together the useful with the delightful, so that he would live forever in the memory of men? And although he has the goddess Athena in the highest place of his heart, he does not, however, forget about Diana, in whose company, frequently hunting beasts, he even gets to visit the sylvan haunts of the gods. And why do I pass with silence the illustrious, splendid, and very liberal Monsignor Ottaviano Arcimboldo, man of letters and manners, temple of true religion, and even rare example of goodness, so that everyone loves, notices, and almost adores the beauty and openness of his mind. This man also is enamored of the villa of Viboldone, so that he lingers there most of the time with all of those honorable pleasures that one can have in such places. Now where is the valorous Signor Vicenzo Falcultio, excellent senator and person of great merit, and so fond of the villa that he spends all the time that remains to him from his work in the pleasant and happy Mirabello, truly beautiful to admire, as highly pleasant a place as one finds in Insubria? And why not inscribe on this honored list the very gentle and very learned Signor Giovanni Francesco Sormano, vicar general of the archbishop of Milan, and very good friend of the villa? And what shall I say of the magnificent and liberal Signor Giovanni Paolo Cusano with his famous, distinguished, and very happy garden, which he has in the splendid and very thriving villa of Cusano. There all the nobility of Italy gather to see the marvels of the very pleasant place, where the marvelous order, the elegance, and the novelty of flowers, figures, and

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ch’io non ma’assicuro entrar nel campo delle sue lodi, anzi, come notturno augello, non posso fermar gli occhi nel Sole de i meriti suoi degni veramente della dotta penna di M. Tullio, ò di Demosthene; Ma si come già non fu lecito ad alcuno dipintore, ne scultore di rappresentar l’imagine di Alessandro Magno, fuor ch’a Lisippo, & Apelle, & pur non restavano perciò gli altri dipintori di ridurre il regio aspetto ne i loro essempi; cosi hora interviene al mio dolcissimo S. Camillo, soggetto solamente degno del detto Greco, & latino Oratore, & pur l’amore & servitù, ch’io porto alla vertù sua mi sforza à dire, ch’egli ha l’animo suo adorno di tutte quelle lodevole parti, che si ricercano nella vera, honorata, & felice vita dell’huomo nato nobile,  85  et che supera nella vertù Heroica non solo qualunque gran personaggio, che ne i tempi nostri si trovi; ma ciascheduno de gli antichi; onde essendo egli arrivato all’indivisibil ponto, dove consiste il mezzo di tutte le vertù, rende felice, famosa, & divina la città di Melano infiammando ogn’uno col suo raro essempio à vero desio d’honore et gloria; questi anch’egli prende un diletto incredibile di vedere le ville sue belle, liete, & ben coltivate; Del che ne fà chiara fede lo felice e beato loco di Calvairato, dove ogni cosa ride, & si mostra di gioia, et d’amor ripiena; & dove l’acqua (ch’è l’anima, et lo spirito del terreno) è si abondante, che da ogni banda surger si veggono vive fontane, che scorrendo per diversi ruscelli con soave mormorio vanno irrigando tutte le parti dell’ameno giardino. Quivi ritratti dalla natura, & dall’arte si veggono i superbi vivai di Lucullo; i famosi bagni di Gordiano; l’amenissimo boschetto di Tiberio, & il luogo riposto della Capriola, gli uccellatori di Cesare Augusto, i pomi d’oro dell’Hesperide, & finalmente tutte quelle delitie, che anticamente furono ne i delicati giardini di Media. Tra questi viene il molto illustre & valoroso S. Alessandro Castiglione Cavalliero di gran nome, ornato d’armi, di lettere, & di costumi, & sopra tutto d’una dolcissima honestà, & d’una honestissima dolcezza, al quale, mentre studiavo in Pavia sono  86  stato amico, & hora per le sue rarissime, & meravigliose qualità l’ho in somma riverenza, & tanto piu l’amo & osservo, quanto intendo ch’egli è amicissimo di tutti i trastulli della villa, che si convegono ad huomo nobile & ben creato. Questo istesso si puo dire del suo gentilissimo fratello il S. Gio. Francesco Castiglione, huomo parimente di gran merito, & vago anch’egli della villa, & dell’amenità & allegria delle campagne. Ne si dè passar con silentio il mio dolcissimo, & cortese signor Gioseppe Giossano rarissimo essempio di vertù & bontà; questi quelle poche hore, che gli avanzano dal suo honoratissimo ufficio del dottorato le dispensa nell’amenissima villa di Giossano, hora in compagnia d’Apollo, & delle Muse, hor conla caccia, alcuna volta con l’uccellare, spesso con la pescaggione, quando con l’agricoltura d’un

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mature clumps of the smallest herbs, the beautiful arrangement of the forest plants all placed with a regularity, order, measure, and incredible uprightness; the precious simples, seen there so green and thriving in every season that one could almost say that one had entered Sythia, Ethiopia, Gades, and the Indies; the delightful foliage woven of box; the little artificial mountain where one sees so many pastures, places of hermits, grottoes, Satyrs, Fauns, Sylvans, Dryads, and very clear waters, which, emerging from all sides, offer the spectator no less wonderment and pleasure than if they had been made before by the admirable Spartan Lysander, and the very celebrated garden of Cyrus, king of Persia. Now how can I forget the generous Signor Giovanni Battista Zarbellone, man full of virtue and gentleness, who always inspires beyond a few beautiful effects in keeping with the nobility of his mind; this man conducts some of his tranquil days in the gracious villa of Gorgonzola, place of beauty and pleasure, which astounds those who see it. In this number comes the magnanimous and illustrious Count Mauritio da Preda, bishop of Vigevano and senator of Milan, who is no less a friend of the honorable pleasures of the villa than he is of the very honorable studies of literature. Now how can I forget the gentle, kind, and very virtuous Signor Camillo Porro, excellent jurist and man of such great valor and counsel that I make sure never to enter into the sphere of his praises unless, like a nocturnal bird, I cannot close my eyes in the sun of his merits truly worthy of the learned pen of M. Tullius, or of Demosthenes? But even as in the past it was unlawful for any painter or sculptor except Lysippus and Apelle to represent the image of Alexander the Great—and even they did not prevent other painters from adapting the royal appearance in their examples—so now it happens to my very sweet Signor Camillo, only worthy subject of the aforementioned Greek and Latin orators, and still the love and servitude that I carry to his virtue forces me to say that he has his mind adorned with all those praiseworthy parts that are discovered in the true, honorable, and happy life of the noble-born, and he surpasses in heroic virtue not only those great personages whom one finds in our times but also every one of the ancients. Therefore, having arrived at the invisible point at the center of all the virtues, he renders happy, famous, and divine the city of Milan, inflaming everyone with his rare example of true desire for honor and glory. This man also derives incredible pleasure from looking at his beautiful, charming, and cultivated villas, to which clear testimony is given by the happy and blessed place of Calvairato, where everything laughs and is full of joy and love, and where the water (which is the soul and spirit of the land) is abundant, where emerging from every side are seen lively fountains that, flowing through diverse channels with sweet mur-

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suo aprico et florido giardino, & quando nel comertio d’altri honoratissimi gentihuomini. Questo istesso fà nella piacevole villa di Arluno il gentilissimo signor Gio. Battista Litta, giovane di spirito, & di grandissima speranza, & molto vago della caccia & dell’uccellare. Ne passerò con silentio il mio caro & generoso signor Alessandro Confallonero, il quale tutto quel tempo, che puo rubbar dal suo publico & honoratissimo ufficio, lo spende nella delitiosa, & felice villa di Senago, et della Confallonera; ove mercé della  87  sua industria ha fatto invidia à molto col ridurre gl’hispidi dumi, i pongenti stecchi, le spinose vepri, i velenosi sterpi, gli acuti pruni, gli asperi ruschi, gli offensivi triboli, & le arride sabbie in fiorite piagge, verdeggianti prati, amenissimi giardini, dilettevoli vigne, aprici colli, liete costiere, ampli edificii, & superbe peschiere. In questa generosa schiera viene il gentilissimo signor Francesco Bernardino Rivolta con la sua piacevolissima villa di Acquabella, luogo molto ameno si per la bontà dell’aere, ch’ivi è perfettissimo, come ancora per ogni altra dote della natura, che nella villa desiderar si suole, come sono acque chiare, frutti pregiati, colli, valli, selve, fiumi, prati, e giardini ripieni d’ogni vaghezza; dove s’hanno mille commodità per trattar inganni, è congiure contra la semplicità de i peschi, & de gli uccelli: ma qualhora in questo fortunatissimo loco entra la donna, nella cui voglia arde il detto Rivolta, manifestamente si vede, ch’ella col Sole de gli occhi suoi nuovo vigor porgendo alle piante, & all’herbe, subito le fa fiorire, & riempie l’aer d’attorno di tal dolcezza, che basterebbe à ritenere il tempo, che mai non recasse la vecchiezza à gli habitatori di si felice villa. Dove resta il dotto & eloquente S. Gio. Pietro Testa, il quale tutto che l’Ecclesiastico grado suo lo tenga occupato in Novara, la natura lo fece però studiosissimo  88  della vila & delle lettere: perche non pongo io in questa nobile & generosa compagnia il S. Gio. Iacopo Torniello, il quale nella dolce & amata solitudine rimanendo & vagando per gli ameni colli, et apriche piaggie di Vergano, si dà al pensar cose alte, & eccellenti. Ne si de tacere il gentilissimo S. Gio. Battista Terzago, sacerdote anch’egli d’Apollo, & delle Muse, & si amico delle villa, & della caccia, che sovente abbandona Melano per lo suo Rosate. Et che debbiamo noi dire del mio colcissimo, & dottissimo signor Precivallo Besozzo, il quale tutte le volte, che puo far tregna con le

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muring, go watering all the parts of the pleasant garden. Here are seen represented by nature and by art the superb game preserves of Lucullus, the famous baths of Gordiano, the very pleasant little woods of Tiberius, and the place of repose of the Capriola, the aviary of Caesar Augustus, the golden apple of the Hesperides, and finally all those delights that of old were in the delicate gardens of Media. Among these comes the very illustrious and valorous Signor Alessandro Castiglione, knight of great name, adorned by arms, by letters, and by manners, and above all by a very honorable sweetness, to whom I was a friend while I was studying in Pavia.65 And now I have the highest reverence for his very rare and marvelous qualities, and as much as I love and value him, so much do I contend that he is a very good friend of all the pastimes of the villa that are proper to a man noble and well bred. The same can be said of his very gentle brother, Signor Giovanni Francesco Castiglione, a man of equally great merit, and also very fond of the villa, and of the pleasantness and cheerfulness of the countryside. Nor should one pass with silence my very sweet and kind Signor Gioseppe Giossano, very rare example of virtue and goodness, who allots those few hours that remain to him from his very honored office of the doctor to the very pleasant villa of Giossano, now in the company of Apollo and the Muses, now with the hunt, once in a while with catching birds, often with fishing, sometimes with farming his sunny and thriving garden, and at other times in the company of other very honored gentlemen. The very gentle Signor Giovanni Battista Litta, young of spirit and of very great hope, and very fond of the hunt and of catching birds, does the same in the pleasant villa of Arluno. Nor will I pass with silence my dear and generous Signor Alessandro Confallonero, who spends all the time that he can steal away from his public and very honored office in the delightful and happy villa of Senago, and of the Confallonera, where by means of his work he has made many envious with assembling the bristling blackthorns,66 the prickly sticks, the thorny blackthorns,67 the poisonous twigs, the sharp thorns, the rugged butcher’s broom,68 the offensive brambles,69 and the dry sands on flowering slopes, verdant fields, very pleasant gardens, delightful vineyards, sunny hills, charming coasts, ample edifices, and superb fishponds. In this generous group comes the very gentle Signor Franceso Taegio studied law at the University of Pavia. The botanical name for hispidi dumi is Prunus spinosa. 67 The botanical name for spinose vepri is Prunus spinosa. 68 The botanical name for asperi ruschi is Ruscus aculeatus. 69 The botanical name for triboli is Tribulus terrestris. 65

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facende sue si ritira al suo amatissimo Besozzo; questo istesso fa il mio caro, dolce, & amorevole S. Francesco Panigarola, amatore de i piaceri della villa, et de gli honoratissimi studii di filosofia. Perche à questo rollo non si mette il nobile, & pellegrino ingegno del S. Iacopo Felippo Crivello, il quale spesso visita la sua cara villa di Nerviano. Ne si de tacere il magnanimo S. Marc’Antonio Bosso, il quale col corpo sta in Melano, & con la mente va filosofando, & poeteggiando per li riposti lochi dal suo monte Parnaso di Azzà, terra cosi atta à simili studii, che’l S. Girolamo Bosso fisico eccellentissimo, & Poeta rarissimo non si sa partire dalla solitudine di quella. Qui viene il generoso, cortese, et gentilissimo S. Carlo da Castano  89  non men cacciatore, che perfettissimo Cortigiano. Ne si de tacere il dotto & facondissimo S. Felippo Pietrasanta, insieme col S. Furio Camillo fratelli, & amendue si vaghi della villa, che questi vi sta continuamente, & quegli per lo sommo piacere, c’ha del cacciare ha composto nella villa di Marcatutto un’opera veramente dilettevole, dentro la quale vi sono seminati molti ragionamenti, e sopra ogni cosa si ha tolto di lodare con dotto stile la caccia, & i piaceri, che da lei si prende. Hor dove sono gli non mai à bastanza lodati fratelli il S. Alessandro, & S. Gio. Battista Castiglione amici amendue della villa, per esser quegli cacciatore, & questi poeta eccellentissimo. Et che diremo dell’honoratissimo signor Girolamo Toso, il quale tanto gradisce l’amenità delle campagne, che vicino al navilio maggior di Melano, ha fatto far un loco, che c’invia al filosofare? Questo istesso si puo dire del nobile, & cortese S. Iacopo Brivio, il quale anch’egli tanto pregia la villa, che in Carpianello ha fatto fare i piu belli giardini, che veder si possano. Et perche non pongo in questa honorata compagnia lo splendissimo S. Ottavio Cusano, che quantunque alla Città habbia un delicatissimo giardino, & sia occupato dalle infinite facende, che gli dà il vicariato di provisione, nondimeno tutte le volte, che puo se ne va à godere anco i piaceri della villa. Il medesimo fà l’amorevole,  90  & magnifico S. Gaspar Birago; & il S. Lodovico Amadeo, amendue amicissimi della villa; ma dove lascio quel nobile, & pellegrino ingegno del S. Nicolò Secco, anzi verde perpetuamente nella memoria degli huomini, per le sue rare & meravigliose qualità; questi è si amico delle buone lettere, & dell’amenità delle campagne, che buona parte dell’anno se ne sta à filosofare ne i riposti recessi della sua aprica, & felicissima villa. Et che si dirà del dottissimo, & eloquentissimo S. Gio. Angelo Ritio, il quale tutto il tempo, che puo rubbare dal suo honorato ufficio lo consuma in compagnia delle Muse ne gli ameni giardini del suo amatissimo Castelletto; ma dove lascio l’accorto, & sagace S. Lucio Cotta con la sua favorita terra di Olbia, nome in vero

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Bernardino Rivolta with his very pleasant villa of Aquabella, a pleasant place as much for the goodness of the air, which is quite perfect there, as for every other gift of nature that one could want in a villa, as there are clear waters, prized fruits, hills, valleys, woods, rivers, meadows, and gardens replete with every charm; where they have a thousand ways of tricking and taking advantage of the guilelessness of the fish and the birds. But sometimes in this very fortunate place the woman enters whom the aforementioned Rivolta wants to inflame with desire, and it is evident from the way his eyes shine like the sun, giving new vigor to the plants and herbs, that she makes them suddenly flower, and fills the air with such sweetness that it would be enough to prevent time from ever bringing old age to the inhabitants of such a happy villa. Where is the learned and eloquent Signor Giovanni Pietro Testa who, much though his ecclesiastical status keeps him occupied in Novara, nature nevertheless makes him very studious of the villa and of literature. Why don’t I put in this noble and generous company Signor Giovanni Iacopo Torniello, who, staying in the sweet and beloved solitude and wandering through the pleasant hills and sunny slopes of Vergano, devotes himself to thinking about high and excellent things. Nor should one be silent about the very gentle Signor Giovanni Battista Terzago, priest indeed of Apollo and the muses, and also a friend of the villa and of the hunt, who frequently vacates Milan for his Rosate. And what should we say of my very sweet and very learned Signor Precivallo Besozzo who, as often as he can make a truce with his job, retires to his very beloved Besozzo? My dear, sweet, and lovely Signor Francesco Panigarola, lover of the pleasure of the villa and of the very honorable studies of philosophy, does the same thing. Why not put on this list the noble and far-reaching mind of Signor Iacopo Felippo Crivello, who often visits his dear villa of Nerviano? Nor should one be silent about the magnanimous Signor Marc’Antonio Bosso, who stays bodily in Milan, and with the mind goes philosophizing and poetizing through the hidden places of his Mount Parnassus of Azza, a land so apt for such studies that Signor Girolamo Bosso, very excellent physician and very rare poet, never leaves its solitude. Here comes the generous, kind, and very gentle Signor Carlo da Castan, no less hunter than most perfect courtier. Nor should one be silent about the learned and very eloquent Signor Felippo Pietrasanta and Signor Furio Camillo, who are brothers and both fond of the villa, where the former stays continually, and the latter for his greatest pleasure, which is hunting. He [Felippo] has composed in the villa of Marcatutto a truly delightful work, in which many arguments have been made, and in which above all the hunt and

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conveniente all’amenità del loco; percio che Strabone non vuole, ch’altro significhi questa voce, che loco beato; & certamente, se Plinio nipote amicissimo anch’egli del silentio, & della solitudine della villa, come io havese visto la delicatezza di questo piacevol loco, la bellissima forma dell’edificio, la vaghezza del sito, l’allegria del verdeggiante terreno, la chiarezza del lucido & aperto cielo, ch’ivi si vede, i fiorit colli, le ombrose valli, & le fresche fontane, che soavemente mormorando circondano l’aprico loco, gli sarebbe venuto in disgratia il suo Laurentino. Il medesimo havrebbono fatto Marco  91 Catone Censorino col suo ameno Sabino. M. Tullio col suo favorito Tusculano; & Herode filosofo Atheniese con la sua cara Cephisia. Et che diremo dello illustre & dottissimo S. Marc’Antonio Caimo Senator degnissimo di Melano; del vertuosissimo S. Alessandro; del gentilissimo S. Gio. Battista; & del cortese et amorevole S. Gio. Alberto, suoi honoratissimi fratelli; nelli primi tre di questi quattro pellegrini ingegni fioriscono le belle lettere; oltre, che del detto S Alessandrola profonda cognitione della filosofia mathematica, divina & naturale accompagnata dalle discipline oratorie, et illusrata dalla bellezza de costumi, non solo rende chiara & fortunata la città nostra di Melano; ma ha posto ancora la fama sua in camino, che velocemente battendo l’ali, porta il suo glorioso nome à consacrare al tempio dell’eternità. Partenio. Meritamente si consacra alla immortalità il nome d’esso S. Alessandro Caimo, perche intendo, ch’egli è ancor perfettissimo architetto, & che tra l’opere sue meravigliose ha fabricato in un suo bellissimo giardino una fontana, la quale per forza d’aria, ò sia di vento getta acqua quasi di continuo. Vitauro. Io ho visto questo artificiosa et notabile fontana, & ho ancora discorso con lui intorno alla causa de si lodevole effetto. Partenio. Deh, se mi amate, insegnatemi questo bello arteficio, & di quello, che à  92 , 93  voi il cielo, insieme col detto S. Caimo fu tanto cortese, non ne siate scarso al vostro affettionatissimo Partenio, il quale sommamente desidera farne fabricar una simile nel suo giardino. Vitauro. Non posso far, ch’io non vi compiaccia in cosi honesto desiderio; Però havete à sapere, che tutto il corpo di questa fontana, che qui presente vedete, ignuda prima, et poi vestita, si parte in tre vasi segnati A, B, C. & in tre canne segnate D, E, F. Dal premiero vaso segnato A. quale è scoperto

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the pleasures that are received from it have been praised with learned style. Now where are the never sufficiently praised brothers Signor Alessandro and Signor Giovanni Battista Castiglione, both friends of the villa, that one for being a hunter and this one a very excellent poet? And what do we say about the very honored Signor Girolamo Toso, who appreciates so much the pleasantness of the countryside that he has made a place, near the major navigable canal of Milan, that sets us to philosophizing? This same thing can be said of the noble and kind Signor Iacopo Brivio, who also values the villa so much that he has made in Carpianello the most beautiful gardens that can be seen. And why don’t I place in this honored company the very splendid Signor Ottavio Cusano, who, although he has a delicate garden in the city, and would be occupied by endless business that the provisional vicariate gives him, nevertheless goes all the times he can to enjoy likewise the pleasures of the villa. The lovable and magnificent Signor Gaspar Birago does the same; and Signor Lodovico Amadeo, both very good friends of the villa. But how can I forget that noble and far-reaching mind of Signor Nicolò Secco, perpetually in the memory of men for his rare and marvelous qualities? This man is such a friend of literature, and of the pleasantness of the countryside, that for a good part of the year he remains philosophizing in the hidden recesses of his sunny and very happy villa. And what shall I say about the very learned and eloquent Signor Giovanni Angelo Ritio, who spends all the time that he can steal away from his honorable work in the company of the muses in the very pleasant gardens of his very beloved Castelletto? But how can I forget the clever and wise Signor Lucio Cotta with his favorite land of Olbia, a name conveniently true to the pleasantness of the place? For Strabo would not consider blessed any place other than this.70 And certainly if Pliny the Younger, very good friend also of silence and the solitude of the villa, had seen, as I have, the delicateness of this pleasant place, the very beautiful form of the edifice, the charm of the site, the cheerfulness of the verdant terrain, the brilliance of the clear and open sky that is seen there, the flowered hills, the shady valleys, and the cool fountains that sweetly murmuring surround the sunny place, his Laurentine [villa] would have come into disgrace.71 The same would have happened to Marcus Cato Censor with his pleasant Sabine, M. Tullius with his favorite Tusculan, and the Athenian Strabone is Strabo of Amaseia (born 64 b.c.), author of Geographia. Vitauro is probably referring again to Pliny the Younger’s letter “To Minicius Fundanus.” 70 71

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esce la canna E. onde sorge l’acqua, & dalle bande di detta canna sonoci due buchi, l’uno de quali risponde nel vaso B. ne serve ad altro, che à poter riempir d’acqua esso vaso B. Et l’altro per la can na F. mena l’acqua nel vaso inferiore segnato C. Hora à volere, che questa fontana, ò sia machina di Herone (come la chiama il dottissimo Cardano) getti acqua; Primieramente fa di mestieri, che delli detti due buchi si serri quello, onde passa l’acqua dal primo vaso A. al vaso C. dapoi bisogna che’l vaso A. si riempia d’acqua due, ò tre volte fin à tanto, che’l vaso B. sia colmo della detta acqua, che in lui discende per lo buco aperto del vaso A. qual poscia turato riempir si deve il vaso A. & aprire il chiuso buco della canna F. Il che fatto subito sorgere si vedrà l’acqua, pur che la fontana sia con tal proportione fabricata, che la sua discesa dal vaso A. al vaso C. sia maggiore,  94  che la salita dal fondo del vaso B. alla sommità della canna E. Partenio. Perche cotesto?

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philosopher Herodes72 with his dear Cephisia. And what shall we say about the illustrious and very learned Signor Marc’Antonio Caimo, very worthy senator of Milan; of the very virtuous Signor Alessandro; of the very gentle Signor Giovanni Battista; and of the kind and lovable Signor Giovanni Alberto, his very honored brothers? Literature flowers in the first three of these four far-reaching minds; besides, not only does the aforementioned Signor Alessandro’s profound knowledge of mathematical, divine, and natural philosophy, accompanied by the rhetorical disciplines and illustrated by the beauty of manners, render our city of Milan brilliant and fortunate, he even put its fame on track, so that, quickly beating the odds, it bears his glorious name by consecrating it at the temple of eternity. Partenio: Deservedly the name of this Signor Alessandro Caimo is consecrated to immortality, because I understand that he is the most perfect architect yet, and because, among his marvelous works, he has built in his very beautiful garden a fountain that, by force of air or of wind, spouts water almost continuously. Vitauro: I have seen this artful and notable fountain, and I have even talked with him about its praiseworthy effect. Partenio: Well, if you love me, teach me about this beautiful artifice and that which heaven, together with the aforementioned Signor Caimo, was so kind as not to have begrudged your most devoted Partenio, who greatly desires to make one like it in his garden. Vitauro: I cannot bear not to satisfy you in this honorable desire. Therefore you have to know that the whole body of this fountain, which you see presented here, first stripped naked and then clothed, consists of three vases, designated A, B, C, and three tubes, designated D, E, F. From the first vase designated A, which is connected to tube E, from which the water originates, to either side of the aforementioned tube there are two holes, one of which enters into vase B, and serves no purpose other than to fill vase B with water. And the other conducts water through tube F into the lower vase designated C. Now this fountain, or machine of Heron (as the very learned Cardano calls it), jets water at will.73 First it is necessary that, of the aforementioned two holes, that one through which water passes from the first vase A to vase C be closed up, Herode is Claudius Atticus Herodes (c. a.d. 101-177), Athenian Sophist and centerpiece of Philostratus’s Lives of the Sophists. 73 Heron of Alexandria was the first-century b.c. inventor of pneumatic devices and automata. 72

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Vitauro. Perche naturalmente non puo montar piu in sù l’una acqua, che

l’altra scenda in giù; onde procede, che tanto maggiore sarà la discesa dell’acqua del vaso A. al vaso C. & minor la sa lita del vaso B. alla sommità della canna E. tanto piu gagliardamente, & con maggior empito l’acqua salir à fuor della canna E. & di questo bisogna haver gran cura, & non se ne scordare; perche io vi so dire, che molti non havendo havuto alcun riguardo à questo principale, anzi intiero fondamento di questi movimenti si sono ritrovati nel far fabricar tale instrumento, haver con li danari il tempo, & il frutto del lor studio perduti. Partenio. L’affetto di questa fontana mi par miracoloso, vorrei, che degnaste farmi capace della sua causa. Vitauro. Havete à sapere, che qui sono tre moti, due naturali, & uno violento, l’uno de quali è la discesa dell’acqua, che per esser grave naturalmente tende al centro, et l’altro è la salita dell’aere; il quale per essere di natura leggero s’innalza verso la sua regione, il moto violento è il salire dell’acqua, il quale si causa dalli due moti naturali dell’aere, & dell’acqua. Partenio. In che modo? Vitauro. Havete à sapere, che prima il vaso C. è tutto ripieno di aere, ne ha se non due spiragli, l’uno, che risponde nel vaso A. per via della canna F. & altro nel vaso B. per mezzo  95  della canna D. onde l’acqua, che dentro vi cade dal vaso A. è forza, che spinga l’aere, che chiuso si trova nella canna F. la quale arriva fin appresso al fondo del vaso C. & rivolvendosi il detto aere in vento per la caduta et spinta dell’acqua; ne havendo altra uscita, che quella della canna D. per lei ascende nel vaso B. ripieno d’acqua, la sentendosi cacciata dall’empito del vento, che sale per la canna D. ne havendo altra via da uscire, che la bocca della canna E. è forza, che per lei salendo faccia l’effetto, che si vede; il qual piacere ha tanto di vita, quanto dura l’acqua, che si trova essere nel vaso B. Partenio. Perche havete voi detto, che fa di mestieri, che la canna F. arrivi fin appresso al fondo del vaso C? Vitauro. Hollo detto, perche se la canna F. non fosse tanto longa, che arrivasse final detto fondo, dove l’acqua chiudesse la boca di sotto d’essa canna, si che l’aere per lei piu entrar non potesse, molto piu facilmente per essa l’aere salirebbe, che per la canna D. il che impedirebbe il desiato effetto della fontana. Partenio. Et perche piu facilmente uscirebbe da questa, che da quella? Vitauro. Perche non puo salir per quella prima, che non cacci fuor l’acqua, che trova nel vaso B. per la canna E. il che è di maggior sforzo, che facendosi via per questa uscire per lo vaso A.

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since vase A needs to be refilled with water two or three times before vase B is filled to the brim with the aforementioned water that falls into it through the open mouth of vase A, which, once plugged, has to refill itself and open the closed mouth of tube F. That done, suddenly the water is seen rising, provided that the fountain be of such proportions that its descent from vase A to vase C is greater than the ascent from the bottom of vase B to the top of tube E. Partenio: Why so? Vitauro: Because naturally the one water can not go up more than the other comes down; from which it follows that the descent of the water from vase A to vase C will be much greater, and the ascent from vase B to the top of tube F less, the more vigorously and with greater fullness the water rises outside tube E, and for this one needs to take great care and not get it out of tune; for I should tell you that many men, not having enough regard for this principal, indeed, the very basis for these movements, have been found to have wasted their time as well as their money, and the fruit of their study in trying to make such an instrument. Partenio: Since the effect of this fountain seems miraculous to me, I wish you would be so kind as to help me understand how it works. Vitauro: You have to know that their are three motions, two natural and one violent, one of which is the descent of water that by being heavy naturally tends to the center, and the other is the ascent of the air, which by being light by nature rises against its region, the violent motion is the ascent of the water, which is caused by the two natural movements of the air and of the water. Partenio: In what way? Vitauro: You have to know that first vase C is completely full of air, it has at least two vents, one that enters into vase A by way of tube F, and another in vase B, by means of tube D, so that the water that falls from vase A is the force that pushes the air that finds itself closed in tube F, which reaches the bottom of vase C and the aforementioned air, turning itself into wind through the fall and push of the water; and not having any way out other than tube D, ascends through it into vase B full of water, feeling itself expulsed by the impact of the wind that rises through tube D, not having any way to escape other than the mouth of tube E, is the force that, through its rising, produces the effect that you see; which pleasing has as much of life, as long as the water holds out, as is found to be in vase B. Partenio: Why have you said that it is necessary that tube F reach the bottom of vase C? Vitauro: I said it because if tube F were not so long that it reached the afore-

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Partenio. Hor si, ch’io resto ben risolto de i dubbi, che risvegliati mi s’erano

nella mente, & benissimo   96  havete sciolti i nodi, che germogliavano da si fatto ragionamento; onde l’animo mio, ch’era acceso di si ardente desiderio d’intender la causa, onde si riconosce il bel effetto della fontana, hora s’aqueta, gode, & stima un’hora mille anni, che se ne venga alla prova. Vitauro. A ciò verrassi, quando voi vorrete. Partenio. Questa isperienza differisco ad un’altra fiata, hora vorrei, che rientrando nel vostro proposito tornaste à gli honorati personaggi, che tanto gradiscono la vostra favorita villa, che lasciano le città per lei. Vitauro. Conoscete il S. Conte Giulio Cesare Boromeo? Partenio. Conoscolo per huomo dotato di raro ingegno, & di gene rosa cortesia. Vitauro. Voi dite il vero, & havete à sapere, che questo rarissimo gentil’huomo per esser non men filosofo eccellente, che segnalato Cavalliero è molto vago della villa, dove hor si da alla caccia, hor all’uccellare, & spesse volte alla contemplatione di cose alte & eccellenti. Et dove lascio il S. Francesco della Torre, il S. Pietro Antonio Fossano, & il S. Gio. Battista Arconato questi tre cognati, & Cavallieri di gran spirito & valore lasciano spesse volte gli amori, le feste, e i giuochi delle città per darsi alla caccia, & à gli altri infiniti piaceri della villa. Questo istesso fa sovente il coraggioso Conte Manfrè Torniello, & il suo cortese, & amorevole cugino il Cesare Casato; questi come c’haggiano tutti que  97  commodi nelle città, che desiderar si possino, pur sono si vaghi della caccia, & delle campagne, che gran parte della vita loro consumato l’uno nella piacevole terra di Briona, & l’altro nel’amenissima villa di Contorbia. Et che dirò del S. Gio. Francesco Casato, il quale è si innamorato della villa, che quasi ordinariamente sta nel suo Deirago. Questo istesso fa il mio S. Conte Dionigi Boromeo nella sua favorita peschiera. A i piaceri della villa spesso si danno ancora il Conte Francesco, il Conte Fedrigo, & il Conte Gio. Battista Boromei, cavallieri di gran nome & valore. In questo numero viene l’assentito et vertuoso S. Carlo Visconte, amico della villa, della Romana eloquenza chiarissimo lume, et protettore de i sacerdoti delle sacre Muse non altrimenti, che già fossero gliantichi Mecenati. Hor dove lascio l’honoratissimo & valoroso S. Cesare da Carcano, gentil’huomo di gran merito, di gloria illustre, & tanto amico della villa, che tutte le volte, che si puo sbrigare dalle cose pertinenti al governo della Republica, se ne va in villa à trastullarsi con i libri, con la caccia, col pescare, con l’uccellare, & con l’agricoltura in quel modo, che già soleva fare il gran Scipione Affricano nel buon tempo de Romani. Questo istesso fa il prudente

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mentioned bottom, where the water closed the mouth under this tube, so that the air were not able to enter more through it, the air would rise much more easily through it than through tube D, which would impede the desired effect of the fountain. Partenio: And why would it exit more easily through this one than that one? Vitauro: Because it cannot rise through that first one unless the water that it finds in vase B falls out through tube E, which is of greater force than making its way through this one to exit through vase A. Partenio: Now that the doubts that were troubling me have vanished, and you have nicely solved the problems that arose from this discussion, my mind, which had become obsessed with understanding the cause so that it could appreciate the beautiful effect of the fountain, is now calm and happy, and regards as a moment the thousand years that the proof took. Vitauro: I would speak to that when you like. Partenio: This experience I defer to another occasion, now, returning to your intention, I would like you to turn again to the honored personages who so advance your favorite villa that they leave behind their cities. Vitauro: Do you know Count Giulio Cesare Boromeo? Partenio: I know him as a learned man of rare talent and of generous kindness. Vitauro: You tell the truth, and you have to know that this very rare gentleman, by being no less excellent philosopher than signal knight, is very fond of the villa, where he is devoted now to the hunt, now to catching birds, and often to the contemplation of things high and excellent. And how can I forget Signor Francesco della Torre, Signor Pietro Antonio Fossano, Signor Giovanni Battista Arconato? These three brothers-in-law and knights of great spirit and valor often leave the loves, the feasts, and the games of the cities in order to devote themselves to the hunt and to the other countless pleasures of the villa. The courageous Count Manfrè Torniello and his kind and loving cousin, Cesare Casato, do the same. These, though they have every convenience of the cities that can be desired, are so fond of the hunt and of the countryside that a large part of their life consumed the one in the pleasant land of Brione, and the other in the very pleasant villa of Contorbia. And what shall I say of Signor Giovanni Francesco Casato, who is so enamored of the villa that he stays semi-regularly in his Deirago? My Count Dionigi Boromeo does the same thing in his favorite fishpond. Count Francesco, Count Fedrigo, and Count Giovanni Battista Boromei, knights of great name and valor, are also devoted to the pleasures of the villa. In this number comes the approved and virtuous Signor Carlo

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Conte Annibal Visconte Cavaliero, & cacciatore singolarissimo. Et che dirò io del magnanimo  98  S. Ferrante Castaldo, giovane di grandissima speranza; questi per fuggir gli ociosi, & lascivi amori delle città, spesse fiate sale alla campagna, & nella caccia seguendo le fuggitive fiere mostra la grandezza del suo valore. Questo istesso si puo dire del S. Francesco Castellanza. Taccio il S. Conte Alessandro Crivello, il signor Guido Gallarato, il S. Conte Aluigi Visconte, il S. Donigi Brivio, il S. Conte Hippolito del Maino, il S. Baldesar Pusterla, il S. Conte Lodovico Belzoioso, il S. Gio. Battista Castiglione, il S. Conte Sforza Morone, il S. Cesare Taverna, il S. Conte Francesco Borella, il S. Alessandro Castiglione, il signor Conte Alfonso della Somaglia, il signor Alessandro Lampugnano, il valoroso signor Capitano Girolamo Simonetta, il signor Pietro Antonio Lonato, il signor Fabritio Ferraro, il signor Gio. Battista Visconte, il signor Costanzo d’Ada, il signor Girolamo, il signor Giovan Paolo, & il signor Alessandro Simonetti fratelli, il signor Hermes Visconte, il signor Giovan Maria Visconte, il signor Hercole Pagnano, il signor Giovan Maria della Croce, il signor Alessandro Grasso, il signor Pietro Francesco Visconte, il signor Giovan Paolo, & signor Giovan Iacopo Barzi, gli signori Spetiani fratelli, il signor Gio. Andrea  99 Torniello, il signor Giovanni Arcimboldo, il S. Cristofaro Appiano, il signor Girolamo Marliano, il signor Lodovico Borro, il signor Camillo Gallarato, il signor Giovan Battista Seregno, il signor Gio.Francesco Pirovano, il signor Francesco Caimo, il signor Camillo Biglia, il signor Mario Arrigono, il signor Sasso Visconte, il signor Cesar Visconte, il signor Cavallier Visconte, il signor Guido Boromeo, il signor Camillo Castellazzo, il signor Gio. Battista Castel Novato, il signor Francesco Barza, Il signor Constantino de Marchi, il signor Gio. Battista Crivello, il signor Gio. Angelo Trivultio, il signor Mario Birago, il signor Antonio de Marchi, il signor Camillo Castellazzo, il signor Gio. Angelo Coiro, il signor Felippo Candiano, il signor Pietro Francesco Reina, il Capitano Reinino, il signor Lodovico del Conte, il signor Marc’Antonio Castelletto, il signor Baldesar da Ro, il signor Manfredi da Ro, il signor Sasso Riso, il signor Giulio Novato, il signor Marc’Antonio Arconato, il signor Gio. Battista, & signor Alessandro Carcanti fratelli, il signor Cavalliero della Tela, il signor Gaspar Visconte, il signor Otto Visconte, il signor Annibal Gallarato, il signor Gio. Marco Fagnano, il signor Marc’Antonio Mugiano, il signor Pietro  100  Barbolo, il signor Cesare, & Alfonso Barbavari fratelli, il signor Gio. Battista Cusano, il signor Paris Barbavara, il signor Francesco Bernardino Ferraro, il signor Lodovico Brebbia, il signor Antonio Francesco Magno, il signor Pompeo della Croce, il signor Gio. Alberto Pietrasanta, il signor

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Visconte, friend of the villa, very brilliant light of Roman eloquence, and protector of the priests of the sacred muses, not unlike what the ancient Mecenati used to do before. Now how can I forget the very honored and valorous Signor Cesare da Carcano, gentleman of great merit, of illustrious glory, and such a friend of the villa that all the times he can steal away from the things pertaining to the government of the republic, he goes in villa to amuse himself with books, with the hunt, with fishing, with catching birds, and with agriculture in that style of the great Scipio Africanus in the good age of the Romans? The prudent Count Annibal Visconte, knight and very singular hunter, does the same thing. And what shall I say of the magnanimous Signor Ferrante Castaldo, young man of very great promise? This man, fleeing the lazy and lascivious loves of the city, often increases strength in the country, and he shows the greatness of his valor in the hunt, pursuing the fleeing beasts. The same can be said of Signor Francesco Castellanza. I say nothing of Count Alessandro Crivello, Signor Guido Gallarato, Count Aluigi Visconte, Signor Donigo Brivio, Count Hippolito del Maino, Signor Baldesar Pusterla, Count Ludovico Belzoioso, Signor Giovanni Battista Castiglione, Count Sforza Morone, Signor Cesare Taverna, Count Francesco Borella, Signor Alessandro Castiglione, Count Alfonso della Somaglia, Signor Alessandro Lampugnano, the valorous Signor Captain Girolamo Simonetta, Signor Pietro Antonio Lonato, Signor Fabritio Ferraro, Signor Giovanni Battista Visconte, Signor Costanzo d’Ada, Signor Girolamo, Signor Giovan Paolo, and Signor Alessandro Simonetti, brothers, Signor Hermes Visconte, Signor Giovan Maria Visconte, Signor Hercole Pagnano, Signor Giovan Maria della Croce, Signor Alessandro Grasso, Signor Pietro Francesco Visconte, Signor Giovan Paolo and Signor Giovan Iacopo Barzi, the older Spetiani brothers, Signor Giovanni Andrea Torniello, Signor Giovanni Arcimboldo, Signor Cristofaro Appiano, Signor Girolamo Marliano, Signor Lodovico Borro, Signor Camillo Gallarato, Signor Giovanni Battista Seregno, Signor Giovanni Francesco Pirovano, Signor Francesco Caimo, Signor Camillo Biglia, Signor Mario Arrigono, Signor Sasso Visconte, Signor Cesar Visconte, Signor Cavallier Visconte, Signor Guido Boromeo, Signor Camillo Castellazzo, Signor Giovanni Battista Castel-Novato, Signor Francesco Barza, Signor Constantino de Marchi, Signor Giovanni Battista Crivello, Signor Giovanni Angelo Trivultio, Signor Mario Birago, Signor Antonio de Marchi, Signor Camillo Castellazzo, Signor Giovanni Angelo Coiro, Signor Felippo Candiano, Signor Pietro Francesco Reina, Captain Reinino, Signor Lodovico del Conte, Signor Marc’Antonio Castelletto, Signor Baldesar da Ro, Signor Sasso Riso, Signor Giulio Novato, Signor

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Gioseppe Sirtori, il signor Cesare Pietrasanta, il signor Gio. Antonio, & signor Pietro Georgio Borri, & fratelli, il signor Teodoro Terzago, il signor Nicolò, & Opecino Torniello, il signor Gio. Bernardino Cazza, il signor Rinaldo Torniello, il signor Gio. Iacopo Ongarese, il signor Alessandro Brivio, il signor Gio. Battista Castiglione, il signor Bartolomeo da Locarno, il signor Gio. Battista Piotto, il signor Marco Antonio Brusato, il signor Alticonte Caimo; Et infiniti altri gentil’huomini honoratissimi, che sono amicissimi della caccia, & altri piaceri della villa. Et se i giardini sono imagini delle ville, perche non abbellisco il mio ragionamento col chiaro splendore del vertuosissimo S. Pietro Paolo Arrigono Presidente dell’eccellentissimo Senato di Melano, huomo di altissimo ingegno, & di gloria illustrissimo; questi tutto il tempo, che puo rubbare dal profondo, ampio mare de suoi negotii, lo spende ne gli honesti trastulli d’un suo ameno & delicato luogo;  101  dove cosi nella mirabile, & bene intesa fabrica d’un superbo palazzo, come nel compartimento, nell’ordine, nella vaghezza, & nella leggiadria d’un suo bellissimo giardino, mostra chiaramente la splendidezza, & magnificenza dell’animo suo: Quivi tra le grandissime meraviglie, che si veggono apertamente si conosce, che il Graio, & il Latio spoliarono se stessi di doriche colonne, di archiampissimi, & di statue antiche per rivestirne & adornarne questo reale albergo. Et che Giunone privò di pomi d’oro il florido giardino, c’ha nelle estreme parti dell’Occidente, per illustrarne questo felice terreno; quivi è venutoad habitare Apollo con le dotte Thespiadi, & le fiorite Napee lor compagne, le quali fra ruggiadose & verdi herbette, anzi lucenti & finissimi smeraldi accompagnati da topazi, zaphiri, rubini & perle, vanno tessendo bellissime ghirlande per adornarne le tempie del minaccioso Iddio de gli horti; quivi quando nel cielo intorno all’aurora in Oriente appare il pietoso Delfino con l’Aquila celeste, & la saetta d’Hercole, & che Vertunno ha preso forma di Verno, Pomona fa germogliar le piante, Ciprignia dona vertù à mille lascive herbette, & Flora va spargendo novelli fiori non altrimenti, che sogliano fare nel ritorno del dolce & desiato Aprile; Et quando il Sole spiega gli aurati suoi crivi sopra il feroce Leone, & che al  102  primo imbrunir della notte della bella Astre fra le false onde attuffar si vede; quivi non Borea, non Austro stride, ma Zefiro soavemente spirando tempra l’ardore di quella celeste cagnuola, che da Giove fu posta nel cielo, perche antivide il mio vago, leggiadro, & vezzoso cagnuolino: Et oltre i detti miracoli nello splendidissimo giardino si vede ancora un foltissimo, ameno, & fortunato boschetto con certi suoi beati seggi, & coperti sentieri, dove pare, che veramente alberghi la quiete & tranquillità dell’animo,

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Marc’Antonio Arconato, Signor Giovanni Battista and Signor Alessandro Carcanti, brothers, Signor Cavalliero della Tela, Signor Gaspar Visconte, Signor Otto Visconte, Signor Annibal Gallarato, Signor Giovanni Marco Fagnano, Signor Marc’Antonio Mugiano, Signor Pietro Barbolo, Signor Cesare and Alfonso Barbavari, brothers, Signor Giovanni Battista Cusano, Signor Paris Barbavara, Signor Francesco Bernardino Ferraro, Signor Lodovico Brebbia, Signor Antonio Francesco Magno, Signor Pompeo della Croce, Signor Giovanni Alberto Pietrasanta, Signor Gioseppe Sirtori, Signor Cesare Pietrasanta, Signor Giovanni Antonio, and Signor Pietro Georgio Borri, and brothers, Signor Teodoro Terzago, Signor Nicolò and Opecino Torniello, Signor Gio. Bernardino Cazza, Signor Rinaldo Torniello, Signor Gio. Iacopo Ongarese, Signor Alessandro Brivio, Signor Giovanni Battista Castiglione, Signor Bartolomeo da Locarno, Signor Giovanni Battista Piotto, Signor Marco Antonio Brusato, Signor Alticonte Caimo; and countless other very honored gentlemen who are very fond of the hunt and other pleasures of the villa. And if the gardens are images of the villas, why don’t I enrich my argument with the brilliant splendor of the very virtuous Signor Pietro Paolo Arrigono, president of the most excellent Senate of Milan, a man very high-minded and of very illustrious glory? This man spends all the time that he can steal from the deep, broad sea of his business affairs on the honorable amusements of his pleasant and pretty place, where, in the marvelous and well-contrived construction of a superb palace, as well as in the comparmentalization, in the order, in the charm, and in the loveliness of this very beautiful garden, he shows clearly the splendor and magnificence of his mind. Here among the very great marvels that are clearly seen it is known that Greece and Latium themselves were despoiled of Doric columns, of very wide arches, and of antique statues, in order to clothe again and to adorn this royal dwelling, and that Juno deprived the flourishing garden that she has in the distant parts of the West of golden apples, in order to make this land happy famous. Here Apollo has come to live with the learned Thespiads, and the flowering dryads, their companions, who, among dewy and green grasses, indeed luminous and very fine emeralds accompanied by topazes, sapphires, rubies, and pearls, go weaving very beautiful garlands for adorning the temples of the menacing God of the gardens. Here, when in the sky next to the aurora in the east the pious Dolphin appears with the heavenly Eagle and the thunderbolt of Hercules, and Vertunno has taken the form of Spring, Pomona makes the plants bud, Ciprignia gives virtue to a thousand delightful grasses, and Flora goes scattering new flowers that otherwise would not be

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& che per stanza vi stia Diana con tutto il sacro coro delle sue caste ninfe in compagnia della diviniss. S. ISSABELLA ARRIGONA moglie honoratissima d’esso. S. Presidente, la quale per essere bellissima, honestissima, & in ogni grado di perfettione perfettissima, è forza, ch’ella parimente insieme col suo amatissimo consorte ami & gradisca il suo piacevole giardino, come vivo & natural ritratto della villa; nel qual loco da una fontana di bianchissimo marmo sorge acqua chiarissima, che con si grato susurro va discorrendo per dentro dell’amenissimo boschetto, che accordandosi con lui il mormorar della dolce aura, & il cantar de gli uccelletti ne riesce una armonia, che l’aria addolcisce di maniera ch’ivi mai non s’invecchia: Delle quali gratie & privilegi le vaghe Driade accompagnate da i lor selvaggi Dii mostrano  102 [i.e., 103]  aperti segni di allegrezza, empiendo con boscarecci canti il cielo del suo honorato & glorioso nome. Taccio infinite altre meraviglie di questo beato loco, & concludo che l’amenissimo giardino & il magnifico Palazzo, come due amanti, à prova l’un dell’altro scoprono i pregi, le pompe, & le richezza loro; Questo per essere adorno dell’opere migliori, c’hebbero si in pregio Prasitele, & Phidia, mostra d’essere contento à pieno d’havere un compagno si lieto, fiorito & festeggiante, et quello all’incontro rallegrandosi di havere un si nobile et pregiato vicino, ne gli abbracciamenti di lui dolcemente implicandosi fa mille riposti recessi, che riempiono l’anima de riguardanti d’un meraviglioso piacere. Partenio. Poeticamente & molto gentilmente havete descritto questo giardino, ma non sò come comporteranno i dotti, che in prosa voi usiate le figure, che sono proprie del verso. Vitauro. Ciò non faccio senza ragione, della quale ne parleremo altrove. Partenio. Ripigliate adunque il proposito vostro. Vitauro. Dopo il S. Presidente vengo al giudicioso, dottissimo, et cortese S. Scipione Simonetta, huomo di tanto spirito, consiglio, et valore, che niente piu; Questi ha un splendido, felice, et aureo giardino in Melano vestito di eterna Primavera, one si veggono cose rare, meravigliose, & nove; quivi l’arte, & la natura hora à garra l’una dell’altra mostrano l’ultime lor prove, hora amendue  102 [i.e., 104]  incorporate, unite, e riconciliate insieme fanno cose stupende. Et la natura tanto cortese, & favorevole si mostra à questo ben nato terreno, che si come dividendosi le patrie delle radici, dell’herbe, de fiori, & de gli alberi, ad alcuni da lei per patria è data l’Asia, ad altri l’Europa, & à

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accustomed to returning in the sweet and longed-for April.74 And when the sun spreads out its golden mane above the ferocious Lion, who is seen at the first darkening of the night of the beautiful Libra sinking down among the false waves, here neither the north wind nor the south wind shrieks, but zephyr, sweetly breathing, tempers the heat of that celestial dog that was placed in heaven by Jove because he foresees my charming, graceful, and pretty puppy. And besides the aforementioned miracles in the very splendid garden one sees yet a very thick, delightful, and fortunate wood with certainly its blessed seats, and covered pathways, where it seems that the quiet and tranquillity of the mind truly dwells, and that Diana inhabited with the entire chorus of her cast of nymphs in the company of the very divine Signora issabella arrigona,very honored wife of that president, who, by being very beautiful, very honest, and in every degree of perfection very perfect, is the force that equally together with her very beloved husband loves and enjoys her pleasing garden, like a lifelike and natural portrait of the villa, in which place from a fountain of very white marble springs very clear water that goes babbling through the very pleasant wood with its pleasant whisper, which, as it joins the murmuring of the sweet breeze and the singing of the pretty little birds, produces a harmony thet sweetens the air so that it never grows stale. By these graces and privileges Dryads, accompanied by their woodland gods, show open signs of cheerfulness, filling heaven and its honored and generous name with sylvan songs. I say nothing of infinite other marvels of this blessed place, and I conclude that the very pleasant garden and the magnificent palace, like two lovers, the one on trial by the other, reveal their good qualities, their pomp, and their riches. This one, by being adorned with better works than Praxiteles and Phidias held in esteem, proves to be fully content to have a companion pleased, flowering and festive, and that one on the other hand, rejoicing to have one so noble and valued nearby, in his embraces sweetly implicating himself, makes a thousand secret recesses that fill up the mind by looking at a marvelous pleasure. Partenio: You have described this garden poetically and very gently, but I don’t know how the scholars permit you to use in prose the figures that are proper to verse. Vitauro: Nevertheless I do not do it without reason, of which we will speak elsewhere. Partenio: Then resume your point.

74

Vitauro is alluding to Lucretius, De rerum natura 5.55.737–740.

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molti l’Affrica; cosi questo glorioso et privilegiato loco è dato solo per patria commune à tutti i pregiati, famosi, & pellegrini semplici. Quivi verdeggia il Rheubarbaro di Turchia, la colocasia di Cecilia, la pianta dello storace di Panfilia, l’Erica di Grecia, l’aloe della Celesoria, il fico d’India, il gelsomino di Spagna, l’hellera di Cilicia, il cipero di Alessandria, la staphi d’Istria, lo scordio di Candia, il Thimo di Cappadocia, l’alipo di Levante, l’elleboro di Goritia, la stella di Athene, l’apocino di Soria, il tasso di Arcadia, la Mandragora di Puglia, la grana di Constantinopoli, la radice Rhodia di Macedonia, il medio di Media, il sesamoide di Anticira, l’amomo di Armenia, il costo di Arabia, il balsamo di Giudea, l’aspalatho di Rhodi, la pianta del mosco di Phenicia, l’acantho di Cirema, l’agalloco di Calecut, il platano di Lidia, il nasturtio di Babilonia, il terebintho dell’isole Cicladi, il cedro di Cipro, il Cifi d’Egitto, il croco d’Austria, il gionco odorato di Nabathea, il phu di Ponto, con quanti semplici si trovano descritti  103 [i.e., 105]  da Mesue, Avicenna, Hippocrate, Dioscoride, Galeno, Theophrasto, & Plinio con tutti altri famosi & segnalati semplicisti; Et perche in questo fortunato loco tra i semplici incogniti appresso di noi, si trova l’Empetro, il chrisogono, il lagopo, l’holestio, il silibo, la Poligala, il Glauco, la phiteuma, la chameleuca, la cacalia, l’isopiro & l’onagra; ben si portebbe dire, che questo fosse quel segreto et favorito giardino della natura, che si riserba di semplici incogniti per non si privar d’ogni cosa, & farne ogn’un signore; ma à ciò contrasta la gentil natura dello splendido & liberalissimo Simonetta, il quale non solamente si contenta di mostrare cortesemente il tutto à ciascuno, che si diletti della facultà de semplici; ma ancora di partecipar con tutti delle piante rare, ch’ivi si trovano. Del che ne risulta non men gloria à questo gentilissimo spirito, che faccia all’illustrissimo & serenissimo Senato Venetiano dell’amplissimo giardino, che per commodo publico, & ornamento della medicina, ha fatto fabricar nella floridis-

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Vitauro: After the president I come to the judicious, very learned, and kind

Signor Scipione Simonetta, man of such spirit, counsel, and valor, that nothing more [can be said]. This man has a splendid, happy, and precious garden in Milan clothed in eternal springtime, where are seen things rare, marvelous, and novel; where art and nature, now in competition one with the other, demonstrate their latest trials, now both, incorporated, united, and reconciled together, make amazing things. And nature shows herself so kind and favorable to this well-born land that she has made only this privileged place a common home to all the valuable, famous, and exotic species, even as if she were dividing the roots, herbs, flowers, and trees by the countries she gave to them: to some Asia, to others Europe, and to many Africa. Here thrives the rhubarb from Turkey, the Egyptian bean from Sicily, the oriental sweet gum plant75 from Pamphilia, the heather from Greece, the aloe from Celesoria, the fig from India, the jasmine from Spain, the ivy76 from Cilicia, the sedge77 from Alexandria, the stavesacre78 from Istria, the water germander79 from Crete, the thyme from Cappadocia, the alipo80 from the Levant, the hellebore from Gorizia, the star from Athens, the apocino from Syria, the yew from Arcadia, the mandrake from Puglia, the grain from Constantinople, the Rhodian root from Macedonia, the medio from Media, the sesamoid from Anticyra,81 the amomo from Armenia, the costum82 from Arabia, the balsam from Judea, the pitch pine from Rhodes, the moss plant from Phoenicia, the acanthus from Cirema, the agalloco83 from Calcutta, the plane tree from Lydia, the nasturtium from Babylon, the terebinth84 from the Cyclades islands, the cedar from Cypress, the cifi from Egypt, the crocus from Austria, the fragrant jonquil from Nabatea, the phu85 from Pontus, with as many simples as are found described by Mesue, Avicenna, Hippocrates, Dioscoride, Galen, Theophrastus, Pliny, and all the other famous and distinguished botanists. So that in this fortunate place, among the simples The botanical name for storace is Styrax. The botanical name for hellera is Hedera helix. 77 The botanical name for cipero is Cyperus esculentus. 78 The botanical name for staphi is Delphinium staphysagria. 79 The botanical name for scordia is Teucrium scordium. 80 The botanical name for alipo is Globularia alypum. 81 Anticyra, now Aspra Spitia, is a town in Phocis famous for its hellebore. 82 Costum is an eastern aromatic plant employed in the preparation of unguents. 83 The botanical name for agalloco is Aquillaria agallocha. It is an East Indian shrub that yields aloe wood. 84 The botanical name for terebintho is Pistachia terebinthus. 85 The botanical name for phu is Valeriana phu. 75 76

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sima città di Padova, overamente all’eccellentissimo Cosmo Duca di Fiorenza del giardino, c’ha fatto edificare nell’antichissima città di Pisa, ove verdeggiar si veggono infinite rare piante, che altrove in Italia fin hora non sono vedute, fuor che nel giardino del mio dolcissimo Simonetta, il quale come che sia occupato nel governo  103 [i.e., 106]  delle cose publiche; non resta però di mandare per diverse & lontane regioni non riguardando à spesa alcuna per havere le piante forestiere legitime & vere, et per acquistare gli aromati pretiosissimi, eletti & sinceri: onde spesse volte si richiamano in vita molti di coloro la cui salute già disperata si vede a da tutti i medici, i quali infinito obligo haver dovrebbono à questo honoratissimo gentil’huomo, che tanto accresce, & illustra la meravigliosa facultà de semplici, à imitatione de gli antichi Imperatori, i quali (come afferma Galeno) quantunque fossero occupati per lo governo, che tenevano della Republica, & dell’impero loro, tanto hebbero in pregio questa divina & gloriosa scienza, che per havere i semplici veri tenevano provisionati in diverse parti del mondo semplicisti accuratissimi, et medici eccellentissimi per lo desiderio della gloria infinita, che quindi loro ne risultava, per lo beneficio universale de gli huomini, & per la memoria de i chiari essempi de suoi antichi padri, i quali non solamente portavano ne i trionfi le spoglie de i reami acquistati, & Re prigioni avanti à loro; etiandio varie & pellegrine piante: de quali non prendevano minor gloria havendole poi à Roma ne giardini, che si prendessero de i trofei, delle statue, & de gli archi trionphali, che in perpetua lor memoria si dirizzavano dal popolo & Senato Romano. Hor partendomi da  103 [i.e., 107]  questo vertuosissimo gentil’huomo vengo al sagace et generoso S. Gio. Iacopo Rainoldi, il quale in Melano ha un giardino si vago et festeggiante; che mi sento riempir l’anima d’un meraviglioso piacere qualhor mi viene ala mente la delicatezza di quello. Tra questi viene il nobilissimo et dottissimo S. Galeazzo Brugora, il quale, si come ha l’animo suo ben coltivato, & ripieno di lodevolin & diverse scienze: cosi ancora ha il suo ampio & delicato giardino ben coltivato, & ripieno de vari & pregiati frutti. Hor che diremo del S. Marc’Antonio Porro, raro essempio di splendidezza; Questi in Melano ad imitatione de Babiloni ha fatto fabricare un giardino nell’aria si meraviglioso, se chiunque lo vede non si puo satiare di pascere gli occhi di si raro, nuovo, & dilettevole spettacolo: Et dallo stato di questo aprico giardino ben si conosce quanto sia questo Cavalliero amorevole cortese, & liberale, percioche l’ha posto, ove chi vuole

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as yet unknown to us, one finds the empetro, the chrisogono, the lagopo, the holestio, the silibo, the milkwort,86 the glauco, the phiteuma, the chameleuca, the isopiro, and the onager. It could well be said that this was the secret and favorite garden of nature, that it is reserved by unknown simples through not being deprived of everything, and making everyone a gentleman; but to such contrasts the gentle nature of the splendid and very liberal Simonetta, who is happy not only to kindly show to everyone everything that delights him about the power of simples but even to participate with all the rare plants that are found. Of which no less glory results to this very gentle spirit, who would make some very ample garden for the very illustrious and very serene Venetian Senate, which for public utility and ornament of medicine he has been building in the very thriving city of Padova, obviously for the very excellent Cosimo, duke of Florence, of the garden that he had made to edify in the very ancient city of Pisa, where one sees flourishing infinite rare plants that have not been seen elsewhere in Italy until now, except in the garden of my very dear Simonetta, who, although occupied in the administration of public matters, does not cease to send away to diverse and far away regions without considering any expense in order to have the legitimate and true foreign plants and in order to acquire the very costly, choice, and pure aromatics: with which frequently are restored to life many of those whose health already seems desperate to the doctors, who ought to be infinitely obliged to these very honored gentlemen, who so much amplify and illuminate the marvelous power of simples, in imitation of the ancient emperors who (as Galen states) although they were occupied with the rule that they held of the Republic and of their empire, they held this divine and glorious science in such esteem that in order to have the true simples they kept very diligent herbalists and very excellent doctors salaried in diverse parts of the world for the desire of the infinite glory that consequently resulted to them through the universal benefit of men, and through the memory of the shining examples of their ancient fathers, who carried in triumph not only the spoils of the acquired realms, and kings imprisioned before them, but even diverse and exotic plants, from which they derived no less glory, Rome at that time having gardens that would have needed some trophies, some statues, and some triumphal arches, so that their memory was perpetually raised up by the people and Senate of Rome. Now separating myself from this very virtuous gentleman, I go to the wise and generous Signor Giovanni Iacopo Rainoldi,

86

The botanical name for milkwort is Polygala.

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puo goder della bella vista di quello. Ne si de tacere l’honoratiss. S. Francesco Bosso Giureconsulto eccellentissimo, & rarissimo essempio di bontà, il quale in Melano ha un aprico, vago, & beato giardino, dove per cosa notabile si vede ondeggiare il busso non altrimenti, ch’ei faccia nel monte Citoro. Et che dirassi del giardino c’ha il S. Pietro Novato in Voghiera, ove fra laltre cose degne di maggior meraviglia, si  104 [i.e., 108]  vede un foltissimo boschetto di nocciuolo fatto in forma di laberinto, nelle cui corteccie intagliate, & insieme cresciute con le piante si veggono queste lettere. Quinci esce il Nocciuolin che’l cor mi rode. Et in mezzo di questo amenissimo luogo evvi un Apollo di bianchissimo marmo, che siede sopra un rozzo et humido sasso, onde sale una fontana, che d’acqua chiarissima spruzza ciascuno che se l’avicina, et Questo Iddio l’affetto ch’egli mostra nel volto fa segno che per la dolce memoria della sua amata Dafne goda ancora di contemplar la bellezza d’alcuni giovinetti lauri, che in giusa di corona gli surgono dattorno; Et si come gia si trovava in focide sul monte Parnaso un speco entro del quale chiunque guardava riciveva lo spirito profetico; cosi quivi chi mira il detto Apollo, & sente il refrigerio delL’aura ch’ivi soavemente spira subiti riempier si sente di divinità, & poetiggiando dice cose Meravigliose in honor d’esso spirito dell’aura, & della vaghezza della Nicola ho voluto dir Nocciuola frutto preciosissimo di quel felice giardino, del che chiara fede ne fanno le dotte & dolci rime d’esso gentilissimo S. Novato, da cui partendomi vengo al miracolo del giardino del vertuosissimo: & honoratissimo Signor Giuliano Gosselini, dove la chiara luce del Sole porgendo nuova vertù alle piante, à fiori,  105 [i.e., 109]  & all’herbe, causa in esso

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who has in Milan a garden so charming and merry that I feel the mind filling up with a marvelous pleasure whenever I am reminded of its refinements. Among these comes the very noble and very learned Signor Galeazzo Brugora who, just as he has his mind well cultivated and full of praiseworthy and diverse knowledge, so he also has his ample and refined garden well cultivated and full of diverse and valuable fruits. Now what shall we say of Signor Marc’Antonio Porro, rare example of splendor? This man in Milan, in imitation of Babylon, built a garden in the air so marvelous that he who sees it cannot satisfy himself by feasting the eyes on so rare, novel, and delightful a spectacle. And from the situation of this sunny garden it is well known how loving, kind, and liberal this knight is, because he placed it so that he who wants to can enjoy its beautiful view. Nor would I remain silent about the very honored Signor Francesco Bosso, very excellent jurist and very rare example of goodness, who in Milan has a sunny, charming, and blessed garden, where as a remarkable thing one sees the box tree waving as it does nowhere else but on Mount Cytorus. And what should I say of the garden that Signor Pietro Novato has in Voghiera, where, among other things worthy of great marvel, one sees a very dense grove of hazel made in the form of a labyrinth, in whose carved bark, and grown together with plants, these letters are seen: Quinci esce il Nocciuolin che’l cor mi rode.87 And in the middle of this very pleasant place there is an Apollo of very white marble, which sits on top of a rough and damp rock, from which a fountain goes up, so that it sprays with very clear water everyone who is near it. And this god, the love that he shows on his face points out that for the sweet memory of his beloved Daphne he still enjoys contemplating some young laurel trees that rise around him like a crown. And even as in the past in a chasm on Mount Parnassus a cave was found into which whoever looked received the prophetic spirit, so here he who marvels at the aforementioned Apollo and feels the coolness of the breeze that softly blows here suddenly feels filled with divinity and, waxing poetical, says marvelous things in honor of the spirit of the breeze and of the charm of the Nicola I wanted to say Nocciuola, very precious fruit of that happy garden, to which the learned and sweet verses of that very gentle Signor Novato clearly testify, departing from whom I go to the miracle of the

87

Literally, “Hence emerges the hazelnut that causes me pain,” this phrase is enigmatic.

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una continuova Primavera, il perche non solamente in questa parte ceder gli dovrebbono gli altri giardini di Melano, ma come dice Vergilio parlando d’Italia ne ancor de Medi le gran selve, terra Ricca & beata, nel famoso Gange; Ne de l’harene d’or torbido, l’hermo; Non quei di Battra, ne que’d’India, ò tutta Grassa d’incensi, e fertile Panchaia. Con le lodi contendino di questo aventurato, & beatissimo luogo. Taccio il vago & notabile giardino del sagace, cortese & dottissimo S. Lodovico Maggienta, il lustre Senator di Melano. Taccio il signor Domenico Saoli abondantissimo fonte d’ogni vertù col suo amenissimo giardino. Taccio il cortese, il gentilissimo signor Bernardo Brebbia, che nel mezzo del suo felicissimo giardino ha una fontana fabricata per mano di Bramante, & fregia ta da una giocondissima selva di aranzi, limoni, & cedri. Taccio lo molto illustre et vertuosissimo Presidente Grasso, il dottissimo Senator Marliano, il cortese, & gentilissimo signor Danese Figliodono Senator degnissimo, il signor Pietro Georgio Visconte, il signor Gio. Battista Panigarola, il signor Antonio Francesco Crespo, il signor Alessandro Archinto, il signor Benedetto Pecchio,  106 [i.e., 110]  il signor Girolamo Visconte, il S. Girolamo Montio, il S. Francesco Lodovico Fassato, il S. Francesco Landriano, il S. Agosto de Capitani insieme col S. Pirro fratello, il S. Pietro Francesco, & Antonio Maria Calchi et fratelli, il S. Gio. Battista Amadeo, il S. Gottardo et Cesare Reini e fratelli, il S. Gio. Francesco Cazza, il S. Cesare Lampugnano, il S. Marco Marcello Rincio, il S. Girolamo Capra, il S. Quintiliano Mendosio, il S. Pomponio Cusano, il S. Francesco Malumbra, col S. Pietro Iacopo fratello, il S. Pietro Arrigono, il S. Caradosso Foppa, il S. Gio. Francesco Torniello, il S. Giulio Schiafinato, il S. Cesare Candiano, il S. Cesare Avogrado, il S. Horatio Carpano, il S. Girolamo Vergo, il S. Marc’Antonio Aresio, il S. Damiano testa, il S. Ascanio Mozzone, il S. Benedetto Longo, il S. Gio. Battista Salvatorino, il S. Cesare Vignarca, il S. Gio. Matheo Cataneo, il S. Gio. Francesco Cavagliano, & S. Gio. Steffano fratello, il S. Camillo Vaiano, il S. Gio. Battista della Tuà, il S. Gio. Antonio Vimercato, il S. Aluigi Marliano, il S. Gaspar Casato, il S. Aluigi da Lodi. Et infiniti altri honorat-

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garden of the very virtuous and very honored Signor Giuliano Gosselini, where the clear light of the sun giving new power to the plants, to the flowers, and to the grass brings about in it a perpetual springtime, so that not only in this region ought the other gardens of Milan yield to it, but Virgil says speaking of Italy, Not even the great woods of Media, land Rich and blessed, on the famous Ganges; Nor of the sands thick with gold, Hermus; Nor those of Bactria, nor those of India, nor all Panchaea, fertile and full of incense.88 With the praises of this fortunate and very blessed place they do not compete. I say nothing of the charming and notable garden of the wise, kind, and very learned Signor Lodovico Maggienta, illustrious senator of Milan. I say nothing of Signor Domenico Saoli, very abundant fount of every virtue, with his very pleasant garden. I say nothing of the kind, the very gentle Signor Bernardo Brebbia, who in the middle of his very happy garden has a fountain built by the hand of Bramante, and adorned by a very cheerful forest of oranges, lemons, and citrons. I say nothing of the very illustrious and very virtuous President Grasso, the very learned Senator Marliano, the kind and very gentle Signor Danese Figliodono, very worthy senator, Signor Pietro Georgio Visconte, Signor Giovanni Battista Panigarola, Signor Antonio Francesco Crespo, Signor Alessandro Archinto, Signor Benedetto Pecchio, Signor Girolamo Visconte, Signor Girolamo Montio, Signor Francesco Lodovico Fassato, Signor Francesco Landriano, Signor Agosto de Capitani together with his brother Signor Pirro, Signor Pietro Francesco and Antonio Maria Calchi and brothers, Signor Giovanni Battista Amadeo, Signor Gottardo and Cesare Reini and brothers, Signor Giovanni Francesco Cazza, Signor Cesare Lampugnano, Signor Marco Marcello Rincio, Signor Girolamo Capra, Signor Quintiliano Mendosio, Signor Pomponio Cusano, Signor Francesco Malumbra, with Signor Pietro Iacopo his brother, Signor Pietro Arrigono, Signor Caradosso Foppa, Signor Giovanni Francesco Torniello, Signor Giulio Schiafinato, Signor Cesare Candiano, Signor Cesare Avogrado, Signor Horatio Carpano, Signor Girolamo Vergo, Signor

88

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 136–139.

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iss. et vertuosissimi gentil’huomini vaghi di bei giardini, non per altro se non perche rappresentano la villa cotanto amata da tutte le persone di spirito et valore.  107 [i.e., 111] Ma oltre gli essempi di tanti honorati personaggi, che per se stessi dovrebbono bastare per mettere in gratia di ciascuno la libertà della villa, et in odio la servità della città. Che diremo noi del piacer, che l’huomo si piglia alla villa del veder sorger da un vivo sasso una chiara, & frescà fontana; la quale non altrimenti, che se di pur cristallo fosse à gli occhi de riguardanti manifesta i segret del suolucido fondo. Quali occhi son quelli, a cui non paccia la vista d’un dilettevole boschetto, le cui piante si gratiosamente ricevano i raggi del Sole, che l’herba da loro ne prenda grandissima recreatione? chi non gode del vedere, quando spirano i tepidi zephiri, germogliar gli alberi, & quasi à garra l’un dell’altro rivestirsi di verdi frondi? chi non è vago del veder sorgere in alto il faggio, et l’ellera co’piedi torti andar carpone? à cui non è dolce il veder i fiumi, quando cadendo da gli alti monti, con piacevol mormorio vanno rigando l’herbose valli, et i pesci, quando hor notano in frotta, hor intorno al fonte girando guidano dilet toso ballo, & hor l’un l’altro seguendo guizzano per l’acqua? à cui non giova la soavità de gli odori, che dolcemente da i varii fiori spirar si sente? chi non si trastull del veder cozzar montoni davanti alle amorose sue pecorelle? chi non vede volontieri i paurosi daini, quando per la presenza dell’amata druda si fanno arditi, & i timidi   108 [i.e., 112]  conigli, quando si accovacciano l’un con l’altro, one piu ride Primavera? chi non gioisce del correr delle orecchiute lepri? chi non s’allegra dal vedere i ruggiadosi fiori, quando per la venuta del Sole si cominciano ad aprire, & i fronzuti rami, quando ondeggiano al vento? à chi non dilettano i dolci accenti de i vaghi uccelletti, quando quasi à prova l’un dell’altro, cantano i lor amori? ove lascio le gemme, di che la novella stagione riveste l’herbe di verdi prati? ove il pollalar de gl’innestati rampolli, i quali, come nostre creature con piacer singolarissimo crescer veggiamo? ove la pampinea vite, quando racquista i perduti tralci, &

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Marc’Antonio Aresio, Signor Damiano Testa, Signor Ascanio Mozzone, Signor Benedetto Longo, Signor Giovanni Battista Salvatorino, Signor Cesare Vignarca, Signor Giovanni Matheo Cataneo, Signor Giovanni Francesco Cavagliano and Signor Giovanni Steffano, brothers, Signor Camillo Vaiano, Signor Giovanni Battista della Tuà, Signor Giovanni Antonio Vimercato, Signor Aluigi Marliano, Signor Gaspar Casato, Signor Aluigi da Lodi. And infinite other very honorable and very virtuous gentlemen charmed by beautiful gardens, for no other reason if not because they represent the villa so much loved by all persons of spirit and valor. But other examples of such honored personages, who by themselves ought to be enough to put in everyone’s favor the freedoms of the villa, and in disfavor the slavery of the city. What shall we say of the pleasures that a man gets from the villa by seeing rising up from a living rock a clear and cool fountain; which shows to the eyes that look into it the secrets of its clear base as if it were none other than pure crystal? Whose eyes are those, to whom [appears] the view of a delightful grove, whose plants so graciously receive the rays of the sun that the grass from them takes the greatest recreation? Who does not enjoy seeing, when the warm zephyrs breathe, the trees budding and almost in a race one with the other to reclothe themselves with green leaves? Who is not charmed to see the beech rising up on high, and the ivy with twisted feet crawling on hands and knees? To whom is it not sweet to see the rivers, when falling from high mountains, stream through the grassy valleys with pleasant murmuring, and the fish when now they swim in schools, now beside the fountain, turning around, they conduct a delightful dance, and now, one following the other, they dart through the water? Who is not delighted by the sweetness of the fragrances that one smells being sweetly exhaled by the various flowers? Who is not amused to see rams grazing in the presence of their affectionate little sheep? Who does not gladly gaze upon the timid fallow deer, when they act bold in the presence of their beloved mate, and the timid rabbits, when they hide themselves, one with the other; where does Spring laugh more? Who is not delighted by the running of the long-eared hares? Who is not happy to see the dewy flowers, when they begin to open at the rising of the sun, and the leafy branches, when they wave in the wind? Who is not delighted by the sweet accents of the little birds when, almost in competition with each other, they serenade their sweethearts? How can I forget the buds that reclothe the grasses of the green fields in the new season? Where the sprouting of the grafted shoots which, like our children, we watch with singular pleasure? Where the leafy vine, when it reacquires the lost

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maritandosi con gli olmi à rami suoi s’aviticchia? ò quando ella, ò l’albero à cui s’appogia è (come dice Vergilio) con spatio ugual l’uno da l’altro posto Per tratte righe giustamente lungi; Come talhor per far giornata insieme Con l’altro un grosso esercitio si stende Per aperta campagna, e spatiosa In dritte fila, & ordinate schiere Stan con le fronti à gli nemici volte L’ardite genti, edal lucido ferro Tutta la terra d’ogn’intorno splende, Ne s’appicca la zuffa ancor, ma in mezzo  109 [i.e., 113] A’larme incerto Marte horribil erra. Ne crederò io giamai, che alcuno sii tanto indiscreto, che mi neghi, che in villa non si prenda un piacer inestimabile da un cielo aperto, et chiaro, che con un vivo splendore, quasi con un suo riso c’inviti alla allegria, & che non goda del vedere un lieto, fruttifero, & festaggiante colle, con mille riposti recessi, dove paia, che la quiete, et la felicità tengano la loro habitatione, & dal sentire le silvestre canzoni delle semplici villanelle, & il suono delle incerate canne de pastori. Et che dirò della vista de i rozzi bifolchi, quando ornando, gli aratri di novelli fiori, danno segno di piacevole ocio? Et perche taccio i cacciatori, quando seguono le fugitive fiere, & quando nel rosseggiar dell’Oriente, tendono le reti? dove lascio le diverse maniere d’animali, quando à lor diletto se ne vanno solazzando per li prati dipinti di mille varietà di colori, ove l’aure estive scherzando tra fiori fanno dolcemente tremolar le tenere herbette. Io passo con silentio molte altri cose simili, le quali dilettano i sensi, recreano gli spiriti, destano lo’ngegno, & raccendono in noi il desiderio di cercar le cause de i veduti effetti. Partenio. L’ingegno svegliato dall’amenità del loco cosi spinge gli huomini alla lascivia, come alla investigatione delle cose naturali, & le persone sante hanno fiorito piu nelle deserte rupi, che ne gli ameni   110 [i.e., 114]  lochi; ma lasciando questo da canto, hor che havete contato le gioie della villa, ponote anco al’incontro i piaceri della città.

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shoots and, marrying itself to the elms, clings to their branches? Or when it or the tree on which it is supported is (as Virgil says) Placed with equal space from one to the other With fairly long distances between As sometimes in order to work by day together With each other, a great army spreads itself Through open and spacious country In drawn-out lines and ordered ranks The brave troops stand facing the enemy And the whole land, far and wide, Glitters with gleaming steel, Still the fray is not joined, but in the midst Of arms dreadful Mars wanders uncertain.89 I will never believe that anyone would be so indiscreet as to deny that in villa he derives inestimable pleasure from an open and clear sky, so that with a lively splendor, almost with its laugh it invites us to merriment, and that he enjoys seeing a pleasant, fruitful, and festive hill, with a thousand secret recesses where it would seem that the quiet and the happiness hold their habitation, from both hearing the woodland songs of the simple villagers and the sound of the waxed reeds of the shepherds. And what shall I say of the sight of the rough peasants when, adorning the plow with new flowers, they show forth peaceful leisure? And why do I remain silent about the hunters, when they pursue the fleeing beasts, and when they tend their nets in the reddening of the east? How can I forget the diverse forms of animals, when for their delight they go amusing themselves through fields painted a thousand hues, when the summer breeze, dancing among flowers, makes the tender grasses sweetly tremble? I pass with silence many other similar things that delight the senses, revive the spirits, arouse the mind, and rekindle in us the desire to find out the causes of observed effects. Partenio: The mind, aroused by the delightfulness of the place, drives men to lust after the investigation of natural things; holy persons have thrived more in desert rocks than in places of pleasure; but leaving this aside, now that you have sung the joys of the villa, set them against the pleasures of the city.

89

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 277–284.

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Vitauro. Le gioie, & piacevoli spettacoli della città sono rubbarie, latrocinii,

assassinamenti, partialità, conspirationi, ingiurie, tradimenti, falsi giuramenti di testimonii, falsificamenti de notari, prevarivationi d’avvocati, corrutioni de giudici, ambitioni de consiglieri, confinamenti de buoni, condennationi d’innocenti, e oppressioni di poveri, di vedove, & di pupilli. Taccio la bella vista del boia, del bargello, de birri, delle forche, de ceppi, delle catene, & de prigioni. Taccio i crudeli, & horribili spettacoli, che si fanno de i condennati à morte per giustitia. Taccio il piacevole incontro di certi cancherosi forfanti, che fingendo lo stroppiato lanciano il foco di santo Antonio addosso à chi non compiace all’impotunità loro. Taccio il grato spettacolo de gli ammorbati spedali. Taccio la perspettiva del puzzolente borgo la noce. Taccio la dolce harmonia delle voci dolenti de poveri, i quali per le città se ne morono di fame in vituperio dell’humanità. Taccio il grato concento delle increscevoli scampannate, che si fanno nella morte de gran personaggi. Taccio la melodia de noiosi ciabattini, & altri sciagurati, che à guisa de pazzi, ò anime dannate vanno gridando per le strade. Partenio. Voi havete detto tutte le miserie delle città,  111 [i.e., 115]  & tacciute le felicità loro, come sono i magnifichi, & superbi palazzi, con le pretiose massaritie, & thesori, che vi son dentro, le diverse, & artificiose statue, le degne & meravigliose pitture, le piacevolezze de gl’Histrioni, i diversi spettacoli, la vista delle vaghe & ornate gentildonne, le pompose corti de Prencipi, & le belle creanze de Cortegiani, & altre cose simili. Vitauro. Coteste cose, che voi dite sono felicità apparenti, et non vere. Partenio. Perche causa sono tali? Vitauro. Non sapete cominciando dalla magnificenza delle case, pretiose massaritie, & thesori, che il piu delle volte ne i palazzi de i gran Rè si trova la fatica, & il dolore, & ne i bassi tugurii de poveri la quiete, & l’allegrezza; & se ciò non credete à Vitauro, udite quel, che dice Valerio Massimo. Gige insuperbito assai per trovarsi Rè di Lidia, abbondantissimo d’armi, & di riccezze, essendo andato in Delfo à domandar l’o racolo d’Apolline, se tra i mortali alcuno piu felice di lui si trovava, hebbe per risposta del sacratissimo speco di quello Iddio, che Aglao filosofo, era di lui piu felice, et piu beato. Era costui d’Arcadia poverissimo sopra tutti gli altri, ne mai era uscito fuori de i confini d’un suo poderetto, contento de i frutti, e de i piaceri, che gli porgeva quella sua picciola possessione. Et certamente Apollo con questa astuta maniera di

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Vitauro: The joys and pleasant spectacles of the city are robberies, larcenies,

assassinations, partiality, conspiracies, injuries, betrayals, false testimony of witnesses, falsifications by notaries, prevarications by advocates, corruption of judges, ambition of counselors, confinement of good men, condemnation of innocent ones, and oppression of poor people, widows, and orphans. I say nothing of the beautiful view of the hangman, of the chief constable, of the police, of the gallows, of execution blocks, of the chains, and of prisons. I say nothing of the cruel and horrible spectacles that they make of those condemned to death by execution. I say nothing of the delights of certain evil-doing pests, who, feigning a shuffle, let loose Saint Anthony’s fire on him who does not yield to their importunity. I say nothing of the pleasing spectacle of the stinking hospitals, I say nothing of the view of the filthy slums. I say nothing of the sweet harmony of the crying voices of the poor who throughout the cities are dying of hunger to the dishonor of humanity. I say nothing of the pleasant harmony of the annoying peals of bells that are made on the death of great personages. I say nothing of the melody of the noisy cobbler and others who, after the manner of madmen or damned souls, go screaming through the streets. Partenio: You have told all the miseries of the cities, and you have said nothing about their happinesses, such as the magnificent and superb palaces, with precious furnishings and treasures, that there are besides the diverse and artful statues, the worthy and marvelous paintings, the pleasures of the actors, the diverse spectacles, the sight of pretty and ornate ladies, the pompous courts of princes, the beautiful manners of courtiers, and other similar things. Vitauro: Such things as you mention are apparent happinesses and not real ones. Partenio: Why are they such? Vitauro: Don’t you know, beginning with the magnificence of the houses, precious furnishings and treasures, that most of the time in the palaces of great kings one finds fatigue and sorrow, and in the lowly hovels of the poor rest and merriment; and if, however, you do not believe Vitauro, listen to what Valerius Maximus says.90 Gyges, very proud to be king of Lydia, very abundant of arms and of riches, having gone to Delphi to ask the oracle of Apollo if among mortals anyone happier than he could be found, was answered from the very sacred cave of that god that Aglao the philosopher was happier and more blessed. This man was poorer than all others in Arcadia and had never gone outside the con-

90

Velerius Maximus wrote Factorum ac dictorum memorabilium libri IX (c. a.d. 25).

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parlare, venne alhora à descrivere,  112 [i.e., 116]  & determinare qual fosse la vera felicità, & non l’apparente, onde rispondendo à Gige, ch’abbagliava nello splendore della sua fortuna, in cotal giusa venne à significarli, che piu approvava una capanna pastorale, ridente, & sicura, che i pallazzi, & le corti de Prencipi piene di mille cure, & sollicitudini; piu un poco di terreno posseduto senza paura & sospetto, che i fertilissimi campi di Lidia ripieni di molto timore; piu il possedere uno, ò due para di buoi, che facilmente si guardano, & custodiscono, che gli esserciti, l’armi, & la cavalleria, tutte cose di spesa, & travaglio grandissimo; piu un picciolo granaio all’uso necessario bastante, & da niuno cerco, ò desiderato, che i thesori esposti alle insidie, à i tradimenti, et alle rapacità d’ogn’uno. Quanto alle vaghe pitture, & artificiose statue, che dite, vi rispondo, che s’elle sono antiche (benche delle pitture poche se ne trovino) sono chiarissimo argomento del guasto mondo, & del vituperio della presente età, nella quale gli huomini à gran prezzo, & con spese trabocchevoli comprano le antichaie, & de lodevoli costumi, & vertuose operationi de gli antichi, alle quali accendere, & infiammar gli dovrebbono le statue, non se ne curano ponto, anzi dispezzano ogni vertù, & dell’antico altro non hanno, che qualche fragmento d’una statua di Cesare, ò di Scipione. Et se le statue, che dite sono moderne, &  113 [i.e., 117]  rappresentano gli huomini del secolo presente dispiacciono sommamente à gli occhi delle persone giudiciose, conoscendo, che hoggidi per l’ordinario si pongono le statue à i ricchi, che con gran pregio possono comprare i finissimi marmi, & non à quegli, che sono vertuosi, come solevano far gli antichi, appresso i quali le statue erano testimoni della vertù, ne si dirizzavano se non à coloro, che fossero dotti & ingeniosi, come fu fatto à Vittorino, ò à quegli, c’havessero liberato la patria, come à Scipione Affricano, ò che fossero morti per lei, come à quegli Ambasciatori, che furono morti dal Re de Vehietii, overamente ad altri, c’havessero fatte imprese grandissime. Partenio. Tutto, che le imagini, & antichaie, per esser incitrimento, & sprone alla vertù, facciano chiara al mondo la pigritia, & dapocaggine di quegli, che si dilettano d’haverle sempre innanzi, & per loro ponto non si movano ad imitar l’operationi vertuose de gli antichi: et che le moderne statue sieno testimoni, non della vertù, ma della richezza, & presontione de gli huomini; per questo non resta, ch’elle insieme con le vaghe pitture, & altri bellissimi spettacoli non sieno grande ornamento delle città, & non dilettino cosi gli occhi de riguardanti, come facciano il verdeggiar delle campagne, la vaghezza de i fiori, il germogliar delle piante, il nascer de frutti, la vivezza de i fonti,  114 [i.e., 118]  la chiarezza de i fiumi, la spessezza de i boschi, la

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fines of his small farm, content with the fruits and the pleasures that his little possession yielded him. And certainly Apollo, with his astute manner of speaking, came then to describe and to determine what was true, and not apparent, happiness, and so responding to Gyges that he was blinded by the splendor of his fortune, in such guise came to mean that he approved more a pastoral hut, laughing and secure, than the palaces and courts of princes, full of thousands of worries and cares; more a little bit of land possessed without fear and suspicion than the very fertile fields of Lydia full of many fears; more the possessing of one or two almost hovels, which are easily guarded and kept, than the armies, the arms, and the cavalry, all things of cost and very great travail; more a small granary sufficient for necessary use, and neither sought nor desired by anyone, than treasures exposed to enemies and to the rapaciousness of everyone. He said, responding to him, the many pretty paintings and artful statues that are ancient (although few of the paintings exist) are very clear proof of the fallen world and of the dishonor of the present age, in which men buy antiques at a high price and with excessive cost, and of the praiseworthy manners and virtuous works of the ancients. If men do not pay heed to those [ancient ones], they ought to set fire to and burn the statues. As it is, they despise every virtue, and they do not have anything old other than some fragments of a statue of Caesar or of Scipio. And so the statues that you say are modern and represent the men of the present age are highly displeasing to the eyes of judicious persons, knowing that usually today statues are placed by the rich, who at great cost are able to buy the finest marbles, and not by those who are virtuous, as the ancients used to do, whose statues by comparison were testimonies to their virtue, nor were they erected by those themselves learned and ingenious, as was done by Vittorino, or by those who would have liberated the country, as by Scipio Africanus, or who would have died for it, as by those ambassadors who were killed by the king of the Vetii, or by others, who would have made very great impressions. Partenio: However, the images and antiquities, by being incitements and aids to virtue, make clear to the world the laziness and worthlessness of those who delight to have them always before them, and for their part they are not moved to imitate the virtuous works of the ancients. And the modern statues are testimonies, not to the virtue, but to the wealth and presumption of men. From this it does not follow that those [statues], together with the lovely paintings and other beautiful sights, are not great ornaments to the cities; and that they do not delight the eyes of those who look at them as much as the greening of the countryside, the loveliness of the flowers, the budding of the plants, the bearing of fruits, the liveliness of the fountains, the clearness of the rivers, the

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piacevolezza de i colli, l’ombra delle valli, l’amenità de i prati, & altre cose simili. Vitauro. Io vi confesso, che le belle pitture, et le artificiose staue allettino gli occhi de riguardanti; ma ben vi nego, che le cose dalla natura prodotte, tanto aggradino à gli occhi nostri, quanto quelle, che nascono dall’arte, la quale non darà mai, come la natura spirito, & anima all’opere sue. Partenio. Anchora, che’l pittore non faccia l’opere sue animate; nondimeno mostra nella pittura sua cosa, che sommamente diletta, la quale veder non si puo ne gli effetti di natura. Vitauro. Che cosa è cotesta, che voi dite? Partenio. È la vertù dell’imitare, la quale è di tanta forza, ch’ella fa, che le cose brutte, et dispiacevoli piacciano, come per essempio si puo vedere nella figura di Laocoonte, il cui dolore, il morir dell’un de figliuoli, la paura dell’altro, con l’avinchiarsi de i serpenti, cotanto di diletto ci porge, & pur la morte, i sospiri, le strida, i morsi, et il timore sono cose tristissime, & odiose. Il che parimente ha loco nelle fittioni poetiche; onde è, che molti molto maggior diletto prendono da i pianti, dalle disperationi, & dalle morti delle tragedie, che non fanno da i givochi, da i risi, da i contenti delle comedie. Vitauro. Assai maggior diletto nasce dalle cose belle, che produce la natura, che non fa dalla vertù di collui, che le va imitando. Il che chiaramente  115 [i.e., 119]  lo dimostra la differenza, ch’è da una fontana naturale ad una artificiata, & da un paese dipinto ad uno, che sia vero. Partenio. Hor posto, che cosi sia mi negherete voi, che da i giardini delle citt non si piglino molti de’ piaceri, che voi fate proprii della villa. Vitauro. Cotesto non vi nego; ma ben vi dico, che ne gli antichi secoli nelle città non v’erano giardini, & che Epicuro, il quale fu il primo, che trovasse i giardini in Athene non gli hebbe in tanto pregio, se non perche rappresentavano un natural ritratto della villa, i cui piaceri vanno molto piu à gusto, & piu longo tempo dilettano, che non fanno quelli delli giardini delle città. Partenio. Perche causa? Vitauro. Per la vicinanza del lor contrario; percio che spesse volte in villa si veggono minacciosi monti, tanne da serpi, oscure caverne, horride balze, strani greppi, dirupati bricchi, rovinati sassi, alberghi d’heremiti, aspre roccie, alpestri diserti, & cose simili, le quali, quantunque senza horrore rare volte riguardar si possano; nondimeno piu compiuta rendono la gioia & felicità della villa; ma, che piu, ne gli horti delle città solamente si gioisce della vista de gli alberi domestici, & da maestrevol mano coltivati; ma nella villa si gode ancora del vedere le selvaggie piante dalla natura prodotte ne gli alti monti, le quali

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thickness of the groves, the pleasantness of the hills, the shade of the valleys, the pleasantness of the fields, and other similar things. Vitauro: I confess that the beautiful paintings and the artful statues entice the eyes that look at them, but I completely refute you, because the things produced by nature gratify our eyes as much as those that are born of art, which will never give, as nature does, spirit and the breath of life to its work. Partenio: Still, though the painter does not give his works the breath of life, nevertheless he shows in his painting something that highly delights, which cannot be seen in the effects of nature. Vitauro: What is that of which you speak? Partenio: It is the virtue of imitating, which is of such force that it makes ugly and displeasing things pleasing, as for example one can see in the figure of the Laocoön, whose sorrow, the dying of one of the sons, the other’s fear of being strangled by the serpents, offers so much delight, and even the death, the sighs, the strife, the bites, and the fears are sad and hateful things. For it has a place equally in the poetical fictions; so it is that many take much greater delight from the tears, from the despairs, and from the deaths of the tragedies than from the jokes, the laughs, the pleasures of the comedies. Vitauro: Even greater delight arises from the beautiful things that nature produces, which does not [arise] by virtue of those that imitate them. For clearly the difference between a natural fountain and an artificial one is apparent, and between a painted landscape and one that is real. Partenio: Now granted that it is so, you deny that from the gardens of the cities are derived many pleasures that you make proper to the villa. Vitauro: I don’t deny that, but I do tell you that in ancient times there were not gardens in the cities, and that Epicurus, who was the first to find gardens in Athens, did not hold them in such high esteem, but that rather they represented a natural portrait of the villa, whose pleasures produce much more delight, and please for a longer time, than do those of the gardens of the cities. Partenio: For what reason? Vitauro: Because of the proximity of their opposite; for often in villa one sees threatening mountains, serpents’ lairs, dark caves, horrid cliffs, strange crags, steep precipices, fallen rocks, hermits’ huts, rough rocks, mountainous deserts, and similar things that, although one can hardly gaze upon them without horror, nevertheless render more complete the joys and happinesses of the villa; but, what’s more, in the gardens of the cities one enjoys only the view of the dwellings domestic and cultivated by masterful hand; but in the villa one also enjoys seeing the wild plants produced by nature in the high mountains,

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svogliono cose recar piu degne & memorabili, che non fanno le coltivate viti de giardini.   116 [i.e., 120] Et se fosse stato addimandato à Lissandro Lacedemone, quando andò da Ciro per ambasciatore, quali fossero di maggior diletto, ò gli alberi ugualmente con bell’ordine l’un dall’altro separati, ch’erano nel delicioso giardino d’esso Ciro, overamente le selve di busso del monte Cithoro, quando nell’aria ondeggiano non altrimenti, che faccia il mare, quando dal vento quinci, e quindi viene agitato, son certissimo, ch’egli havrebbe risposto in favor delle selve di Cithoro, si come anco Vergilio disse, DILETTA molto à riguardar Cithoro Di bussi ondante, e di Naritia i boschi Carchi di pece, & veder giova i campi Non ad aratri, od arpici soggetti, Non obligati d’alcun huomo à cura. Esce del gran Caucaso in l’alta cima Sterili selve, che gli animosi euri Soglion con fiati lor piagar crollando, E ferendo schiantar continuamente, Altri danno, altri parti, queste i pini. Util legno à navigi, à sostenere Le case, quelle alti cupressi, e cedri, Quinci si fanno & à le ruote i raggi, Timpani à i carri, & à le navi il fondo. Son di vimine, e salici fecondi,  117 [i.e., 121] Di frondi gli olmi, di forte haste il mirto Da usar in guerra è buona il cornio, sono Attissimi à piegarsi i tassi in archi, E le pulite tiglie, e’l facil busso, E à ricever, qual’ huom vuol, forma al torno, Si cavan tutte con acuto ferro. Ancora il fragil alno in fiume posto Per le precipitevoli onde nuota, Ancora dentro à le corteccie cave Del putrido elce fan lor case l’api, Qual cosi memorabile, ò si degna Cosa recar le viti ad alcun mai? Diede Bacco à la colpa le cagioni, Egli col suo licor condusse à morte

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which would usually bring things worthier and more memorable than do the cultivated vines of the garden. And if it had been asked of the Spartan Lysander, when he went to Cyrus as ambassador, which would be more delightful, the trees separated from one another equally with beautiful order, which were in the delightful garden of that Cyrus, or the woods of box tree on Mount Cytorus, when in the air they make waves not unlike those that the sea makes when it becomes agitated by the wind hence and afterward, I am certain he would have responded in favor of the woods of Cytorus, as Virgil also says. It delights greatly to gaze on Cytorus With waving box trees, and on the Narycian groves Laden with pitch, and to view the fields Subject neither to plows nor harrows, Nor obliged to the care of any man. On the high peak of the great Caucasus Barren woods, which the hostile southeast winds Used to enjoy tossing with their breaths And wounding by tearing continually, Give others, other parties, these pines. Wood useful for ships, for holding up houses, Those tall cypresses and cedars, From these are turned the spokes, The drums for carts, and the keels for boats. They are of osiers, and willows fruitful, Of leaves the elms, of stout spear shafts the myrtle, The cornel is good for using in war, The yew very fit for bending into bows, And the smooth linden and the light boxwood, And to receive the form that one wants from the lathe, All are hollowed with sharp steel. So, too, the light alder, sent down river Through the rapids, swims the waves, So, too, inside the hollow cork trees, In the rotting ilex, the bees make their houses, What thing so memorable or so worthy Do vines ever bring anyone? Bacchus gave the occasions to the fault, He with his liquor led to death

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I gran Centauri d’alto furor pieni, E Rheto, e Pholo, e con gran tazza in mano Minacciante i Lapithi il fiero Hileo. Partenio. Se nelle ville giova anco à veder gli alberi selvaggi, che non si veggono ne i delicati giardini delle città, all’incontro si veggono nelle città de i meravigliosi spettacoli & giochi, che non si veggono nelle ville, & massimamente al Carnovale. Vitauro. I publichi spettacoli & giochi, che voi dite furono sempre contrarii à i buoni costumi, & chi à loro se n’andrà cattivo ne ritornerà peggiore; quivi s’è  118 [i.e., 122]  perduto l’honore di molte honorate gentildonne, & quindi molte se ne sono partite impudiche, molte dubbiose, ma niuna non ne tornò mai casta. Partenio. Voi biasmate li spettacoli, et gli antichi Romani, ch’erano pur fior de gli huomini, tanto se ne dilettavano, che da loro andavano non solamente il popolo Romano; ma etiandio il Senato, & gl’Imperatori del mondo; piu dico, che gli spettacoli tanto havevano di gioia con loro, ch’eglino menavano in publico non pur le mogli de i Cesari, ò le figliuole, ma le vergini vestali ancora. Vitauro. La grandezza di chi erra non emenda l’errore, secondo i giudicii migliori; Roma non hebbe cosa piu biasmevole, che la discordia civile, & la vanità de giochi, io trovo, che non solamente à questi spettacoli si va à pericolo di perder l’honore, ma la vita ancor. Partenio. In che maniera? Vitauro. Non vi ricordate d’haver letto nelle Historie, che in Fidena al tempo di Tiberio Imperatore per la caduta del Anphitheatro morirono ventimila persone; Et se non basta della perdita della vita, & dell’honore, che s’acquista in simili spettacoli, spesse fiate si perde ancora la robba? Partenio. Et questo vorrei intendere. Vitauro. Mentre, che gli huomini privati sono tenuti dal desiderio de gli spettacoli, poco ricordevoli del guadagno ordinario, non sentono il giorno, che passa, & la povertà che viene; & cosi à vicenda il mal privato nel publico, & il publico nel privato  119 [i.e., 123]  si cangia. Partenio. Certamente, ch’io conosco, che voi dite il vero, & mi ricordo d’haver gia visto piu volte in Melano alcuni uccellacci, che abbandonavano le boteghe loro, per andar dietro à certi carri infrascati, sopra de quali si recitavano

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The great Centaurs full of madness, And Rhoetus, and Pholus, with great cup in hand Menacing the Lapiths and proud Hylaeus.91 Partenio: If in the villas it is useful still to see the wild trees that are not seen in the lovely gardens of the city, on the contrary in the city are seen the marvelous spectacles and games that are not seen in the villas, and principally at Carnival. Vitauro: The public spectacles and games that you mention will always be contrary to good manners, and he who goes to them bad will return from them worse; there the honor of many honored ladies has been lost, and from there many have left indecent, many doubtful, but no one ever returned chaste. Partenio: You blame the spectacles, and the ancient Romans, who were the pure flower of humankind, delighted themselves in it so much that to them went not only the Roman people but even the Senate, and the emperors of the world. I say more, that the spectacles had so much of joy with them that they took in public not only the wives of the Caesars, or the daughters, but the vestal virgins as well. Vitauro: The greatness of the one who errs does not mend the error, according to better judgment. Rome had nothing more reprehensible than the civil discord and the vanity of the games; I find that at these spectacles one runs the risk of losing not only honor but life as well. Partenio: In what way? Vitauro: Don’t you remember having read in the histories that in Fidena at the time of the emperor Tiberius five thousand people died from the collapse of the amphitheater; and if the loss of life and of honor is not enough, what is gained in such spectacles, often things are also lost? Partenio: And I would like to understand this. Vitauro: While private men are drawn by the lure of the spectacles, little recalling the usual profit, they do not feel the day that passes and the poverty that comes; and so private misfortune changes into public, and public into private. Partenio: Certainly I know that you tell the truth, and I remember already having seen many times in Milan some simpletons who abandoned their shops in order to follow after certain carts covered with branches, over which they 91 Beginning on p. 120, line 10, and continuing through p. 121, line 17, Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 437–457.

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le piu goffe filostrocherie del mondo: ma circa alle donne, io vi dico, che piu diletta lo spettacolo, & bella vista delle vaghe & leggiadre gentidonne delle città, che quanto veder si possa in villa. Vitauro. Le donne della villa sono piu belle, amabili, & caste, che quelle della città, nelle quali non si vede altro che artificio, & torto, che si fa alla natura. Partenio. Anzi è il contrario, & si come un finissimo diamante piu bello riesce dall’artificio sa mano, che l’havrà polito, che dalla natura, che l’havrà prodotto; cosi una giovane donna è molto piu grata à gli occhi de riguardanti, quando ornata & polita se ne viene dallo specchio, che quando scapigliata & sonnacchiosa esce dal letto. Vitauro. Anzi una bella & fresca fanciulla, quan do vien tinta a’alcun liscio, pare men vaga d’assai, & la ragione è, perche la natura alle volte perviene à un certo segno, oltre il quale il nostro desiderio non si stende, & alhora pare, ch’ella rifiuti l’opera dell’arte; & oltre à ciò vi dico, che lo studioso ornato per la sospettione, che nasce dalla molta industria alle belle scema la gratia della bellezza, et alle brutte scopre le mende loro col suo splendore,  120 [i.e., 124]  il perche le donne di villa sono piu gratiose, sincere & leali, che le cittadine, le quali (per la maggior parte) mostranno inganno fin nella facia, dove soto vil biacca, et solimato sepellita si vede la lor natia vivacità, et se ne trovano di quelle tanto vaghe d’ingannar altrui con questa maladetta maschera, che tutto che sieno inferme, magre, & secche, di biancho, e rosso si dipingono il viso, come se fossero di quegli mamolini, che per ornamento si mettono sopra gli altari; Et per far piu bel spettacolo alcuni altri mostri di cinquanta anni si trovano, che su’l volto s’acconciano quel loro smerdamento di belletto in maniera, che per entro lui la carne vecchia si vede, non altrimenti, che si faccia la lividezza d’un muro affumato sotto poca calcina. Et se vogliamo noi confessar il vero non è piu tosto un simil spettacolo degno d’odio, che d’amore? Partenio. Quanto à questo io son quasi della vostra opinione; ma circa all’esser le villane piu caste, che le cittadine, io sono di contrario parere, & vorrei, che mi diceste la cagione, che vi ha mosso à cosi dire. Vitauro. La cagione è l’inimicitia, che suole essere tra l’ocio, et la castità; & le nobili, et ricche donne delle città stanno volontieri ociose. Partenio. Che volete voi, che faccino simile donne? che vadino à zappare, come le villane, ò che si guadagnino il pane con l’ago, ò la conocchia. Vitauro. La buona mogliere per svegliare in altrui il desiderio di operare,  121 [i.e., 125]  move alle volte cosi le mani, come la lingua, & si mostra nemicissima dell’ocio, il quale è radice di migliaia d’infermità, cosi dell’animo, come del corpo; percio che i pensieri della persona ociosa (vinta da i piaceri del

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recited the world’s stupidest nonsense: but with regard to women, I tell you that the spectacle and the beautiful sight of the charming and pretty ladies of the city delights more than what can be seen in the villa. Vitauro: The women of the villa are more beautiful, lovable, and chaste than those of the city, in which nothing that is made by nature is seen but [it is] artificial and twisted. Partenio: Rather, it is the contrary, and just as a fine diamond becomes more beautiful by the skilled hand that polished it than by nature that produced it, so a young lady is much more pleasing to the eyes that gaze upon her when she comes from the mirror adorned and polished, than when she gets out of bed disheveled and drowsy. Vitauro: On the contrary a beautiful and fresh girl, when she gets tinted by some cosmetic, seems much less pretty, and the reason is that nature at times reaches a certain mark beyond which our desire does not reach, and at that point it seems that she refuses the work of art; and besides that, I tell you that for beautiful women the learned man, endowed with the circumspection that is born from much diligence, diminishes the grace of beauty, and for ugly ones he covers defects with his splendor, because the ladies of the villa are more graceful, sincere, and honest than the city women who (for the most part) show deceit on the face where, beneath white lead and sublimely hidden, their native vivacity is seen, and so many of these consider themselves beautiful by deceiving others with this accursed mask that, although they are sick, thin, and gaunt, they paint their faces white and red, as if they were some of those dolls that are put on altars for ornament, and in order to make a more beautiful spectacle, a few other fifty-year-old monsters are found who make their faces up with their filthy stuff in such a way that the old flesh underneath it shows, not unlike the way the grayness of a smoke-blackened wall shows under a little whitewash. And if we want to confess the truth, isn’t it rather more like a spectacle worthy of hatred than of love? Partenio: How much in this matter I am almost of your opinion; but with regard to the peasants being more chaste than the city dwellers, I am of contrary opinion, and I would like you to tell me the reason that moved you to say such a thing. Vitauro: The reason is the hostility that there should be between idleness and chastity; and the noble and rich women of the city are willingly idle. Partenio: What do you want such women to do? Go hoeing, like peasants, or earn their bread with the knitting needle or the distaff? Vitauro: The good wife, by awakening in others the desire to work, moves

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mondo) vincono qual si voglia proponimento; la qual cosa, essendo intesa da poeti, gl’indusse à finger Diana castissima Dea cacciatrice, per dimostrare, che in un medesimo petto non si concordano insieme l’ocio, & la castità; ma nelle donne per l’ordinario causa piu mal, che bene. Et di qui viene, che communemente s’hanno in sospetto le donne letterate. Partenio. Et perche cotesto? Vitauro. Perche alla malitia naturale delle donne, se le aggionge l’artificiale, che si apprende dalle dottrine; Et se volete vedere, che rare volte le lettere s’accordino con la castità, specchiatevi nell’essempio di Safo, quella dico, che fu di tanto grido nella poesia, la quale tanto lascivamente amò Faone. Ne minor biasimo si da à Sempronia da Salustio in un medesimo tempo biasimata d’impudicitia, & lodata di dottrina; ne passerò con silentio Leontia, la quale fu concubina di Metrodoro da cui apprese le dottrina Epicurea. Et per non fastidirvi con la moltitudine de gli essempi, vi dico, che infinite furono le donne dotte, & impudiche. Partenio. S’anch’io vi volessi mettere innanzi la gloriosa schiera delle donne letterate, & caste, forse, che maggior sarebbe il numero loro, che questo del le dotte,  122 [i.e., 126]  & dishoneste; ma lasciando gli essempi da banda, vorrei saper da voi, se la donna che legge le cose morali non impara sprezzar il vitio, & se nelle buone lettere (come’l Sole nel cielo) non risplende la luce della vertù? Vitauro. Et se per aventura qualche donna non credesse ciò, che voi dite, legga le novelle del Boccaccio, & massimamente quelle, che insegnano alle mogli far la beffa à i mariti, & troverà, che in esse, come nel tempio di Venere arde una fiamma di sensitivo amore bastante à raccendere di pellegrina lussuria qual si voglia casto petto. Taccio quelle amorose lettere, ch’ardono, piangono, sospirano, & si disperano in maniera, che basterebbono à corrompere qualunque femina per vergognosa, timida, & honesta, ch’ella fosse. Taccio il lascivi versi de poeti atti à mettere sossopra la castità. Partenio. La lettione de buoni libri ammaestra, & non corrompe, porge l’arme della ragione, & non quelle dell’appetito; & da questo le donne imparerieno à conoscere quanto bello, & pretioso thesoro sia la castità. Vitauro. Perche di natura le donne sono piu fragili, che gli huomini, & sono naturalmente piu inclinate al mal, che al bene, vi dico, ch’elle hanno piu tosto bisogno di freno, che di sprone, & di servitù, che di libertà, la donna, che legge à troppo gran pericolo si mette; Et io ne conosco di quelle, c’hanno un gentil spirito, pur quando leggono la institutione  123 [i.e., 127]  delle donne si fastidiscono à un tratto, & fi lasciano vincere dal sonno, & quando leggono le

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by turns the hands as much as the tongue, and shows herself very hostile to idleness, which is the root of a thousand sicknesses of the mind as much as of the body, for the thoughts of the lazy person (conquered by the pleasures of the world) master what purpose he wants; which thing, being understood by poets, induces him to pretend to be Diana, the very chaste goddess of the hunt, to show that idleness and chastity do not become reconciled with one another together in the same breast; but in women for the usual reason more bad than good. And whence it comes that literate women are commonly regarded with suspicion. Partenio: And why is that? Vitauro: Because to the natural wickedness of women is adjoined the artificial, that is apprehended from teaching. And if you want to see how rarely letters accord with chastity, look at the example of Sappho, that one, I say, who was of such repute in poetry, who so lasciviously loved Phaon. No less blame is given to Sempronia by Sallust, at the same time blamed for indecency and praised for learning; nor will I pass with silence Leontia, who was concubine of Metrodoros, from whom the Epicurean doctrine was learned. And in order not to bore you with the multitude of examples, I tell you that infinite are the learned and indecent women. Partenio: I also want to set before you the glorious company of literate and chaste women, that perhaps their number would be greater than this of the learned and dishonest ones. But leaving examples aside, I would like to know from you whether the woman who reads moral things doesn’t learn to despise vice, and whether the light of virtue doesn’t shine in literature (like the sun in the sky). Vitauro: And if by chance some woman would not believe what I told you, read the novels of Boccaccio, and chiefly those that teach wives to play practical jokes on their husbands, and you will find that in them, as in the temple of Venus, burns a flame of sensitive love sufficient to rekindle some exotic wantonness as if it were a chaste breast. I say nothing of those amorous letters that burn, weep, sigh, and despair of themselves in such a way that they are enough to corrupt any woman, however modest, timid, and honest she might be. I say nothing of the lascivious verses of poets apt to turn chastity upside down. Partenio: The lesson of good books teaches, and does not corrupt, holds out the arms of reason, and not those of appetite; and from this the women would learn to recognize what a beautiful and precious treasure chastity is. Vitauro: Because by nature women are more fragile than men, and naturally more inclined to evil than to good, I tell you that they need restraint more than

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novelle del Boccaccio, mai non si satiando di leggere, ne sentono una dolcezza infinita, di maniera, che per tutte le sudette ragioni, & essempi io conchiudo, che l’ocio delle lettere è de gli huomini, & non per donne; l’ufficio delle quali è d’imparar à governar ben la sua famiglia, & non di leggere. Partenio. Certamente, ch’io credo, che questa vostra conclusione sia vera: ma hora, che habbiamo ragionato dell’ocio letterato, & dell’ocio senza lettere, vorrei, che ragioassimo ancora del suo contrario, cioè dell’esercitio, che serve ala sanità del corpo, & alla recreatione dell’animo. Vitauro. Che? volete voi forse dire, che piu commoda non sia la villa per far essercitio, che la città? Partenio. Et vo pensate di poter sostenere il contrario? Vitauro. Io ne sono sicuro. Partenio. Perche causa non ne habbiamo noi nelle città delle piazze, & delle strade piu belle, & accommodate per far essercitio, che non si veggono nelle villa? Vitauro. L’esercitio delle città viene impedito da molti fastidiosi incontri, i quali spesse volte riempiono gli animi nostri di tristitia, & in quel ponto vorremmo esser ciechi, cosa, che non interviene alla villa: dove in qualunque parte vi troviate, vedete una giocondissima verdura, la quale non solamente diletta l’occhio, & sveglia la mente; ma conforta, & giova sommamente  124 [i.e., 128]  la vista. Partenio. In che modo? Vitauro. Perche la narura del vedere è lucida & vaga della luce, e molto agevole ad allargarsi, & spargersi; onde aviene, ch’ella cosi si dissolve troppo riguardando nelle cose lucide, come si restringe vedendo le tenebrose, di maniera, che’l vedere brama di fruir la luce in modo, che’l piacere non lo disperda, & nelle tenebre, dove non vi si puo dilatare, non ha godimento alcuno, il color verde; perche participa temperatamente del chiaro, & dell’oscuro, non dilatandosi troppo in lui il vedere, ne venendo impedito il piacere per le soverchie tenebre, diletta la vista, & la conserva con una piacevole alteratione, non altrimenti che faccia lo splendido delicato d’un specchio, ò la chiarezza d’una fontana, che senza offesa alcuna resista à i raggi de gli occhi nostri. Partenio. Questa è una ragion si viva, ch’io non saprei mai, che dirle contra; et penso, che di qui venga, che i gentil’huomini ornino le stanze loro di panni verdi, ò di pitture di paesi. Vitauro. Voi dite il vero; ma le verdi & vive piante non solamente confortano la vista; ma con l’odore, che spirano aiutano molto gli spiriti vitali dell’huomo; cosa che non possono fare i opanni verdi de cittadini.

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incentive, and slavery more than freedom. The woman who reads too much puts herself in great danger, and I don’t know any people in possession of a gentle spirit who, even when they read about the education of women, are [not] somewhat annoyed, and they let themselves be overcome by sleep. And when they read the novels of Boccaccio, never satisfying themselves with reading, they sense an infinite sweetness, so that for all the subtle arguments and examples I conclude that the leisure of letters is suitable for men and not for women; whose job is to learn to govern their family well, and not to read. Partenio: Certainly I think that this conclusion of yours is true: but now that we have argued about scholarly leisure, and about leisure without letters, I would like us to argue still about its opposite, that is, about the exercise that serves the health of the body and the recreation of the mind. Vitauro: What? Would you perhaps say that the villa is not more useful for exercising than the city? Partenio: And you think you can support the opposite? Vitauro: I am sure of it. Partenio: For what reason do we have in the cities piazzas and streets more beautiful and accommodating for exercising than are seen in the villa? Vitauro: Exercise in the cities becomes impeded by many annoying encounters, which often fill our minds up with wickedness, and on that point I would like to be blind, something that does not happen in the villa: where in whatever parts you find, you see a merry verdure, which not only delights the eye and awakens the mind but comforts and very much gives enjoyment of the view. Partenio: In what way? Vitauro: Because the nature of sight is clear and desirous of light, and very apt to become wider and to spread, whence it happens that it fades from looking at bright things too much, as it shrinks seeing the darkness, so that sight strongly desires to make use of light in such a way that the pleasure does not destroy it, and in the darkness, where it cannot be dilated, it enjoys not a little the color green; because it participates moderately in the light and in the shadow, sight not dilating too much in it, nor pleasure being hindered by excessive shadows, it delights the sight and conserves it with a pleasurable alteration, not unlike that which would be made by the splendid adornment of a mirror or the clearness of a fountain that stands up to the rays of our eyes without any harm. Partenio: This is an argument so alive that I will never understand him who speaks against it, and I think that from here it comes that gentlemen hang their rooms with green cloth, or with pictures of the countryside.

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Partenio. Io non saprei mai che dirvi contra; ma circa alle corti de Signori, &

lor ben creati Cortegiani, che rispondete voi? Vitauro. Io vi confesso trovarsi de Signori vertuosissimi, & delle corti, che sono  125 [i.e., 129]  honoratissime; dove si coglie il fiore d’ogni gentil creanza, & dove concorrono tutti i pellegrini ingegni à dimostrare il lor valore à garra l’un dell’altro; come per essempio si vede à tempi nostri nella corte del’invittissimo Cesare, de Serenissimo Rè di Spagna, del Christianissimo Rè di Francia, & d’alcuni altri Prencipi degni veramente del prencipato loro; ma ben vi dico, che questo si vede in pochi lochi; & che nella maggior parte delle corti (colpa del corrotto vivere di hoggidi) si trovano tante sceleraggini, quante ne sieno nel resto del mondo; et l’huomo per buona servitù ch’ei faccia, non solamente da Signori non ne puo havere; ma ne sperare ancora premio, che sia di longhe fatiche, & di rischio di morte, se non si rivolge ad acquistare per mezzo vituperoso: perciò ch’essi (per l’ordinario) non essaltano se non quegli, che non meritano, ne vogliono vedersi avanti, se non chi per alfabeto sà le stanze, le prattiche, & le qualità delle meretrici, & de i ganimedi; ne premiano se non buffoni, & ministri della lor lussuria; ne fanno grate accoglienze & fatti, se non àchi gli sà trovare piu segrete vie per acquistar danari; ne carezzano se non quegli, che con piu colorate scuse sanno torgli dalle spalle i creditori, & per sua causa mancar di fede à ogn’uno; ne portano innanzi et fanno grandi se non certi lor nemici famigliari, amici di fortuna, nemici verità,  126 [i.e., 130]  false sirene, et scimie di corte, che adulatori si chiamano, & in questi tali si veggono le belle creanze, che voi dite. Partenio. Che creanze son coteste. Vitauro. Come che creanze? non sapete, che altre volte occorse in Franza, che’l Rè Luigi, per haver brutta gamba, vestiva con saglione longo fin alle calcagna, & indi à pochi giorni fu imitato da tutto il Regno in maniera, che (non ostante la brutezza dell’habito) tutti i Cortegiani vestivono similmente, ancora, che dalla natura fossero dotati d’un bellissimo corpo. Succedendo poi à Luigi Francesco, il quale, perche haveva bella disposition di vita, & proportionatissime membra, vestiva di corto in modo, che quasi tutte le parti del corpo scoperte se gli vedevano; subito i Cortegiani, correndo da uno estremo all’altro, quantunque havessero le gambe torte si vestirono di corto, come il Rè: Et tanto oltre passò questa adulatione in quella corte, che essendo stato veduto il Rè cavalcar piu d’una volta un ronzino con la coda tagliata, à un tratto si videro tutti i Cortegiani à cavallo de ronzini senza coda. Et se ciò non vi basta per intender le sciocchezze, & adulationi de Cortegiani, vi dovete pur ricordare, che Clisofo adulator di Felippo Rè di Macedonia si fingeva zoppo; perche

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Vitauro: You speak the truth; but green and living plants comfort not only

the sight; with the fragrances that they exhale they greatly help the vital spirits of a man; something that the green cloth of city dwellers cannot do. Partenio: I should know never to speak against you, but about the courts of the Signori and their well-made courtiers, what do you say? Vitauro: I confess that I find the Signori very virtuous, and that the courts are very honorable; where the flower of all gentle good manners is plucked, and where all the foreign intellects come together to demonstrate to one another their valor in warfare; as is seen in our day for example in the court of the very indomitable Caesar, of the very serene king of Spain, of the very Christian king of France, and of a few other princes truly worthy of their principalities. But I tell you well that this is seen in few places; and that in most parts of the courts (guilty of corrupt living these days) so much wickedness is found as does not exist in the rest of the world. And not only is the man who performs good service not able to have from the lords a reward, which would be from long hard work and risk of death, he can’t even hope to have it if he does not apply himself to acquiring it by shameful means. For they (as a rule) promote no one but those who neither deserve nor want to see themselves advanced, except those who know in alphabetical order the rooms, the practices, and the qualities of the prostitutes and of the fops; nor do they reward anyone but clowns and ministers of their extravagance; nor do they have nice receptions and events, except for those who know to find them more secret ways of acquiring money; nor do they caress anyone but those who with veiled excuses know how to get the creditors off their backs, and to break promises to anyone for their sake; nor do they bring forward anyone but certain of their familiar enemies, friends of fortune, enemies of the truth, false sirens, and apes of the court, who are called flatterers, and they consider such things as these beautiful good manners, as you said. Partenio: What are such good manners? Vitauro: What are good manners? Don’t you know that, in times past in France, King Louis, having a deformed leg, dressed in a long gown as far as the heel, and thence in a few days he was imitated throughout the whole kingdom, so that (the ugliness of the habit notwithstanding) all the courtiers dressed similarly, even though they had been given beautiful bodies by nature. Proceeding thus to Louis Francis, who, because he had a beautiful disposition of life and very well-proportioned limbs, dressed in court in such a way that almost all parts of the body were seen uncovered: suddenly the courtiers, running from one extreme to the other, though they had crooked legs, dressed in short

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Felippo haveva una gamba rotta, e storceva la bocca, e gli occhi in quel modo, che faceva l’istesso Rè? Non vi soviene ancora di  127 [i.e., 131]  quello, che occorse à Dionigi, il quale una volta ridendo vide Carisofo parasito, che da longi rideva anch’egli; onde addimandato perche ridesse, rispose, perch’io penso quelle cose, che voi dite esser degne di riso. Ma che piu, queste scimie cortegiane non solamente imitano la indispositione del corpo, l’imperfettione del vestire, le maniere & i capricci de Signori: ma etiando le qualità dell’animo; onde s’eglino saranno vitiosi l’adulatore si sforzerà di apparer l’istesso vitio, negli errori del patrone; ne con parole, ne con fatti gli sarà mai noioso, anzi al canto di quello farà sempre tenore soavissimo, & loderà il vitio col nome delle vertù propinque, chiamando i fumosi magnanimi, i bestiali animosi, i licentiosi buon compagni, & i prodighi liberali. Et talhora, per acquistar maggior credito, fingendosi vinti da troppo amore riprenderanno il Signore con tassarlo di troppa cortesia, liberalità, fatica, animosità, ò d’altre cose simili; talche se uno sarà un codardo, & vilissimo d’animo col tassarlo di troppo ardire, passare lo faranno da una viltà grande ad una poltroneria grandissima, & infamia sua perpetua. Partenio. Il riprender di questi tali è simile al grattar della rogna, che par che doglia, et pur diletta; ne credo, che piu trista generatione d’huominisi trova al mondo di questi assentatori, & domestici nemici. Vitauro. Et che sia vero cotesto domandatene ad Anazilo  128 [i.e., 132]  filosofo, il quale soleva dire l’adulatore esser simile al verme nato nel frumento; perche mai non l’abbandona fin à tanto, che non l’ha corroso tutto dentro; perloche Diogene diceva esser manco male stare fra i corvi, che fra gli adulatori; percioche quelli mangiano i corpi morti, et que sti consumano i vivi. Hor questi sono gli huomini de quali abondano le città; & queste sono le belle creanze de i vostri favoriti Cortegiani. Taccio la servitù, gli stenti, & la reuscita de gli altri infelicissimi Cortegiani, che non sanno, ò non vogliono adulare, & che vivendo sotto l’impero d’uno insolente mastro di casa mangiano al suon di campanella, & dormono allo altrui sonno. Taccio gli odiosi miracoli della corte, & massima quando si vede confettare un sterco. Taccio il vedere chi hieri era salito sopra delle stelle, hoggi esser caduto nell’abisso, & all’incontro volar sene hora fin al cielo, chi pur dianzi era sepolto nel centro della terra. Taccio l’odio, che ordinariamente portar si fuole alle persone vertuose. Taccio li scherzi, che usò Alessandro à Lisimaco, & Tiberio à Seiano suoi favorissi mi Cortegiani, &

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clothes, like the king: And this adulation happened so many other times in the court, that the king having been seen more than once riding a horse with the tail cut off, for a while one saw all the courtiers mounted on horses without tails. And if this were not enough to understand the foolishness of the adulation of the courtiers, shouldn’t you also recall that Clisophus, adulator of King Philip of Macedonia, pretended to be lame because Philip had a broken leg, and he twisted his mouth and eyes in the same way as the king did? Don’t you still remember that man who, when met by Dionigi, saw the parasite Carisofo laughing, so that, after a while, he was also laughing; whence asked why he was laughing, he replied, because I was thinking of those things that you said to be worthy of laughter. But what’s more, these ape courtiers not only imitate the indispositions of the body, the imperfections of the clothing, the manners and the caprices of the lords: but even the quality of the mind; so since they were corrupt the flatterers were forced to appear corrupt just the same, in the errors of the patron; neither with words nor with deeds will he ever be annoying, even his singing will always make a very sweet sound, and he will praise the vice with the name of the related virtue, calling the vain magnanimous, the bestial spiritual, the licentious good company, and the prodigal liberal. And sometimes, in order to acquire greater credit, pretending to be overcome by too much love, they take revenge on the Signore by taxing him with too much courtesy, liberality, hard work, courage, and other similar things, so that if one will be a coward and very ignoble of character by taxing him with too much daring, surpassing him, they progress from great meanness to great sloth, and its perpetual infamy. Partenio: The revenge of such men as these is like the scratching of an itch, because it seems to be pain and also pleasure; I do not believe that a sadder generation of men can be found than these flatterers and domestic enemies. Vitauro: And why don’t you ask the philosopher Anaxilas92 if it is true? He used to say that flatterers are like worms in the wheat, because they don’t give up until they have corrupted everything inside. Because of this Diogenes said that it is less bad to be among crows than among these flatterers, because the former eat dead bodies and the latter consume living ones. Now these are the men with whom the cities abound, and these are the beautiful good manners of your favorite courtiers. I say nothing of the slavery, the hardships, and the result of the other very unhappy courtiers, who do not or do not want to flatter, and who, living under the rule of one insolent master of the house, eat at the ring-

92

Anaxilas was a Greek poet of the fourth century b.c.

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concludo la corte, & la città esser non altrimenti da fuggir, che sieno gli perigliosi scogli di Silla & Cariddi. Partenio. Hor ben conosco chiaramente, che voi dite il vero, & che tanto deve esser dolce la libertà della villa, quanto in effetto è amara la servitù della città, & della  129 [i.e., 133] Corte. Vitauro. Se voi gustaste un tratto la dolcezza della vita rusticale, son certissimo, che à guisa del topo rusticano di Horatio, direste à Dio cittadini, mai piu non mi vedrete fra le vostre mura. Partenio. Ricordatemi per vita vostra, come fu la favola di cotesto topo. Vitauro. Horatio in una sua Satira, dove grandemente loda la vita rusticana, dice in questo modo GIÀ un topo della villa invitò seco A’ desinar nel suo povero albergo Un, che ne la cittade era nutrito: Si come amico invitar suol’amico. Il topo contadino era tenace Del suo, ma non però, che ne’ conviti Non dimostrasse un’ amico cortese. Dirollo in breve. Esso gli pose innanzi Ceci da lui serbati, e lunga avena, E diedegli portando seco in bocca A cini secchi d’una e frusti ancora Di mezo roso lardo, disioso Con vari cibi di sgombrar la noia Del suo compagno, che mal volontieri Mangiava de le date à lui vivande, Toccando ogn’una con superbo dente: Egli, che’l padron era de la casa  130 [i.e., 134] Mangiando farro, e loglio, e à lui lasciando I miglior cibi: e tuttavia giaceva Sopra un poco di paglia di quell’anno: A’ cui il topo civil parlò in tal guisa. Caro mio amico, che diletto prendi D’habitar questo bosco erto e selvaggio, Povero e solitario? voi tu forse Anteporre il comertio de le genti, E le adorne cittadi à aspre selve?

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ing of the bell, and go to sleep at another sound. I say nothing of the hateful miracles of the court, and most when one sees the candying of excrement. I say nothing of seeing him who yesterday had climbed above the stars to be fallen into the abyss today and, on the other hand, him who only recently was buried in the center of the earth flying high as heaven now. I say nothing of the hatred that usually is carried toward virtuous persons. I say nothing of the jokes that Alexander used on Lysimachus, and Tiberius on Sejanus, their favorite courtiers, and I conclude that the court and the city are no different to flee than are the perilous rocks of Scylla and Charybdis. Partenio: Well I know clearly now that you tell the truth, and that the freedom of the villa ought to be so sweet, how grevious in effect is the slavery of the city, and of the court. Vitauro: If you could taste a dash of the sweetness of country life, I am quite certain that, after the manner of the country mouse of Horace, you would say good-bye city dwellers, look for me no more within your wall. Partenio: Recall for me, in your own words, how the story of that mouse went. Vitauro: Horace in one of his satires, where he greatly praises country life, tells it in this way: Once a mouse of the villa invited One who was raised in the city To have lunch with him in his poor abode, As a friend invites a friend. The country mouse was frugal, But not so much that he would not Show a friend kindness in dinner parties. To put it succinctly, he put in front of him Vetch from his reserves, and long oats, And carrying with him in his mouth Dried pips of grapes and also bits Of bacon, desiring With various fare to overcome the aversion Of his companion, who unwillingly Ate of the dishes served to him, Touching each one with haughty teeth: He who was the master of the house Eating spelt and darnel, and leaving for him

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Vien meco in compagnia, poi, che ben sai, Che di noi bestie l’anime mortali Sono, e convien, ch’ogn’un per tempo, ò tardi Gionga à la morte, che non puo fuggirsi. Onde mentre, che poi, vive felice Godendo di quel ben, c’haver si puote; Vivi te dico, Et haggi sempre à mente, Ch’è la vita di noi fuggace e breve? Poi che queste parole il contadino Topo mossero à voglia di cangiare Lo stato suo con miglior vita, ratto Usci del tetto vile, in che albergava, Et ambedui si misero in camino, Desiderosi d’ascender di notte De le città le mura, e già la notte  131 [i.e., 135] Teneva la metà del cielo, quando L’uno e l’altro arrivaro entro una casa D’un gran ricco, Et in questa sopra letti D’avorio si vedean ricche coperte Di purpureo colore, & vanzava D’una gran cena fatta il giorno innanzi Assai gran quantità di vari cibi, I quali eran riposti in piu canestri; Poscia adunque il civil topo misse Il contadin sopra il purpureo panno Di qua’, di là va leggiadretto presto Continuando le vivande, e face Officio di buon servo, la credenza Facendo d’ogni cosa, che gli reca. Egli sedendo adagio si rallegra D’haver cangiato sorte; e si dimostra Allegro convitato: Et ecco s’ode Un gran rumor, e strepito di porte; Che l’uno a l’altro fuor de’letti scosse. Cominciar essi à correr d’ogn’intorno Timidi pe’l tinello, e sempre cresce Lor la paura, & eran mezi morti. Aggiungi à questo, che la casa tutta

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The better food: and yet he lay On a little bit of that year’s straw: The city mouse spoke to him in such a manner. My dear friend, what pleasure do you take Living in this steep grove and forest Poor and alone? Should you maybe Put the commerce of people And beautiful cities before the rugged woods? Then come in company with me, who knows well That we creatures are mortal souls, And that it is necessary that everyone, sooner or later, Reaches the point of death, which he cannot flee. Meanwhile, then, live happily Enjoying the good that you can have; Live, I tell you, And always turn over in your mind, What is this life of ours, fleeting and short? After these words, the country Mouse was moved to want to change His state for a better life, swiftly He came out of the modest house in which he dwelled, And they set out together, Wanting by nightful to reach The wall of the city, and already the night Was holding the mid space of heaven, when The one and the other arrived inside a house Of a great rich man, and in this house over couches Of ivory are seen rich covers Of purple color, and there was left over From a great dinner made the day before Very great quantities of various foods, Which had been placed in baskets; Then afterward the city mouse put The county one on the purple cloth, Over here, over there, he goes gracefully, quickly, Continuing the courses, and he performs The office of the good servant, the sideboard Taking everything that he brings. The other one sitting quietly enjoys

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De l’abbaiar de’ can risuona intorno.  132 [i.e., 136] Alhora il topo rustico al compagno Disse, non fa per me cotesta vita, A Dio fratello. Me le selve, e un buco Con un poco di vil legume & esca Terrà pasciuto e satio, senza tema, Ch’alcun venga à sturbar la mia quiete. Partenio. Bella & artificiosa fittione fu questa di Horatio; perche in vero gli

agi delle città sono accompagnati da infinite miserie, & giudico vita infelicissima di quelli, che havendo tanto, quanto gli bisogna per l’uso del lor vivere necessario; malcontenti della sua fortuna, per arricchire di liberi si fanno servi, ne mai hanno riposo alcuno. Vitauro. In confirmation di cotesto, udite quel, che scrive Horatio à Fosco Aritio suo compagno Un cervo fu, ch’à un povero cavallo, Perch’era piu di lui gagliardo e forte, Non lasciava mangiar l’herbe communi. Ond’esso poi, che combattuto assai Hebbe con quel malvagio, finalmente Veggiendosi da lui battuto e vinto, Ricorse humile per aiuto à huomo; Da cui posto gli fu subito il freno, Et hebbe la vittoria del nimico; Ma rimase di lui sempre soggetto,  133 [i.e., 137] E senti grave poi la bocca e’l dorso. Cosi l’huom, che temendo povertade, Ch’avanza di valor l’argento e l’oro, Per le richezze s’affatica e suda, Havrà sempre il padron, che lo cavalchi, E sia vivendo eternamente servo, Chi del poco, ch’egli ha non sà valersi, Ne si trova di lui contento e pago. A cui sua facultà non è conforme, Avien, qual de la scarpa: che s’è grande

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Having his lot changed; and he plays The happy guest: And suddenly is heard A great noise, and uproar at the door; So that they both fell off their couches. Nervous, they began to run on every side Through the dining hall, and their fear Continued to grow, and they were half dead. Add to this that the whole house Resounded on every side with the barking of dogs. Then the rustic mouse to his companion Said, such a life is of no use to me, Good-bye, brother. For me the woods and a hole, With a little bit of cheap beans and ordinary food Nourished and satisfied, without fear That anyone will come to disturb my quiet.93 Partenio: This was a beautiful and artful fiction by Horace; because in truth

the comforts of the city are accompanied by infinite miseries, and I judge their lives unhappy, who, having so much, need so much for the use of their necessary living; discontented with their fortune, by getting rich they are turned from free men into slaves, nor do they have any rest. Vitauro: In confirmation of that, listen to what Horace writes to his friend Aristius Fuscus. There was a stag who would not, because he Was the braver and stronger of the two, Let a poor horse eat of the common grass. Whence this one who had fought extremely hard With that narrow-minded one, finally Seeing himself beaten by him and lost, Appealed humbly for help to humankind, Who immediately put on him the bit, And he prevailed over his enemy; But he remained forever slave to man, And from then on his mouth and back felt weight. Beginning on p. 133, line 8, and continuing through p. 136, line 6, Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Satires 2.6, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse,” lines 78–117. 93

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Via piu del piè, cader fa spesso l’huomo: S’è troppo corta, e stretta lo tormenta. Tu de lo stato tuo vivi contento Aritio, e sarai saggio: e se tu vedi, Ch’io voglia piu raccor di quel che basti, Riprendemi con gravi aspre parole. Il danaio è signor, ò servo altrui: Ma piu conviene à l’huom, che pieno impero Habbia di quel, che se lo faccia donno. Partenio. Ben dice in vero il prudentissimo Horatio, che l’huomo dovrebbe accomodar la scarpa al piede, et contentarsi della sua fortuna, altrimenti mai non haverà l’animo tranquillo. Vitauro. Hor voi l’intendete, & assicuratevi, ch’è felice l’huomo, che si contenta di quel, che basta alla   134 [i.e., 138]  natura. Il perche disse Horatio al suo Aritio

Fuggi l’altezza, che ben lice à l’huomo Sotto povero tetto, e in stato humile Vincere i ricchi, e i fortunati Regi. Et appagandosi noi di quel poco, che habbiamo, che loco possiamo trovare piu al proposito nostro, che la villa? & che’l sia vero, domandatene all’istesso poeta? il qual dice hora se noi vogliamo esser contenti Di quel, che basta à la natura, e havendo Da fabricarci una magione honesta, E da cercar primieramente il luogo; Voi ne riconoscete alcun migliore De la gioconda, anzi beata villa? Ove si trova piu tiepido il verno? Et ove l’aura piu soave, e grata

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So the man who, so fearing poverty That he cherishes silver and gold, Exhausts himself and sweats for wealthiness, Will always have a master who rides him, And he will be eternally a slave, Who with the little he knows not to prize Is found neither content with it nor pleased, With whom his wealth is not in accordance, It happens as with a shoe: if it is Too big for the foot, it makes the man fall: If it is tied too tight, it torments him. Live content with your state, Aristius, And then you will be wise, and if you see Me wanting to gather more than enough, Reprimand me with serious harsh words. Money is my lord, or I serve others: But better one should fully control it Than that he should let it be his master.94 Partenio: Truly the very prudent Horace said well, that the man ought to fit

the shoe to the foot, and content himself with his fortune, or else he will never have a tranquil mind. Vitauro: Now you understand, and you can be sure, that the man is happy who contents himself with that which suffices by nature. For Horace said to his Aristius, Flee grandeur, as is fitting for a man Under a poor roof, and in humble state Surpassing rich men and fortunate kings.95 And contenting ourselves with what little we have, what place can we find more to our purpose than the villa? And why not ask the same poet if it is true? He says,

94 Beginning on p. 136, line 15, and continuing through p. 137, line 19, Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Epistles 1.10, “To Aristius Fuscus,” lines 34–48. 95 Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Epistles 1.10, “To Aristius Fuscus,” lines 32–33.

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Leva la rabbia del celeste cane; Et ammollisce il grave acuto caldo Del Sol, quando egli ne la casa alberga Del fier leone? la noiosa cura, Ò la’ invidia nemica del riposo Meno gia mai ci turba, ò rompe il sonno? Con quel che siegue, dove posponendo i fonti & i giardini di Roma alle piaggie, et fiumi della villa, dice Ma far  135 [i.e., 139]  non si puo forza à la natura, Che calca sempre vincitrice l’arte. Partenio. Hor ben conosco, che Horatio non fu men protettore della villa, che siate voi. Vitauro. Anzi Horatio, come piu dotto & eloquente di me fu ancora piu valoroso, & gagliardo difensore della villa di quello, che sono io: ma circa al desiderio di vivere in una gioconda et lieta villa posso dire veramente insieme con esso lui altro ne voti miei non fu gia mai, C’haver solo un poder non molto grande, Ove ci fosse un’horto, e presso al mio Tetto un perpetuo fonte d’acqua chiara, E un poco di selvetta. Ecco gl’Iddii Mi fur piu larghi di quel, ch’io bramai, Tanto, ch’i mi contento, ne piu cheggio Figliuol di Maia; fuor che mi conservi Questi de i sommi Dei graditi Doni. Et fin ne i piu teneri anni della mia fanciullezza fui sempre molto piu vago de i piaceri della villa, che di quelli della città, & cosi crescendo da una età nell’altra crebbe parimente in me il desiderio di consumar i giorni miei nella dolcissima libertà delle campagne, dove piu grato m’è il suono dell’humili zampogne, che nelle città lo strepito del le tragiche trombe. Et quando partito dalla città giongo alla  136 [i.e., 140]  villa, dolcissimo porto de miei pensieri, alhora un profondo & largo sospirare, che mi s’apre dal cuore da me discac-

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NOW if we want to be content with that Which by nature is enough, and having To build ourselves a respectable house, And primarily to select a site; Do you know any place to be preferred To the cheerful, indeed blessed, villa? Where one finds the winter season milder? And where the breeze, softer and more pleasing, Tempers the fury of heaven’s dog star; And mollifies the intense acute heat Of the sun when it abides in the house Of the savage Lion? Does irksome care Or envy, the enemy of repose, Ever disturb us, or wreck our sleep, less?96 With that which follows, where passing over the fountains and gardens of Rome in favor of the slopes and rivers of the villa, he says: But one cannot test the strength of nature, The victor who always tramples on art. Partenio: Now I know that Horace was no less a patron of the villa than you

are. Vitauro: Indeed, Horace, as one more learned and eloquent than I, was an even more valorous and stronger defender of the villa than I am: but about the desire to live in a happy and pleasant villa I can truly say together with him,

Never was anything else in my prayers Than to have one estate not very large, Where a garden would be, and near my house A perpetual spring of water clear, And a bit of woodland. Look, the gods were More generous to me than I could wish, So much that I’m content, nor want I more,

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Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Epistles 1.10, “To Aristius Fuscus,” lines 12–18.

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cia tutti i mali humori, & l’animo mio rafferena di maniera, che ad altro non penso, che à goder lietamente la dolce libertà dell’ameno loco. Partenio. Desiderio saper da voi, fuor de i vostri studi, qual sia quella cosa, che piu vi diletti in villa. Vitauro. L’uccellare m’aggrada sommamente. Partenio. Amendue siamo d’un’istesso volere; perloche vorrei, che mi diceste di che tempo, & con quali ingegni andate voi insidiando alla libertà de i semplici & innocenti uccelli. Vitauro. L’hore, & le astutie, che uso nell’uccellare, sonoquelle istesse, che dice il Sannazaro per la bocca di Sincero in queste parole noi alcuna volta in sú’l far del giorno, quando appena sparite le stelle, per lo vicino Sole vedevamo l’Oriente, tra vermigli nuvoletti rosseggiare, n’andavamo in qualche valli lontane dal conversar delle genti; & quivi fra due altissimi, & dritti alberi tendevamo l’ampia rete, la quale sottilissima, che appena tra le frondi scerner si potea, Aragne per nome chiamavamo, & questa ben maestrevolmente, come si bisogna, ordinata, ne moveamo dalle remote parti del bosco, facendo con le mani romori spaventevoli, & con bastoni, & con pietre di passo in passo battendo le macchie; verso quella parte, ove la rete stava i tordi,  137 [i.e., 141]  le merule, & gli altri uccelli sgridavano, li quali dinanzi à noi paurosi, fuggendo disavedutamente davano il petto nelli tesi inganni, & in quelli invillupati, quasi in piu sacculi diversamente pendevano, ma il fine vegendo la preda esser bastevole allentavano à poco à poco i capi delle maestre funi, quelli calando, ove quali trovati piangere, quali seminivi giacere in tanta copia ne abbondavano, che molte volte fastiditi di ucciderli, & non havendo luogo ove porgli, confusamente con le mal piegate reti gli portavamo infino à gli usati alberghi. Altra fiata, quando nel fruttifero Autonno le folte caterve di storni volando in drapello raccolte si mostrano à riguardanti, quasi rotonda palla nell’aria, ne ingegnavamo di haver due, ò tredi quelli, la qual cosa di leggeri si poteva trovare, à i piedi de i quali un capo di spaghetto sottilissimo onto d’indissolubil visco legavano longo tanto, quanto ciascuno il suo poteva portare, & quindi come la volante schiera verso noi si approssimava, cosi li lasciavamo in lor libertà andare, li quali subitamente à compagni fuggendo, & fra quelli (sicome è lor natura) mescolando conveniva, che à forza con

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O Maia’s sons, than that you save me These welcome blessings of the highest gods.97 And ever since the tenderest years of my youth I was always much more charmed by the pleasures of the villa than those of the city, and so, growing from one age into the other, the desire grew equally in me to spend my days in the very sweet freedom of the countryside, where more pleasing to me is the sound of the humble bagpipe than the noise of the tragic trumpet in the cities. And when, having departed from the city, I arrive at the villa, very sweet harbor of my thoughts, then a deep and wide sighing, which arises from my heart, releases from me all the bad humors, and my mind restrains me so that I do not think of anything but enjoying pleasantly the sweet freedoms of the villa. Partenio: I desire to know from you, apart from your studies, what it is that delights you most in villa. Vitauro: Catching birds is highly gratifying to me. Partenio: We both are of the same desire; so I would like you to tell me at what time and with which contrivances you go ensnaring the freedom of the simple and innocent birds. Vitauro: The hours and the cunning that are necessary in catching birds are the same ones that Sannazaro tells through the mouth of Sincero in these words: Sometimes at break of day, when the stars had barely disappeared, and we saw the East with crimson clouds reddening for the approaching sun, we went into some valleys far from the dwelling of men; and there between two very tall and straight trees we stretched out the ample net, so subtly thin that it could scarce be seen amid the foliage. We named it “Arachne,” and having arranged this very skillfully, as is required, we moved from the remote parts of the grove, making terrifying noises with our hands, and beating the bushes both with sticks, and with stones in succession; we drove towards that place where the net stood the thrushes, the blackbirds, and the other birds. Fleeing heedlessly before us, fearfully, they betrayed their breasts to the deceitful snares, and, entangled in those, they hung here and there as if in so many little sacks. But at last seeing that the catch was enough, little by little we gave slack to the ends of the master ropes, bringing them to the 97 Vitauro is paraphrasing Horace, Satires 2.6, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse,” lines 1–7.

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lo invescato canape una gran parte della ristretta moltitudine ne tirassero seco, per la qual cosa miseri, sentendosi à basso tirare, & ignorando la cagione, che’l volar lo’mpediva, gridavano fortissimamente, empiendo l’aria di dolorose  138 [i.e., 142]  voci, & di passo in passo per le late campagne nè li vedevamo dinanzi à i piedi cadere; onde rara era quella volta, che con li sacchi colmi di caccia non ne tornassimo alle nostre case. Ricordomi haver ancora, non poche volte riso de casi della male augurata cornice, & udito come ogni siata, che tra le mani (si come spesso aviene) alcuna di quelle ne capitava, noi subitamente ne andavamo in qualche aperta pianura, & quivi per le estreme ponte delle ali la ligavamo risupina in terra, ne piu ne meno, come se i corsi delle stelle havesse havuto à contemplare, la quale non prima si sentiva cosi legata, che con stridenti voci, gridava & palpitava si forte, che tutte le convicine cornici faceva intorno à se ragunare, delle quali alcuna forse piu de mali della compagnia pietosa, che de suoi aveduta, si lasciava alle volte di botto in quella parte calare per aiutarla, & spesso per ben fare riceveva mal guiderdone, conciosia cosa, che non si tosto v’era gionta, cheda quella, che’l soccorso aspettava (si come desiderosa di scampare) subito con le oncinute unghie abbracciata, & ristretta non fosse, per maniera, che forse voluntieri havrebbe voluto (se possuto havesse) svilupparsi da suoi artigli; ma ciò era niente, però, che quella la si stringeva, & riteneva si forte, che non la lasciava ponto da se partire, onde havreste in quel ponto veduto nascere una nova pugna, questa cercando di fuggire,  139 [i.e., 143]  quella di aiutarsi, l’una & l’altra egualmente piu della propria, che dell’altrui salute sollicita, procacciarsi il suo scampo. Per la qual cosa noi, che in occulta parte dimoravamo, dopo longa festa sopra di ciò presa, vi andavamo, & raquetato alquanto il romore ne riponevamo all’usato luogo, da capo attendendo, che alcuna altra venisse con simile atto à rappiarne lo havuto piacere. Hor, che vi dirò io della cauta grua? non gli valeva, tenendo in pugno la pietra farsi le notturne escubie, però, che da i nostri assalti non viveva ancora di mezzo giorno sicura. Et al bianco cigno, che giovava habitare nelle humide acque per guardarsi dal fuoco, temendo delle cose di Fetonte, se in mezo di quelle non si poteva egli dalle nostre insidie guardare? Et tu misera, et cattivella perdice à che schiffavi gli alti tetti pensando al fiero avvenimento dell’antica caduta, se nella piani terra, quando piu sicura star ti credevi nelli nostri lacciuoli inciampavi? chi crederebbe possibile, che la sagace occha sollecita palesatrice delle notturne frode non sapeva se medesima le nostre insidie palesare? similmente de faggiani,

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ground, where some were found weeping, some lying semi-conscious, they abounded in such plenty, that many times grown weary of killing them, and having no place to put them, we carried them, tangled in the ill-folded nets, to our accustomed abodes. Another time, when in the fruitful Autumn the thick crowds of starlings flying banded together in a flock appear to those who watch them almost like a round ball in the air, we endeavored to get two or three of them, which matter could be accomplished easily, and we bound to their feet a cable of very thin strands dipped in indissoluble birdlime, each one as long a piece as he could carry. And then as the flying band drew near us, we let them go in their liberty. They flying at once to their companions, and mingling with them (as is their nature) it was inevitable that they should draw down with them perforce, with the limed rope, a great part of the close-packed multitude. Whereupon the poor creatures, feeling themselves brought low, and being ignorant of the cause that hindered their flying, called out most stridently, filling the air with sorrowful cries, and here and there throughout the broad meadows we saw them fall at our feet, so rare was that time when we did not return to our houses with sacks full of game. I also remember having smiled not a few times at the plight of the ill-auguring crow, and hear how every time it was that some of those came into our hands (as often happened), we immediately went to some open plain, and there we bound it supine on the ground by the uttermost tips of its wings, as if it meant to contemplate the stars in their courses, no more, no less. No sooner did it feel itself so bound than with piercing cries it called out and fluttered so forcefully that it caused all the crows in the vicinity to rally around it. Some of these, perhaps more pitying of his companion’s troubles than provident about his own, let himself drop down all at once to that place to help him, and often received an ill reward for doing so. For no sooner was he arrived there than he was immediately seized and held with hooking talons by the one that was awaiting his aid (as if desirous of escaping) in such fashion that perhaps he would have been glad (if he could have) to free himself from his claws; but that was all for naught, for the other seized and held on so firmly that he did not let him part from him. Whereupon you would have seen at that point a new struggle begin, this one trying to flee that one to help himself, the one and the other alike, each more solicitous of his own than of the other’s safety, trying to make his escape. Thereupon we, who were lurking in a hidden spot, after we had taken a lengthy delight in that struggle, went to them, and when the noise

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delle tortore, delle colombe, delle fluide anitre, & de gli altri uccelli vi dico, niuno non fu mai di tanta astutia dalla natura dotato, il quale da nostri ingegni guardandosi, si potesse longa libertà promettere. Partenio. Per mia fe, che nel sentir contarvi queste  140 [i.e., 144]  piacevolezze, io godo, io giubilo, io trionfo, & di qui chiaramente conosco quanto sia bella, gioiosa, & beata la vita rusticana; ond’io mi risolvo, & son determinatissimo contentandomi della mia fortuna, di viver giocondissima vita, hor con la caccia, hor con la pescaggione, quando con l’uccellare, & quando con l’agricoltura d’un mio amenissimo giardino. Vitauro. Voi volete uccellare, cacciare, pescare, irrigare, seminare, innestare, & coltivare il vostro gardino per servitio del corpo, & la cura dell’animo dove la lasciate voi? l’utile, e il diletto è il fine della men nobil parte di noi, cioè del corpo, il quale è terrestre, & mortale; ma il fin dell’anima, ch’è la piu degna parte dell’huomo per esser celeste & immortale, è la cognitione del vero, alla quale non possendo noi accostarci senza l’aiuto de sentimenti del corpo, ne fa mestieri anco tener conto d’esso corpo, la bontà del cui sangue rischiara gli spiriti, e tanto quanto gli spiriti sono piu chiari i sentimenti meglio fanno l’ufficio loro; ma non dovemo però tanto attendere al corpo, che si scordiamo di noi stessi, & del nostro vero fine. Partenio. Se la cosa è come voi dite, onde procede, che l’humane operationi per la maggior parte s’inchinano all’utile, & diletto? Vitauro. Questo procede per la meravigliosa unione c’ha l’anima col corpo, la quale sviata dalle lusinghe de i sensi di quello, corre dietro à i ben mondani, i   141 [i.e., 145]  quali non sono veramente beni; ma apparenti per qualche utile, ò diletto, che si trova in loro; Et di qui procede l’insatiabilità de gli huomini, che se fossero veri beni porterebbeno con esso loro la quiete dell’animo. Partenio. Adunque dall’esser l’anima di natura diversa dal corpo nasce la varietà delle humane operationi, & diversità de nostri pensieri; onde i partegiani del corpo corrono dietro all’utile & diletto, & i favoriti dell’anima cercano di sapere, & d’intender le cause delle cose, per conseguire, ò avicinarsi almeno piu, che possono alla lor perfettione. Vitauro. Voi l’intendete, & dal qual parte vi rissolvete voi d’essere?

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had been somewhat quieted, we returned to our usual place, waiting anew, until some other should come with similar action to redouble the pleasure we had had. Now, what shall I say to you of the cautious crane? It did not avail her to make her nightly vigils holding a stone in her grip, since even at mid-day she did not live secure from our assaults. And what did it profit the white swan to dwell in the moist waters to keep himself from fire, fearing the fate of Phaeton, if in their midst he was not able to keep himself from our traps? And you, poor and wretched Perdix, for what purpose did you avoid the lofty roofs, thinking on that horrible event of the ancient fall, if on the level ground, when you thought yourself most secure, you became entangled in our snares? Who would believe it possible that the sagacious goose, careful exposer of nocturnal deceits, did not know how to expose our plots against her? Likewise I tell you of pheasants, of turtledoves, of ring doves, of river ducks, and of the other birds, not one of them was ever endowed by nature with so much shrewdness that he could assure himself long liberty by keeping himself from our contrivances.98 Partenio: For me, hearing you list these pleasures, I enjoy, I rejoice, I triumph, and from them I know clearly how beautiful, joyous, and blessed country life is. Therefore I resolve, and I am very determined, contenting myself with my fate, to live a very happy life, now with hunting, now with fishing, then with birding, and then with the farming of my very pleasant garden. Vitauro: Do you want to go birding, hunting, fishing, irrigating, sowing, grafting, and cultivating your garden for the service of the body and leave behind the care of the mind? Profit and pleasure are the goals of the less noble part of us, that is, the body, which is terrestrial and mortal, but the goal of the spirit, which is the part of the man that is worthier for being celestial and immortal, is knowledge of the truth, which we, not being able to approach without the help of bodily senses, and still needing to take account of that body, the goodness of whose blood enlightens the spirits, and as much as the spirits are clearer, the senses serve their purpose better, but we ought not therefore attend so much to the body that we get out of tune with ourselves and our true purpose. 98 Beginning on p. 140, line 14, and continuing through p. 143, line 24, Vitauro is quoting Jacopo Sannazaro, Arcadia, chap. 8. See Jacopo Sannazaro, Arcadia and Piscatorial Dialogues, trans. Ralph Nash (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1966), pp. 78–80.

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Partenio. Dalla parte dell’anima, Et però gionto, ch’io sia in villa, voglio

darmi tutto à gli honorati studii di filosofia, & mi risolvo di studiar sempre. Vitauro. Ne questo vostro proponimento mi piace; percioche l’assiduità dello studio leva il giudicio, & si come la infirmità dell’animo nasce dalla tirannia del corpo, cosi anco l’animo, quando tiranneggia il corpo distrugge la sanità di quello. Partenio. Onde nasce questa tirannide? Vitauro. Ella nasce per inganno, & per troppa eccellenza dell’anima, la quale per esser divina, spesse volte, quando piglia qualche assagio della sua divinità tanto se ne invaghisce, che l’altra parte mortale, & lontana da ogni divinità, odia, & brama separarsene. Il troppo studiar guasta & corrompe ancora la sanità del  142 [i.e., 146]  corpo, perche il profondo pensiero, et malinconia dello studioso tirando gli spiriti al capo, gli leva da quelle parti, dove eglino hanno à far l’opere, che appartengono alla conservatione del corpo humano, onde poi si causa l’indispositione de i sentimenti, che per servitio dell’intelletto, non possono poi far bene l’ufficio loro; tal che l’anima si riduce à termine, che vorebbe, & non puo mostrar la vertú sua, non altrimenti, che soglia fare un buon sonatore di leuto, che desideri mostrar l’eccellenza dell’arte sua, & si trovi alle mani un leutaccio roco, muto, & di nessun valore; & in oltre vi dico, che cosi l’animo come il corpo nelle attioni sue affaticato si stracca; onde per ricrearsi gli fa di mestieri, che ricerchi qualche quiete, per la quale ristorato possa dapoi ritornar piu gagliardo, che mai alle sue vertuose operationi. Partenio. Adunque allo studioso è cosi necessaria la recreatione dell’animo, come alle membra per le attioni faticate il sonno. Vitauro. Cosi è. Partenio. Et che maniera di recreation d’animo, mi consigliate voi ch’io mi dia dopo li studii miei?

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Partenio: If the matter is as you say, whence does it proceed that human

operations for the most part are inclined toward usefulness and delight? Vitauro: This proceeds from the marvelous union that the body has with the mind, which, misled by the promises of the bodily senses, pursues the wealth of this world, which is not truly wealth, but seems to be on account of some usefulness or delight that is found in [the senses]. And from here proceeds the instabilities of humans, which if they were true wealth would bring with them the quiet of the spirit. Partenio: Therefore the mind being by nature different from the body gives birth to the variety of human operations and diversities of our thoughts, whence those who are partial to the body pursue usefulness and delight, and those who favor the mind seek to know and to understand the causes of things, by following, or approaching, their perfection as nearly as they can. Vitauro: Do you understand it, and on which side are you resolved to be? Partenio: On the side of the spirit, and however enjoined that I am in villa, I want to devote myself entirely to honored studies and philosophy, and I resolve to be always studying. Vitauro: With this proposition of yours I am pleased; because assiduousness of study elevates the judgment, and just as the infirmity of the mind is born from the tyrranny of the body, so also the mind, when it tyrannizes the body, destroys its health. Partenio: Whence is this tyranny born? Vitauro: It is born from deceit, and from too much excellence of mind, which for being divine, often when it takes some sample of its divinity it would arouse such desire that the other part, mortal and far from every divinity, makes itself hated, and separates itself from desire. Too much studying spoils and corrupts the health of the body, because the deep thought and melancholy of the studious one pulling the spirits to the head, where they have to do the work that pertains to the conservation of the human body, where then the indisposition of the sentiments is caused, that through service of the intellect, they cannot then perform their function well, such that the mind is reduced to ends that it would like, and it cannot demonstrate its virtues except by being a good player of the lute, who wants to show the excellence of his skill and finds himself all thumbs, hoarse, mute, and valuable to no one. And besides, I tell you that as the spirit so the body in its actions is overworked to fatigue; whence in order to recreate itself it performs some task that requires quiet, through which it can be restored after returning stronger than ever to its virtuous operations.

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Vitauro. Gli honesti piaceri della villa sono molti, pur fra gli altri vi laudo

la caccia, la pescaggione, l’uccellare, & l’agricoltura, pur, che i cani, le reti, i lacci, & gli aratri non vi vengano tanto in gratia, che vi facciate sospetto per la similitudine, che suole essere tra l’amante, e la cosa amata. Partenio. Di cotesto non dubito ponto, perche  143 [i.e., 147]  non conosco piacere sopra quello dell’imparare, & mentre, ch’io leggo qualche libro, che mi piaccia d’un si nobil cibo, sento pascerli la mente mia, che ne il nettare, ne l’ambrosia invidio à Giove. Hor vorrei per cortesia, che ragionaste un poco di tutte le maniere de piaceri, che pigliar vi solete nella villa; & che mi diceste, che cosa fra le altre io debba studiare. Vitauro. Per l’amor ch’io vi porto non posso mancar di compiacervi, però vi dico, che tutti i diletti si riducono à tre sorti di piacere. Partenio. Et quali son queste? Vitauro. Voi dovete sapere, che si come l’huomo è composto d’anima & di corpo, cosi l’uno de i tre piaceri è solamente del corpo, & chiamasi sensitivo, & questo è quello, che voi dite, il quale io laudo, pur che sia dalla ragione tem perato, & che non faccia, che’l corpo, come ho detto, doventi tiranno dell’animo, tal che l’huomo non pensi mai in altro, che ne i godimenti de i piaceri sensitivi; altro è solamente dell’animo, quale è quello di colui, che contemplando i mirabili effetti di natura trappassa l’hore migliori. Il terzo diletto participa del sensitivo, & dell’intellettuale, come è quello della poesia, della rethorica, & della musica, percioche di esso gode l’animo, et l’orecchio, quel lo per l’arte, & questo per lo numero. Hor questi sono i tre modi di piaceri, che voi dovete pigliare nella vostra piacevole villa, la bellezza della quale col puro splendore,  144 [i.e., 148]  & vivo lume delle cose dalla natura create, vorrei, che vi fossero guida per condurre il vostro intelletto alla speculatione delle cose naturali, alla quale v’invita Vergilio là dove dice me prima innanzi à ciascun’ altra cosa Ricevin l’alme e dolce muse, ond’io Da grand’amor, ch’io porto lor sospinto, Son già molti anni sacerdote; queste Le vie del ciel mi mostrino, e le stelle: Del Sole i varii mancamenti, e quali Sian le fatiche de la Luna; come Tremin le terre, qual segreta forza Di natura il mar gonfi, e gonfiato esca Da i rotti schermi, fuor del proprio letto;

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Partenio: Therefore the recreation of the spirit is as necessary to the studious

one as to the members put to sleep by its actions. Vitauro: So it is. Partenio: And what kind of mental recreation do you recommend I do after my studies? Vitauro: The honorable pleasures of the villa are many; indeed, among others I praise the hunting, fishing, birding, and farming, if only the dogs, the nets, the traps, and the plows didn’t come into so much favor that you become suspicious because of the resemblance between the lover and the thing loved. Partenio: To such I no doubt point because I don’t know anything more pleasing than learning, and while I read some book that satisfies me with noble food, I feel it nourishing my mind, so that I envy Jove neither nectar nor ambrosia. Now I would like as a favor for you to discourse a little about all manner of pleasures that one takes only in the villa, and for you to tell me what among other things I ought to learn. Vitauro: Because of my love for you I cannot deny your request; however, I tell you that all delights boil down to three kinds of pleasures. Partenio: And what are these? Vitauro: You ought to know, as man is composed of mind and body, so one of the three pleasures is only of the body and is called sensual, and this is the kind that you say I praise, provided that it be by sound reason and not effrontery, that the body, as they say, tyrannizes the spirit, so that the man never lifts his thoughts up, either to joys or to sensitive pleasures. The other is only of the spirit, which is that one of them that contemplating the marvelous effects of nature passes through the better hours. The third pleasure participates in the sensual and the intellectual, as is that of poetry, of rhetoric, of music, for reason of which it gladdens the spirit and the ear, the one through art and the other through number. Now these are the three modes of pleasure that you ought to take in your pleasant villa, the beauty of which, with the pure splendor and living light of things created by nature, I would like you to be guided in directing your intellect to speculation about natural things, to which Virgil invites you where he says: First, before every other thing, May the dear sweet muses receive me, for I, Driven by the great love that I carry for them, Have already for many years been their priest; these The ways of heaven may they show me and the stars:

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Poscia di novo in se medesimo torni. Perche tanto s’affretti ne l’Oceano Tuffar il Sole à la stagion piu fredda, E ne la calda, qual longa dimora Faccia le notti à noi venir si tarde. Gran contento & utile certamente noi troviamo nel contemplar le cause, e la vertù, e la natura di tante cose meravigliose, che nella terra, nell’acqua, e nell’aere si producono continuamente, ma gioia et profitto assai maggiore noi proviamo, quando alzando il volto ci si appresentano  145 [i.e., 149]  à gli occhi i confini, & le mura di questa gran fabrica di si ricche & pregiate gemme ornata, che con lo splendore, & lor continuo girare, concorrono alla vita, & all’essere di tutte le cose, intorno à che speculando, & di cagione in cagione discorrendo perveniamo alla primiera causa, nella quale è forza, che ci quietiamo temendo, amando, & riverendo l’infinita sua possanza. Partenio. Adunque sopra ogni altra cosa mi eshortate à darmi alli studii della filosofia naturale. Vitauro. Cosi vi eshorto. Partenio. Et io prometto di attendervi; ma circa à quella terza spetie di diletto, che pur dianzi havete detto, come volete voi, che mi governi? Vitauro. Voglio, che’l vostro intelletto, poi sarà gravido d’infinite scienze, partorisca qualche degno poema, ò bella prosa: & che de si nobili parti ne faccia anco partecipevoli gli amici, il che facendo son certissimo, che non solamente havreste à vile tutti altri diletti; ma che li terreste per nulla, rispetto à quella dolcezza, che provareste nel sentir lodare i vostri componimenti da i perfetti giudicii. Partenio. Ancora, che in ciascuno naturale sia il diletto di sentirsi lodare, et naturalissimo il desiderio d’immortalarsi, nondimeno per essere l’impresa del componere difficile, & periculosa, & cosa da huomini, che sieno nati à questo, & che dalla lor fanciullezza sieno avezzi à legger gli ottimi Scrittori; & per esser io nuovo nelli studii  146 [i.e., 150]  delle lettere, mi risolvo di non mettermi à cosi ardita impresa, accioche à me non intervenga, come à Fetonte dell’usurpata luce di Febo; & posto, ch’io fossi nato à tale essercitio, et ch’io fossi non men dotto, che facondo, non vorrei componer libro alcuno. Vitauro. Io non mi sò imaginar la causa, che vi mova à dir questo, essendo

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Of the sun the various eclipses, and how many The labors of the moon; how The lands tremble, by what secret force Of nature the sea swells, and swollen lures From the broken barriers, outside its proper bed; Then again on its own turns back into itself. Why the sun hastens so To touch the ocean in the colder season. And in the hot season, what long stay Makes the night come to us so late.99 Certainly we find great contentment and usefulness in contemplating the causes and the virtue and the nature of such marvelous things that are continually being produced in the land and in the water and in the air. But we experience the greatest joy and profit when we lift up our faces and our eyes are presented with the boundaries and the walls of this great edifice adorned with such rich and precious gems that with their splendor and their continual revolving, they participate in the life and the being of all things, on the subject of which, speculating and discoursing from cause to cause, we arrive at the first cause, in which there is strength, so that we are quieted, fearing, loving, and reverencing its infinite power. Partenio: Therefore above all other things exhort me to devote myself to the studies of natural philosophy. Vitauro: I so exhort you. Partenio: And I promise to pay attention to you; but about that third kind of delight that you mentioned just now, how do you want me to govern myself? Vitauro: I want your intellect now to be loaded with vast amounts of knowledge, that you should bring forth some worthy poetry or beautiful prose: and also that you should knowingly make friends of such noble parties, which being made I am very sure not only that you would despise all other delights but that you would drop them for nothing, with respect to that sweetness that you would experience in hearing your compositions being praised by perfect judges. Partenio: Although in anyone the delight of hearing oneself being praised is natural, and the desire to immortalize oneself very natural, nevertheless since

99

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 2, lines 475-482.

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come dice il divin Platone l’huomo nato per giovar all’altro huomo, voi dovreste pur far parte del vostro sapere ancora à gli altri; & per esser voi nato allo scrivere non è il dovere, che con questo vostro proponimento facciate ingiuria alla natura, & che siate si nemico della gloria, la quale è pur guiderdone della vertù. Partenio. A me basta il piacer di leggere & intendere senza, che la presontuosa mano prenda la penna per far acquisto d’un poco d’aura populare. Vitauro. Se tutti fossero del vostro parere niuno scriverebbe, & perirebbono tutte le belle scienze, e le nobili arti. Partenio. Molti pensano d’acquistarsi honore col componere & mandar in luce i suoi componimenti, & acquistano vergogna & scorno. Et se il rubbare fosse cosi difficile, come è l’imita re, forse, che hoggidi non si trovarieno tanti componitori, i quali trascrivendo le cose altrui, affasciano libri, & senza vergogna lodando hor questo, hor quello, uccellano con simil rete alle lodi proprie, non s’accorgendo i pazzi, che mentre vanno cercando il vento della gloria, il tempo atto  147 [i.e., 151]  a piu honeste facende, se ne fugge & sopragionge la vecchiezza, la poverta, & il disprezzo, tale che finalmente i meschini si trovano haver acquistato in vece di fama fame fumo & infamia. Vitauro. Ogni uno dovrebbe misurar bene le forze sue; pur fu sempre cosa lodevole il cercar nome in questa vita, et vita appresso alla morte con l’affaticarsi in cose honorate & eccellenti; E il mettersi à si alte imprese, che quasi le forze nostre non bastino per condurle al suo debito fine, è un diffetto degno di lode, il quale agevolmente da ogni nobile animo vien perdonato, et massimamente da quelli, che piu de gli altri sono dotati di raro intelletto, & di generosa cortesia, & per me compongo alle volte non tanto per speranza, ch’io m’habbia di trovare agevolmente perdono del mio troppo ardire, quanto perche con lo scrivere & memoria del passato fuggo la presente noia, & col cercar di sapere, me ne caccio via l’ocio, l’ambitione, l’avaritia, & altre simili sceleratezze, conoscendo per lo mezzo suo quanto sieno le richezze, & gli honori di poco momento, et quanto breve, & fragil cosa sia l’huomo, tolta quella parte che ci rimane immortale: ma tornando alla filosofia naturale, dicovi, ch’ella è apponto cibo per la mente vostra. Partenio. Già ardo di desiderio d’haver in mano la fisica d’Aristotile; ma ditemi (se’l vi piace) poi, c’havrò gran pezzo  148 [i.e., 152]  ragionato con la natura, & con i morti, non debbo anco ragionar co vivi? Vitauro. Anzi vi laudo à fare elettione d’un compagno simile à voi, & conferire con esso lui quanto havrete & studiato, & scritto. Archita Tharentino

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the work of composing is difficult and perilous, and a matter for men who are born to it and who from their youth were trained to read by the best writers; and I am new to the study of literature, I am resolved not to set myself to such a difficult task, so that it does not happen to me as to Phaeton by the usurped light of Phoebus; and assuming that I were born to such work, and that I were no less learned than eloquent, I would not compose any book. Vitauro: I cannot imagine what causes you to say this since, as the divine Plato says man is born to be useful to other men, you also ought to do your part, at the same time learning from others; and since you were born to write, isn’t it your duty? Therefore with this proposition of yours you do injury to nature, and you make yourself an enemy of glory, which is really the reward of virtue. Partenio: For me it is enough to read and to comprehend, without the presumptuous hand taking the pen to profit from a little popular favor. Vitauro: If everyone were of your opinion, no one would write, and all the good sciences and noble arts would be lost. Partenio: Many think of gaining honor by publishing their written works, and they gain shame and scorn. And if stealing were as difficult as imitating, perhaps today so many authors would not be found who, transcribing the work of others, tie books in bundles and, shamelessly praising now this one, now that one, try to catch their own praise in the same net, not noticing the fools who meanwhile go searching the wind for glory, the time suitable for more honest doings, if they themselves flee and old age, poverty, and contempt arrive, so that finally the miserable persons find themselves having acquired, instead of fame, famine, fumes, and infamy. Vitauro: Everyone ought to measure well his strengths. Indeed, it was a praiseworthy matter to seek a name in this life, and in the life after death, by striving in matters honorable and excellent. And setting oneself to an undertaking so noble that our strength would almost not be enough to carry it out to its proper conclusion is a fault worthy of praise, which is easily pardoned by every noble heart, and especially by those who are endowed more than others with rare intellect and generous politeness. And as for me, I sometimes compose not so much with the hope that I have to find pardon easily for my working too hard as because through writing and memory of the past I escape the present tedium, and by seeking to know, I drive away from myself the idleness, the ambition, the avarice, and other similar villainies, knowing by its middle how much are the riches and the honors of a short moment, and what a brief and

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filosofo ecc.mo soleva dire, che se uno salisse al cielo, & di là su considerasse la natura delle cose di questo mondo, & la bellezza delle stelle, & la influenza delli pianeti, non parerebbe à lui cosa soave, se seco non havesse un compagno à cui lo potesse conferire. Partenio. Vorrei saper da voi se mi è licito à comparir alle volte su per le piazze in compagnia de gli altri gentil’huomini, che habitano la villa? Vitauro. Come se vi è lecito, essendo l’huomo animale per sua natura conversativo, come si conoscerebbe l’affabilità, & urbanità, due vertu spledidissime, se tolta ne fosse la conversatione? anzi meritarete gran lode se nelle conversationi vi renderete grato, affabile, & gratioso giovando, dilettando, & godendosi insieme con alcuni honesti giuochi, motti, & burle, avertendo però sempre di non ingiuriare, ò offender il compagno con giuochi, & troppo mordenti motti, l’argutia, & vivacità de i quali, non vi deve trasportar à far torto ad alcuno, ben è verò, che quelle hore, che dispensar si dovrebbono à piu honorate imprese, non vorrei, che si consumassero in giochi, & burle su per le piazze: Isocrate   149 [i.e., 153]  filosofo di altissimo ingegno essendo addimandato da Gorgia perche non conversava in piazza con gli altri, rispose, perche quello che si fe in piazza io non farrei, & quello che fo io non si puo fare in piazza. Partenio. Isocrate (à giudicio mio) intende di quelle piazze, dove sono le persone simal create, che non sanno mai dir cosa, che non riesca invituperio di qualcun, che presente, ò assente sia, overamente, che non sanno far altro, che biastemar, givocar’ & dir parole indegne del gentil’huomo. Vitauro. Voi l’intendete, & (per quel ch’io mi creda) tale fu la mente d’Isocrate: ma il conversare alle volte tra persone honorate, et per recreatione d’animo ritrovarsi à certi tempi insieme con giuochi, motti, & burle honeste, à me piace sommamente, perche l’animo affatigato nelli studii delle lettere in questa maniera recreandosi prende qualche quiete, la quale è poi cagione, ch’egli ristorato piu vehemente, che mai ritorni alle vertuose sue operationi. Partenio. Hor circa al conversare co genti’huomini sò come regger mi debbia; ma sendo in villa maggior copia di villani, che di gentil’huomini, come volete voi, ch’io mi governi circa al pratticare con loro? Vitauro. Non mi dispiace, che alle volte veniate a parlamento con i contadini. Partenio. A’ che tempo fate voi cotesto quando sete in Villa.

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fragile thing is man, taking the part that remains immortal. But, turning to natural philosophy, I tell you that it is the appointed food for your mind. Partenio: Already I am burning with desire to have in hand the Physics of Aristotle; but tell me (if you will), after I have reasoned quite a bit with nature and with the dead, don’t I still need to reason with the living? Vitauro: Indeed, I praise you for choosing a companion like yourself, and bestowing on him as much as you will have both studied and written. The very excellent philosopher Archytas Tarentinus used to say that if one ascended to heaven, and from there considered the nature of the things of this world, and the beauty of the stars, and the influence of the planets, it would not seem to him a sweet thing if he did not have a companion with him on whom he could bestow it.100 Partenio: I would like to know from you if it is permissible for me to be seen sometimes in the piazzas in the company of other gentlemen who live in villas? Vitauro: Assuming that it is permissible for you, since spiritual man is by nature sociable, how would affability and urbanity, two very splendid virtues, be known, if there weren’t conversation? Indeed, you would deserve great praise if you would make yourself pleasing, affable, and gracious in conversation, giving pleasure and enjoying yourself, together with a few innocent games, pleasantries, and practical jokes, always stopping short, however, of injuring or offending your companion with games and pleasantries too caustic, the humor and vivacity of which ought not to be carried so far as to wrong someone. It is quite true that I would not want the time that ought to be spent in more honorable pursuits wasted on games and practical jokes in the piazzas. Isocrates, philosopher of very noble intellect, having been asked by Gorgias why he did not converse with the others in the piazza, replied, because the one who is found in the piazza I would not know, and the one I know could not be found in the piazza.101 Partenio: Isocrates (in my opinion) meant those piazzas where there are ill-bred persons, who don’t know how to say anything without succeeding in angering someone, whether present or absent, who don’t know how to do anything other than to blaspheme, to joke, and to say words unworthy of a gentleman. 100 Archytus Tarentinus was a Pythagorean philosopher and mathematician from Tarentum, who flourished in the first half of the fourth century b.c. 101 Isocrates was an Athenian teacher of Rhetoric and a contemporary of Socrates.

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Vitauro. Ne giorni festivi & piovosi, & nella stagione, che i villani divenuti

ociosi per la  150 [i.e., 154]  venuta del pigro Verno attendono à godere allegramente i frutti delle passate fatiche. Partenio. Ditemi per vita vostra qualche particolare delle cose, che ragionate con esso loro. Vitauro. Ragiono della maniera, che deono tener gli Agricoltori nel rompere & arare delle terre, del tempo d’ingrassarle, del modo d’inaffiare i prati, della qua lità del terreno, della bontà de semi, delle costellationi, sotto le quali si deggiano far le faciende rusticane, de i segni, per li quali si possano antivedere le poggie, i venti, & i tempi sereni, parlo delle diverse maniere del coltivar delle piante, delle viti, de i silvestri virgulti, & del come, & quando si piantino, s’innestino, & si trappiantino gli alberi. Partenio. Voi hevete detto, che ragionate co’ villani delle costellationi, sotto quali l’opre rusticane far si deggiano, & de i segni, per li quali si antiveggano i buoni et cattivi tempi, circa al che io vi dico, chel’una e l’altra cosa à me pare si appartenga à gli astrologhi, à marinari, e non à contadini, i quali non hanno che fare con le stelle. Vitauro. Anzi la cognitione delle stelle non è men necessaria à contadini, ch’ella si sia à naviganti, & il cognoscere gli orti, gli occasi loro, i tempi, & i venti, affine, che quelli sappiano il quando s’ha da navigare, & questi di arare, e seminar le terre. Il che vien confirmato da Vergilio la dove dice.  151 [i.e., 155] Oltre ciò debbiam noi servar d’Arturo, Del lucido Serpente, e de capretti Il nascer, e’l morir, non altrimenti Che s’osservin color, che fan ritorno Per periglioso mare al patrio albergo. E in vero i contadini senza cognitione del cielo fanno infiniti errori, & vengono spesse volte ingannati da tempi, il che non averebbe, se havessero intendimento delle stelle, et sapessero l’amicitia, cha’l cielo con la terra. Partenio. Vorrei, che con qualche essempio mi rendeste piu chiaro della mente vostra; perche difficilmente mi muovo à credere, ch’al villano appartenga il conoscer delle stelle, & pronosticar de tempi. Vitauro. Se’l contadino antivedesse il mal tempo, che minaccia il mattutino apparir della Lira circa à mezzo Maggio, ò che egli si affretterebbe di ridurre il fieno al coperto, overamente restarebbe di segare; & s’egli volesse la gramigna, non pensate, che gli giovasse il saper, che le radici di tal herba mai non si

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Vitauro: You understand him, and (for that is what I believe) such was the

mind of Isocrates. But conversing at times among honorable persons, and for recreation of the mind at certain times together with games, pleasantries, and harmless practical jokes, pleases me exceedingly, because the mind tired by the study of literature, refreshing itself in this way, takes some quiet, which is the cause that restores it most effectively, so that it can return again to its virtuous work. Partenio: Now with respect to conversing with gentlemen, I know how to comport myself, but since the villa is filled more with peasants than with gentlemen, how do you want me to conduct myself with respect to associating with them? Vitauro: It would not displease me if you came to speak occasionally with the peasants. Partenio: On what occasions do you do that when you are in villa? Vitauro: On holidays and rainy days, and in the season when the peasants, having become idle on account of the arrival of lazy winter, look forward to enjoying happily the fruits of their past labors. Partenio: Tell me, on your life, some particular things that you discuss with them. Vitauro: I discuss how farmers ought to think about the breaking and plowing of the ground, about the time for manuring, about the method of watering the fields, about the quality of the soil, about the goodness of seed, about the constellations under which rural doings ought to be done, about the signs by which it is possible to predict rains, winds, and good weather. I speak of the diverse methods of cultivating plants, vines, and shoots of the woods, and of how and when one should plant, graft, and transplant trees. Partenio: You have said that you reason with the peasants about the constellations, under which rural work ought to be done, and of the signs by which good and bad weather are predicted, with respect to which I tell you that the one thing and the other seem to me to be pertinent to astrologers and mariners, and not to peasants, who have nothing to do with the stars. Vitauro: Indeed, knowledge of the stars is no less necessary for peasants than it is for sailors, and knowing their risings, their settings, the weather, and the winds, in order that those know when to sail, and these when to plow and plant the ground. Which is confirmed by Virgil where he says, Moreover, we ought to watch Arcturus, The gleaming Serpent, and the Kids,

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distruggono del tutto, fuor, che quando il Sole alberga co’l Cancro, & che la festa luna è posta nel segno di Capricorno? Et s’egli sapesse, che tutte le cose, che nascono il quinto giorno dopo la cognitione della Luna diventano sterili, credete, che à questo non avertirebbe nel seminare? sapendo, che l’orzo (come afferma Plinio) nasce il settimo di dipoi, ch’è  152 [i.e., 156]  seminato, & i legumi il quarto, ò al piu tardi il settimo, Et se’l contadino antivedesse le battaglie de venti che spesse fiate in essa riccolta concorrono, & fanno, come dice Vergilio in queste parole. Spesso vid’io, quanto ne campi intrato Il metior, con l’una mano havendo A’pena strette al gran le bionde chiome, E con altra à tagliarle incominciato, De venti tutte le battaglie insieme Affrontarsi, e combatter con tal forza, Che le gravide biade da radice Svelte gettaro in alto, & con ruina Portarne il nero e tempesto turbo Le sottil gambe, è le volanti paglie, Spesso scender dal ciel gran sguadre d’acque, E le nugole ad un restrette, horrenda Sparger grandine, e pioggie oscure e folte; Precipitevolmente à terra cade Sublime il cielo e le semenze liete, E de buoi le fatiche innunda e lava, Empionsi i fossi, crescon con gran rombo I cavi fiumi, bolle irato il mare E quel che segue, non pensate voi, che egli restarebbe di seminare o di mietere? & sel villan antivedesse la pioggia  153 [i.e., 157]  per gli segni delle stelle non credete che egli fosse utile per lo piantar delli canneti, & seminar delle biade? conciosia, che quelli non si pongono se non soprastà la pioggia, & questi si seminano quando dipoi ha à piovere; non sapete, che Democrito, mietendo il suo fratel Damasio, gli disse, che restasse dall’opera, & che conducesse al cop-

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The giving birth and the dying, the same As they are observed by them who return Over perilous seas to their homelands.102 And in truth, without knowledge of the sky the peasants make countless errors, and they often come out cheated by the weather, which they wouldn’t if they paid attention to the stars, and if they knew the friendship that the sky has with the earth. Partenio: I would like you to make what you mean clearer to me with some example, because I find it difficult to believe that the knowledge of the stars and the forecasting of weather is proper to the peasant. Vitauro: If the peasant could foresee the bad weather that threatens the morning star appearing in Lira around the middle of May, he would hastened to move the hay under cover, or even rest from reaping. And if he would like to eradicate weeds, don’t you think he would appreciate knowing that the roots of such herbs are never altogether destroyed unless the sun is in the house of Cancer, and that the festal moon is located in the sign of Capricorn? And if he knew that everything that is born on the fifth day after the appearance of the moon becomes sterile, don’t you think that he would put off sowing, knowing that barley (as Pliny says) sprouts on the seventh [day] after it is sowed, and the legume on the fourth, or at the latest on the seventh? And if the peasant could foresee the battles of winds that often assemble and make him retreat, as Virgil says in these words: Oft I saw, when he had entered the field, The reaper, having just tied with one hand The golden yellow foliage to the grain, And begun to strip it with the other, All the battles of the winds together Coming to blows, and fighting with such force, That the heavy corn, torn up from its roots, It tosses up on high, and with ruin Carries it off in black tempestuous storm, The supple stalks, and the flying stubble.

102

Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, lines 204–207.

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erto quello, che haveva mietuto, & poche hore dipoi venne grandissima pioggia, la quale approvò il suo detto; & se finalmente il contadino antivedesse per vertu delle stelle la futura ingiuria del tempo, pensate voi, ch’egli perdesse il seme, & le fatiche sue, che forse non si valesse d’una tale occasione per doventar ricco. Partenio. questa è una occasione per doventar povero, & non ricco. Vitauro. udite circa à questo, che ne dice Plinio nella sua naturale Historia. dicono che Democrito, il quale primo intese, & dimostrò la società del cielo con la terra à richissimi cittadini, che spezzavano questa cura, havendo prevista la carestia dell’olio dal futuro nascere delle Vergilie, per quella ragione, che noi dicemmo, & demostreremo piu pienamente con grande utilità havere comperato tutto l’olio de quella ragione, quando si credeva, che ne havesse ad esser abondanza, meravigliandosi quegli, che sapevano, che tale huomo amava grandissimamente la povertà & la quiete delle dottrine, ma come apparve la causa, & il gran corso delle   154 [i.e., 158]  ricchezze, dicono haver restituto la mercede à quegli, che avidamente si pentirono di haver venduto, contento di haver cosi provato poter facilmente arricher ogni volta che volesse; ma poniamo caso, che’l villano, per esser di grossa pasta composto non potesse penetrar tanto adentro nelle cose di Astrologia, non dovrebbe egli almeno sape re accomodar l’opere rusticane à suoi debiti tempi mostratici dalle stelle, & antivedere le pioggie, i venti, & le tempeste, che causano esse stelle assicurandosi in questo modo da gl’inganni de tempi? Partenio. Adunque le stelle causano le mutationi de’ tempi? Vitauro. Come, non sapete, che alcune de loro sono fredde nelle resolutione dell’humore, alcune nel condensarlo in pruine, alcune in constringerlo in neve, altre in congelarlo in grandini, altre fanno vento, altre temperamento d’aria, alcune vapori, alcune rugiada, & alcune altre freddo? Partenio. Voi si gentilmente ragionate della vertù delle stelle, & dell’agricoltura, che non solamente havete desto nell’animo mio uno ardente desiderio di sapere per quali segni antiveder si possa il mal tempo, & d’intendere sotto quali costellationi far si deggiano l’opere rusticane, & quel che renda i campi fertili, & lieti: ma desiderio ancora sommamente di conoscer come si debbiano coltivar le piante, curar le viti, regger gli armenti, & finalmente governar l’api.

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Oft fall from heaven great sheets of water, And the clouds, squeezed into one, dreadfully Showering hailstones, and rain dark and thick. Precipitously down to the ground falls The lofty heaven and the fertile seeds, The labors of oxen flooded and washed, The ditches fill up, swelling with great roar The river channels, the angry sea boils.103 And that one who follows, don’t you think that he would rest from sowing and from reaping? And if the peasant could foresee the rain by the signs of the stars, don’t you think it would be useful for the planting of cane-brakes and the sowing of corn? For those are not planted if rain is not pending, and these are sown when it is going to rain afterward. Don’t you know that Democritus, when his brother Damasus was reaping, told him that he should rest from the work, and that he should take under cover what he had reaped, and a few hours later a very heavy rain came, which proved what he said.104 And finally, if the peasant could foresee future damage from weather by virtue of the stars, do you think that he would waste the seed and his efforts, that perhaps it wouldn’t be worth one such opportunity to become rich? Partenio: This is an opportunity to become poor and not rich. Vitauro: Hear what Pliny says about this in his Natural History. THEY SAY that Democritus, who first understood and pointed out the alliance of the sky with the earth to the very rich citizens who despised this concern, having foreseen the increase in the price of olive oil from the future rising of the Pleiades, for the reason which we have stated and which we now demonstrate more fully with great usefulness, bought up all the olive oil of that region, when it was believed that it was to be had in abundance, surprising those who knew that such a man greatly loved poverty and the repose of learning, but as the motive and the great flow of riches became apparent, they say he gave back the money to those who anxiously repented of having sold, being content thus to have proven himself able to get rich whenever he wanted;105 but supposing that the peasant, being composed of a rough nature, would not be able to penetrate so Vitauro is paraphrasing Virgil, Georgics, bk. 1, lines 316–327. Vitauro is paraphrasing Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 18.78.341. 105 Beginning on p. 157, line 15, and continuing through p. 158, line 3, Vitauro is paraphrasing Pliny the Elder, Naturalis historia 18.68.273–274. 103

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Vitauro. Cotesto vostro desiderio comprende tutta  155 [i.e., 159]  l’arte

dell’agricoltura, al quale prometto di sodisfar in parte se per hora mi lasciera far tano di pausa, ch’io possa andar dove sono aspettato par una mia facenda d’im portanza. Partenio. Deh se mi amate, fatemi gratia, di indu giarvi un poco, & datemi per cortesia almen qualche bel ricordo circa all’agricoltura de giardini. Vitauro. Ancora ch’io sia Agricoltore di poco pregio, & mal possa sodisfare al desiderio vostro; pur (qual io mi sia) volentieri con voi participerò il ragionamento di Agricoltura, che fu hiersera dopo cena nel girdino dell’Ill.re S. Camillo Porro, perche maggior piacer non prendo, che fare quan to porta la natura mia, à cui altro, che giovar non aggra da; pero come, che’l tempo sia breve: nondimeno ac cettando i vostri prieghi, vi dico, che’l detto S. Camillo, come quello, che sà quanto si convenga à un spirito gene roso la Magnificenza, & liberalità, due splendissime vertù, spesse volte à un suo giardino discosto un miglio da Melano à mangiar seco invita gli amici suoi, tra i quali trovandomi anch’io convitato hiersera, molto piacere presi de i varii, ingegnosi, dotti, & filosofi discorsi, che furono hauti hor da questo, hor da quello, & massimamente della piacevolezza dell’hortolano d’esso loco, & de i meravigliosi segreti, che da i convitati gli furono insegnati. Partenio. Hor questo è quello, che vorrei saper da voi. Vitauro. Intorno al  156 [i.e., 160]  fine della cena (quasi in atto di comedia) s’appresentò alla tavola detto giardiniero discinto, & scalzo con una ghirlanda in capo di foglie di vite, onde tra i pampini, & tralci pendevano i grappoli dell’uva matura con un bronco di pero in mano, che poco dianzi haveva rotto l’em pito del vento, & con volto tutto festevole & sollazzoso parlò in questa maniera. Voi havete à saper Signori, ch’io sono l’ortolano del S. Camillo Porro, & le piante, che vedete qui intorno sono mie creature, & tutti questi belli innesti, che vi s’appresentano innanzi furono fatti dalle mie istesse mani, & le bellissime ortaglie, & fiori, che ridono fra queste vezzose herbette sono proceduti dalla mia industria & sudore; Et perche sopra ogni altra cosa desidero farmi eccellente nell’ufficio mio dell’ortolano si per sodisfatione del mio Signore, come anco per interesse dell’honor mio, & sapendo che voi gentil’huomini havete volti olti libri, & che dovete sapere tutti i segreti delli antichi Agricoltori, i quali (per quel ch’intendo) furono messi in scritto da un certo Marco Varone, Columella, Theofrasto, Palladio, & altri, che non mi ricordo; il perche con tutti quelli piu caldi & vivi prieghi ch’io posso, vi supplico à farmi tanta parte della vostra dottrina, quanta vifaro io de i preciosi frutti di questo felicissimo giardino.

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much into the things of astrology, shouldn’t he at least know how to schedule rural work according to the proper times shown us by the stars, and to foresee the rains, the winds, and the storms that the same stars cause, insuring himself in this way against the tricks of the weather? Partenio: Then the stars cause the changes of the weather? Vitauro: What? Don’t you know that some of them are cold in the resolution of moisture, some in condensing it into hoarfrost, some in freezing it into hail, others in congealing it in ice, others make wind, others temper the air, some make vapors, some dew, and some others cold? Partenio: You have so gently reasoned about the virtues of the stars and of agriculture that not only have you aroused in my mind an ardent desire to know by which signs it is possible to foresee bad weather, and to understand under which constellations the work of the country ought to be done, and what renders the fields fertile and thriving: but I still desire principally to know how one ought to cultivate plants, care for vines, raise herds, and finally, keep bees. Vitauro: That desire of yours embraces all the arts of agriculture, which I promise to satisfy in part if for now you let me take so much of a pause that I can go where I am expected for one of my important business dealings. Partenio: Oh! If you love me, do me the favor of delaying a little, and please give me at least something beautiful to remember about the agriculture of gardens. Vitauro: But I am a farmer of little esteem, and I cannot satisfy your desire well; however (such as I am) I will gladly share with you the discussion about Agriculture that took place last night after dinner in the garden of the illustrious Camillo Porro, because I enjoy nothing more than opening myself up to another who does not enjoy aggrandizing himself. However, since time is short, nevertheless accepting your prayers, I tell you that the aforementioned Signor Camillo, as one who knows how advantageous magnificence and liberality, two very splendid virtues, are to a generous spirit, often invites his friends to eat with him in his distant garden a mile from Milan. Finding myself among those also invited last night, I was greatly pleased by the various ingenious, learned, and philosophical discourses that were heard, now from this one, now from that one, and especially by the delightfulness of the garden at that place, and by the secret marvels that were taught to him by the dinner guests. Partenio: Now this is what I would like to know from you. Vitauro: Around the end of dinner (almost in the manner of comedy) drew near to the table the aforementioned gardener—disheveled and barefoot, with a garland of grape leaves on his head, from which, among the tendrils and vine

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Al che rispose il S. Pomponio Cotta. Gran scortesia  157 [i.e., 161]  certamente sarebbe la nostra havendo noi goduto de i frutti di questo giardino, à non voler compiacere al giardiniero in cosa tanto honesta; Però hortolano mio, à sodisfatione del vostro desiderio, io cominciero à pagare il debito col dirvi, che se veder volete risurgere verde, fresca, & lieta la sacra ruta, fà de mestieri, che se le dica oltraggio, & s’avvertisca ben, che nel piantarla non sia vista ne tocca dalla mano di donna immonda, & se un’arbore fruttifero tarda troppo à cominciar di far frutto, facciasi nell’aotunno un buco con una trivella nell’una delle sue piu grosse radici in modo, che non passi di là, & in esso caccisi una caviglia di legno secco chiudendo bene di fuori con cera, poi ricoprendo di terra, quell’anno istesso al suo tempo farà frutto. Et io vi dico, disse il S. Precivallo Besozzo, che se bramante vedere nelle zucche marine, ò cedri (se n’havete) novi, & strani volti, debbiate far fabricare un vaso di cristallo di quella forma, che piu vi piace, & poi chiuderle dentro quando sono nella loro pi acerba età, onde vedrete à poco à poco la zucca crescendo farsi simile al vaso, & reuscir l’effetto ch’io vi dico; & se à qualche arbore nel vostro giardino cascano facilmente i fiori si farà, che produca il frutto senza fiorire, se voi l’innestarete in fico. Et io vi fo sapere, soggionse il S. Camillo Porro, che so pra di questo pero et di quel vermiglio moro si possono  158 [i.e., 162]  innestar gli aranzi, l’aggrezza de quali volendola voi addolcire fà di mestieri, che foriate mezzo il tronco da basso, dando in questa maniera luogo al tristo humore fin tanto, che i pomi si veggano ben formati, poi bisogna con loto serrar la piaga loro; onde ne vedrete effetto meraviglioso; & in oltre vi dico, che farete l’una moscatella se tagliate la vite che si pianta in maniera che ne restino tre occhi di essa sopra terra, & cavatole fuori con un filo di ferro tuta la medolla riempirassi quella canna di piolvere di noce moscada, chiudendo, poi il buco di sopra molto bene di cera, si che acqua alcuna non vi possa entrare. Et io vi fa sapere disse il S. Iacopo Brivio, che si come in Franza d’ogni stagione si vede una gran copia di carchioffi, il medesimo vedrete nel vostro giardino, avertendo voi à cinque cose, la prima delle quali serà un muro, che gli diffenda da tramontana, la seconda che sieno esposti al meriggio senza haver cosa avanti che gl’impedisca il sole, la terza medicare al freddo del verno col fimo & con l’acqua tepida, la quarta inaffiarli ben l’estate, la quinta, & ultima tramutar ciascun mese gli occhi suoi; il che facendo havrete nel vostro giardino carchioffi d’ogni hora; et di più vi fo sapere, che’l pesco maturerà molto per tempo se sarà innestato in moro, overo in vite. Al che soggionse il S. Caradosso Foppa, et io vi faccio intendere, che l’ortaglie vostre si vogliono seminare, &  159 [i.e., 163]  trappiantare nel primo quarto del crescer della luna, & quando un’arbore non ritiene il frutto, ò che avanti alla matu-

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shoots, hung clusters of ripe grapes, and with a pear bough in his hand that a little earlier the force of the wind had broken off, and with a face all happy and jolly—spoke in this manner. You have to know, sirs, that I am the gardener for Signor Camillo Porro, and the plants that you see around here are my creatures, and all these beautiful grafts that you draw near were made by my very hands, and the very beautiful garden produce and flowers that laugh among these charming grasses were brought forth by my hard work and sweat. And because I desire above every other thing to excel at my job as gardener to the satisfaction of my master, as well as to the advantage of my honor, and knowing that you gentlemen have read many books, and that you ought to know all the secrets of the ancient farmers, which (as far as I understand) were put into writing by a certain Marcus Varro, Columella, Theophrastus, Palladius, and others whom I don’t remember;106 for these reasons, with all the warmest and loveliest prayers that I can make, I beg you to give me as much a part of your learning as I give you of the precious fruits of this very thriving garden. To which Signor Pomponio Cotta replied, It certainly would be discourteous of us if, having enjoyed the fruits of this garden, we were not willing to satisfy the gardener in such an honorable matter. However, my gardener, to the satisfaction of your desire, I begin to pay the debt by telling you that if you want to see the sacred rue resurge green, fresh and thriving, it is necessary that you swear to yourself and be very cautious that during planting it should be neither seen nor touched by the hand of an unclean woman, and if a fruit-bearing tree starts bearing fruit too late, in the autumn with a drill make a hole in one of its larger roots in such a way that it does not pass through it, and hide in that a peg of dried wood, sealing it with wax outside, then covering it over again with earth, that same year it will bear fruit in its season. And I tell you, said Signor Percivallo Besozzo, that if you desire to see new and strange shapes in the marine squash or the citruses (if you have them), you ought to make a vase of crystal in that form that pleases you most, then close it over them when they are in their sour state, whence you would see the squash growing little by little to make itself like the vase, and resulting in the effect that I am describing to you. And if the flowers produced by some tree in your garden fall too easily, so that it produces fruit without flowering, then graft it onto a fig tree. And I would have you know, added Signor Camillo Porro, that on this pear tree and on that crimson mulberry tree can be grafted oranges, the sourness of which if you want to sweeten it is necessary that you drill the trunk half way up from the base, by 106 Theophrastus of Eresus was a Greek philosopher active c. 300 b.c., and the successor of Aristotle. Botany is the only area in which most of his writing survives intact.

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rità sopra quello si corrumpa, se gli de fare nel tronco un buco con una trivella grossa circa un dito, che passi dentro fin al mezzo alto da terra circa un braccio, et quello serrare, & impire di una caviglia di legno secco, che vi entri per forza, chiudendo ancora la parte di fuori di cera, perche non vi entri humore, che possa far corruttione. Dovete anco sapere, disse il S. Giulio Schiaffinato, che se voi piantate una cipolla con dentro seme di lino, che nascera dragoncello, & io vi dico (disse il S. Gioseppe Giossano) che se una donna, c’habbia il suo fiore va due ò tre volte intorno e mezzo del vostro giardino subito caderanno à terra le ruche, & altri vermicelli, che suogliono rovinare l’ortaglie; al che segue dicendo il S. Cesare Landria no, & io vi dico, che se cavate la medolla dalla vite subito nata, l’una nascerà senza grana, & havete anco à sapere, che ogni frutto d’arbore matura piu per tempo innestato in ciregio, in una spina, & in moro negro, che in qual si voglia altra pianta. All’hora soggionse il S. Camillo Vaiano, havete a sapere che i pini cresceranno piuin uno anno, che in quattro se nel piantarli gittarete nella fossa loro due, ò tre grani d’orzo, & di piu vi dico, ch’ogni frutto d’arbore si fa piu dolce & saporito bagnando il sorcolo  160 [i.e., 164]  in mele quando s’innesta. & piu odorato ponendovi polvere di garofani, noce moscata, & cose simili, ma che sieno ben peste. Et io Hortolano, disse il S. Ludovico Lomazzo, vi fo sapere, che se voi piantate & cogliete l’agliomentre la Luna alluma l’altro hemispero, ch’egli perderà l’acutezza del suo molesto odore, & in oltre vi dico, che le formiche foggiranno, & moriranno se cavato un poco di erra al pie dell’arbore se gli metterà attorno della caligene del camino, overa della segatura di quercia. Soggionse il S. Francesco Biancardo, Et io vidico che la noce se prima che sia piantata, serà tenuta à molle cinque giorni nel l’orina d’un fanciullo, produrrà noci con la coccia tanto sottile, che ogniuno con le dita facilmente le potrà rompere. Et io disse il Taegio, perche veggio, che’l piano de sentieri del vostro giardino non è uguale, onde l’occhio de riguardanti ne sente non picciola offesa, vi voglio insegnare con questa guastadetta d’acqua, che qui vedete, à livellare giustissimamente un piano, il che vi servira non solo per la vaghezza del giardino, ma ancora per la commodità del condar dell’acque à i lochi desiderati. Et per venire alla prova vi dico, che premieramente pigliar si deve una inghistara di vetro sottile & chiaro, & empitane la metà di acqua, altro liquore con essa vi porrete nell’uno de capi del loco che voi vorrete livellare, facendo che un’altro si metta nell’altro  161 [i.e., 165]  di essi campi con una hasta in mano, & una carta bianca; poi serrando un occhio, come fa chi mira di archibugio, ò altra simile cosa, porrete l’altro assai presso di essa inghistara, & guardarete diritto per longo del piano dell’acqua verso l’hasta, che l’altro havera in mano fermata con il calce in terra, & farete, che appoggiata essa carta

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this means giving forth the bad sap, until the fruits are seen well formed. Then you need to close up the wound with mud, from which you will see a marvelous effect. And besides, I tell you that you will make a muscatel if you cut the vine that is planted in such a way that three of its eyes remain above ground and, having dug all the middle of it out with a wire, refill that cane with ground nutmeg, closing then the hole from above very well with wax, so that no water can enter it. And I will have you know, said Iacopo Brivio, that as in France a great quantity of artichokes is seen every season, you would see the same in your garden if you would attend to five things. First, enclose it with a wall that protects it from the north wind. Second, it should be exposed to the noonday sun without having anything in front that obstructs the sun. Third, treat it in the cold of winter with manure and with warm water. Fourth, sprinkle it well in the summer. Fifth and last, transplant its eyes every month. Doing this, you should have artichokes in your garden all the time. And I would have you know furthermore that the peach tree will mature much earlier if it is grafted onto a mulberry or onto a grapevine. To which Signor Caradosso Foppa added, And I want you to understand that your kitchen garden needs to be seeded and transplanted in the first quarter of the rising of the moon, and when a tree does not retain its fruit, or when its fruit rots before maturity, make in the trunk a hole with a large drill about the size of a finger, which pierces inside an average height above the ground of about one braccia, and close that and fill it with a peg of dry wood that you insert with force, still sealing the outside part with wax so that moisture that could cause rot does not enter it. You ought to know also, said Signor Giulio Schiaffinato, that if you plant an onion with linseed inside, then tarragon will be produced, and I tell you (said Signor Gioseppe Giossano) that if a woman who has her flower goes two or three times around and in the middle of your garden, the caterpillars and other little worms that are in the habit of ruining gardens suddenly will fall to the ground; upon which follows Signor Cesare Landriano, saying, And I tell you if you dig out the middle of the vine as soon as it emerges, that one will emerge seedless, and you also have to know that every fruit of a tree ripens earlier if grafted onto a cherry tree, a thorn tree, and a black mulberry, rather than onto some other plant you want. Now Signor Camillo Vaiano added, You have to know that pine trees grow more in one year than in four if when you plant them you throw into their hole two or three grains of barley, and I tell you besides that every fruit of a tree is made sweeter and more flavorful if the slip is bathed in honey when it is grafted, and more fragrant if you put ground cloves, nutmeg, and similar things, but that are ground well, on it. And I, gardener, said Lodovico Lomazzo, would have you know that if you plant and pick garlic while

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all’hasta, quella tanto vadi alzando & abbassando, sin che voi scorgerete detta carta al diritto del piano dell’acqua, avertendo che non vediate ponto di esso piano, ma che l’una, & l’altra estremità di quà e di là del detto piano dell’acqua vi paia una sol linea, che vadi à tagliar à tra verso essa carta; Il che fatto misurerete quanto esso piano della detta acqua sia alto da terra, & il medesimo farete della carta, & quanta differenza a trovarete dall’una altezza all’altra, di tanto sarà piu basso l’uno capo di esso sito, che l’altro, come se per caso dal piano dell’acqua à terra fossero due braccia, et dalla cartà à terra tre, d’un braccio sarebe piu basso il loco dove fosse quello dell’hasta & la carta, che quello dove foste voi con l’inghistara. Partenio. Questo è un belissimo segreto, il quale dovrebbe esser molto caro, non solo à i giardinieri, perche possano col suo mezzo render’ uguale il piano de suoi sentieri, ma ancora à tutti gli habitatori della villa, dove, come alla cittade, non s’ha commodità d’ingegnieri per livellare una campagna, par causa del  162 [i.e., 166]  condurre dell’acqua. Vitauro. Egli è vero, et à piu chiara intelligenza d’ogn’uno fece la presente figura. Partenio. Che segui poi. Vitauro. L’hortolano rendette quelle gratie che dovea à i nominati gentil’huomini, et guidardone de gl’intesi segreti promisse di farci parte de suoi innesti. Et questo è quanto fu detto hiersera in p[ro]posito dell’agricoltura, et profitto del giardiniero. Hor state felice, ch’io me ne voglio andare, nè piu posso differire, perche la posta è ale xx. hore, & credo che passino anzi che nò. Partenio. Se la posta è alle xx. hore, potete indugiare anco un’hora, perche non arrivano alle diecinove.

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the moon illuminates the other hemisphere, then it will lose the sharpness of its annoying odor, and I tell you besides that ants flee and die if a little bit of earth is dug out at the foot of the tree if you put around it some soot from the fireplace or some oak sawdust. Signor Francesco Biancardo added, And I tell you that if the walnut is allowed to soften for five days in the urine of a young boy before it is planted, it will produce nuts with such a soft shell that everyone will be able to break it with his finger. And I, Taegio, said, Because I see that the plane of the footpath of your garden is not even, so that the eye that gazes upon it takes not a little offense, I want you to learn how to level a plane very justly with this bottle of water that you see, which contributes not only to the charm of the garden but even to its usefulness by the conducting of water to desired locations. And to come to the conclusion, I tell you that you ought to take a decanter of fine and clear glass, and, having filled it with water or some other liquid, set it at one end of the place you would like to level, seeing that another man is sent to the other end of the same field with a staff in his hand, and a white card. Then, closing one eye, as if siting down a rifle or other similar thing, put the other eye very near the decanter and look directly along the plane of the water toward the staff, while the other man holds the staff in his hand with its heel on the ground, and you will fix the same card so that it is supported by the staff, which you go raising and lowering so much until you notice the aforementioned card in line with the plane of the water, but so that the one and the other extremity on this side and on that of the aforementioned plane of water draws a single line that goes crosswise cutting off the card; that done, you would measure how high the plane of the aforementioned water is above the ground, and the same would be done with the card. And as much difference as you find from one height to the other, so much lower will be the one end of this site from the other. For example, if from the plane of the water to the ground there were two braccia, and from the cart to the ground three, the plane where the staff and the card were would be one braccia lower than that where you were with the decanter. Partenio: This is a very beautiful secret, which ought to be very dear, not only to gardeners, because they can by means of it render even the plane of their walkways, but even to all the inhabitants of the villa, where one does not have, as one does in the city, the convenience of engineers to level a field for the purpose of conducting water. Vitauro: It is true, and the following figure makes for everyone’s clearer understanding. Partenio: What followed then?

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Vitauro. Voi di gran longa v’ingannate, perche l’ombra mia dimostra, che

passino xx. hore. Partenio. Adonque l’hore si possono conoscere all’ombra del l’huomo. Vitauro. Chi n’ha dubbio. Partenio. Partenio ne dubita ne i sà imaginar come possa esser cotesto. Vitauro. Hor vi voglio  163 [i.e., 167]  anco insegnare questo bellissimo segreto come cosa quasi necessaria all’huomo, c’habiti in villa, dove spesse volte non vi sono horioli, et essendovi sono falsissimi. Partenio. Anco in villa senza tanti horioli si possono conoscere l’hore dall’arco che ogni giorno disegna il sole girando all’oriente all’occidente. Vitauro. Egli è vero pur che s’habbia cognitione della sfera del mondo; dove quello altissimo Architetto, che la fabricò rachiuse quanto lasciar volle al reggimento della natura universale. Partenio. Senza cognition di sfera si fallirebbe di poco; ma lasciando questo da banda, insegnatemi vi rego il segreto del’ombra, ch’io ve ne restaurà con obligo. Vitauro. Non corre obligo fra noi, & quando vi corresse sarebbe dal canto mio, che hoggimai dovrei haverni stordito con tanti cicalamenti; ma in questo la colpa mia a voi medesimo perdonarete. Havete adunque à sapere, che dal moderno Archimede il S. Allesandro Caimo ho imparato questo bellissimo segreto, per chiarezza del quale s’è composta la seguente tavola, che non s’estende fuor del nostro clima, la quale contiene li dodeci mesi dell’anno, ne li quali ad uno ad uno, di cinque in cinque giorni, per non esser in si poco tempo mutatione che importi, si vede à tutte l’hore del giorno quanti piedi, & oltre alli piedi quante oncie, ò sia diti pollici, sia longa in terra ben piana l’om-

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Vitauro: The gardener returned those thanks that he ought to the named

gentlemen, and in return for the secrets heard he promised to give us some of his grafts. And this is as much as was said last night on the subject of agriculture and the benefit of the gardener. Now stay well, for I want to go, nor can I delay, because the post is at twenty hours, and I think they would just as soon pass by as not. Partenio: If the post is at twenty hours, shouldn’t you delay another hour, since it is not yet nineteen? Vitauro: You are mistaken to a great extent, because my shadow shows that twenty hours have passed. Partenio: So then it is possible to tell time by a man’s shadow. Vitauro: Who doubts it? Partenio: Partenio doubts it unless he knows how to imagine such a thing can be. Vitauro: Now I want you also to know this very beautiful secret as something almost necessary to the man who lives in villa, where often there are not clocks, and when there are they are often wrong. Partenio: Even in villa without so many clocks it is possible to tell the time by the arc that the sun traces every day as it travels from the east to the west. Vitauro: This is true only if one has knowledge of the sphere of the world; where that very high Architect who made it holds as much as he wants to leave to the government of the universal nature. Partenio: Without knowledge of the sphere one would make some mistakes; but leaving this behind, teach me I beg you the secret of the shadow, that I might repay you with obligation. Vitauro: No obligation runs between us, and if it were to run to you, you would know my song, so that henceforth I should be amazed by so much chatter, but in this matter my guilt would be pardoned the same as yours. Therefore you have to know that from the modern Archimedes, Signor Alessandro Caimo, I heard this very beautiful secret, for the clarity of which the following table has been composed, which does not extend outside our zone, and which contains the twelve months of the year, in which one to one, in five of five days, since it is not small time changes in themselves that matter, one sees at all hours of the day how many feet, and besides feet, how many inches, or digits, long on very level land is the shadow of the body of each person from the top of the head to the ground, beginning by measuring from the ankle of the one to the other foot, in order to respond to the plumb line that place to which it remains quite

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bra del corpo di ciascuno dalla cima del capo sin à terra cominciandola  164 [i.e., 168]  à misurare dalla caviglia dell’uno all’altro piede, per rispondere al piombo quel loco à chi stà ben ritto alla detta sommità del capo sin al fine d’essa ombra, si che poniam caso che alli 15. di Maggio doppo mezzo giorno io desideri sapere che hora sia, vado al sole in loco piano, et voltatogli la schiena, come nella presente figura vedete. Pongo mente fin’ dove arrivi la mia ombra et quella misurata trovo ch’ella e’ longa sette piedi et sette dita, che sono un dito piu di mezzo piede; perche la longhezza del piede contiene dodeci oncie, ò sia come ho detto dodeci pollici in tra verso, guardo nel mese di Maggio sotto alli 15. di Maggio quale sia qual numero, che piu s’appressi di questo et trovo à man dritta delle 20. hore 7. piedi & 6. dita, si che dico, che sono tanto piu di 20. hore quanto importa quel dito di piu. genaio. 165 [i.e., 169] 166 [i.e., 170] 167 [i.e., 171] 168 [i.e., 172] 169 [i.e., 173] 170 [i.e., 174]

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straight on the aforementioned top of the head as far as the end of its shadow, if we suppose that on the afternoon of the fifteenth of May I were to desire to know what time it was, I would go toward the sun on a level plane, and turn my back to it, as shown in the present figure. I pay attention to where my shadow falls, and having measured that, I find that it is seven feet, seven inches long, which is one more than half a foot, because the length of the foot contains twelve inches, or it is as I said twelve digits across. I look in the month of May under the fifteenth of May, which is that number that is closest to this one, and I find to the right of twenty hours, seven feet and six inches, so I say that there are as many more than twenty hours as that extra inch signifies. 165 [i.e., 169] 166 [i.e., 170] 167 [i.e., 171] 168 [i.e., 172] 169 [i.e., 173]

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Partenio. Io veggio quello che dite nella presente tavola; ma non sò perche detto m’habbiate, che sieno piu tosto 13. hore, atteso che nella linea di esse hore 13. sotto il detto 15, di Maggio si veggono apponto 7. piedi, & 7. oncie. Vitauro. per questo ho posto il caso, che fusso dopo mezzo giorno. Partenio. Che sia passato meriggio ò nò sarà facil cosa il saperlo à quelle hore che gli sono molto lontane, come la mattina innanzi l’hora commune del disinare, & verso il vespero, ma à quelle hore che gli sono presso, come si sapera che sia passato, o nò. Vitauro. Molto facilmente ponendo mente se di poco in poco l’ombra si va facendo piu longa, ò piu corta, perche fin che sia mezzo giorno l’ombra di ciascuna cosa in piano si va facendo piu corta, & dopo subito comincia ad allongarsi. Partenio. Hor son ben risoluto d’ogni dubbio. Vitauro. Accontentatevi adunque darmi licenza di andare à spedire il negotio, che pur dianzi v’ho detto.

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Partenio: I see what you are saying in the present table; but I don’t know why

you told me that there are rather thirteen hours, considering that in the line of these thirteen hours under the aforementioned fifteenth of May are seen affixed seven feet and seven inches. Vitauro: For this one I have made the case that is was afternoon. Partenio: So that whether midday has passed or not, it will be an easy matter to know by those hours that they are not very far away, as morning before the common hour of having lunch, and toward evening, but by those hours that are near, how does one know whether it is passed or not? Vitauro: Very easily, by paying attention if little by little the shadow is growing longer or shorter, because until it is noon the shadow of everything on the plane is growing shorter, and afterward it suddenly begins to get longer. Partenio: Now I am well resolved of every doubt. Vitauro: Content yourself therefore to give me license to go to expedite the business about which I was telling you just a minute ago. Partenio: What business of yours is this, of such importance that you can’t stay with me a half hour longer? Vitauro: Delaying could cause me harm, because my villa steward is dead, and first I need to provide myself with another one, and the post date is only for such effect. Partenio: Concerning this matter I care to argue a little bit with you. Vitauro: I promise to give you on attention another occasion, now I want to leave, at any rate, good-bye. Partenio: Oh! Stop, stop, I beg you, and demonstrate that in you that seed of sweet and delightful humanity that was sown by nature in the depths of our hearts is not dead, and even if the difficulty yet remains of not to wanting to please the mind with sincere questions, do it, I implore you, for the light of those eyes that were the subject of your poems and that have caused a thousand times envy in the sun. Vitauro: What mind would not give in to such charm; since you honor me so much with your kindness, and shame me with your begging, I am persuaded to be responsive to my very gentle Partenio. However, tell me what you want to learn from me about villa stewardship.107 107 Here begins a long section of Taegio’s dialogue that is modeled closely after a conversation between Socrates and Ischomachus on the training of an epitropos in Xenophon’s Oeconomicus. Partenio’s role correspond’s to Socrates’ role, Vitauro’s to Ischomachus’s.

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Partenio. Che negotio è questo vostro di tanta importanza, che non possiate

dimorarvi anco una mezza hora meco? Vitauro. L’indugiar potrebbe portarmi danno; perche è morto il mio fattor di villa, & bisogna che quanto prima me ne provegga d’un’altro, & la posta data è solamente per tale effetto. Partenio. Á ponto sopra questa materia ho caro ragionare un pochetto con esso voi. Vitauro. Á un’altra fiata prometto di attendervi, hora partir mi voglio ad ogni modo, à Dio. Partenio. Deh fermatevi,  171 [i.e., 175]  vi supplico, et mostrate, che in voi non sia morto quel seme della dolce, & piaghevole humanità , che dalla natura fu sparso nelle radici de nostri cuori, & se pur state anco su’l duro di non voler piagar l’animo vostro à si honesta domanda, fatelo vi scongiuro per la luce di quegli occhi, che furono soggetto delle vostre rime, & c’ha no fatto mille volte invidia al Sole. Vitauro. Qual animo non piegherebbe à simil incanto; poi che tanto con la vostra cortesia mi honorate, & col pregar m’offendete, vagliami l’ubedire al mio gentilissimo Partenio; Però ditemi quel che da me intendere desiderate del fattore di villa. Partenio. Primieramente vorrei sapere se voi pigliate il fattore dotto et eccellente nell’arte sua, ò veramente l’instituite voi à modo vostro. Vitauro. Io stesso mi sforzo d’insegnarli l’ufficio suo pero ch’egli non ha da far altro quando io sono assente se non quello istesso ch’io farrei s’io vi fosse presente, il che sapendo far io, sarà agevol cosa ancora ch’io sappia insegnare ad altrui. Partenio. Bisogna adunque che’l fattore ch’entra in vostro luogo sia molto benivolo et affettionato à voi & alle cose vostre, che altrimenti, quantunque espertissimo fosse non saprei conoscere qual utilità da lui trar se ne potesse. Vitauro. Gli è vero; ma questa affetione verso me, è la prima cosa nella quale io l’institisco. Partenio. Et come si puo una tal cosa insegnare? Vitauro. Rimeritando è gratificandomelo, facendol  172 [i.e., 176]  partecipe di quei beni, che Dio mi concede, et questa è una buona via, & ottimo stromento per acquistarsi benivolenza. Partenio. Quando poi ve lo sete fatto amico, basta questo à farlo diligente in quel che gli ha da fare? voi sapete pur che infiniti sono gli huomini, i quali tutto che naturalmente sieno amici di lor stessi, nondimeno usano negligentia in far quelle cose, onde dipende il fine del desiderio loro.

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Partenio: Primarily I would like to know if you take the steward learned and

excellent in his art, or truly initiate him in your way of thinking. Vitauro: I am fond of teaching him the job myself, but since he doesn’t have the wherewithal to do anything when I am absent other than the same thing that I would do if I were present, knowing this as I do, it will be an easy matter again that I should know how to teach others. Partenio: The steward who enters your place therefore needs to be very kind and devoted to you and your things, otherwise, although he may be very expert he would not know how to recognize what you could find useful to you. Vitauro: That is true, but this devotion to me is the first thing in which I initiate him. Partenio: And how can such a thing be taught? Rewarding is ingratiating myself to him by acquainting him with the blessings that God grants me, and this is a good way, and the best instrument for acquiring good will. Partenio: Then when you have made a friend of him, is this enough to make him diligent in what he has to do? Surely you know that countless are the men who, though naturally they would be friends themselves, nonetheless practice negligence in doing those things on which the end of their desire depends. Vitauro: In fact I myself am a friend to him, I initiate him then in solicitude and diligence, and I show him in detail how everyone has to be guided and supplied. Partenio: I did not think that this shrewdness could be taught very well to one who is not naturally inclined toward it. Vitauro: It is true that not everyone is suitable. Partenio: Which ones are those who are more fit than the others? [Vitauro:] It could never be possible that those drunk with wine (even if they wanted) would be fit for this care and diligence, because I tell you that, on account of their getting drunk all day long, that which has to be done would always be out of tune. Besides this, those who are slaves to sleep are unable to produce anything that is good, without being around him who produces it. Partenio: It seems to me that it would be enough to be chaste in these two matters, or is something else necessary as well? Vitauro: It is not enough, because having the mind caught in the snares of love marvelously takes away the thought of every other business, since no greater sweetness is found in the world than that which is in the practice of love, nor is greater passion found than that of love when it is esteemed little by the beloved.

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Vitauro. Fatto ch’io me lo sono amico, io l’instituisco poi nella sollicitudine

& diligenza, & mostrogli minutamente, come ciascuna cosa habbia da guidare & provedere. Partenio. Io non pensavo, he questa accutezza si potesse molto bene insegnare à chi naturalmente non gli è inchinato. Vitauro. E vero ch’ogniuno non è idoneo. Partenio. Quali sono quegli, che sono piu atti che gli altri? [Vitauro.] Non sarebbe mai possibile, che gl’ingordi del vino (ancor che volessero) fossero atti à questa cura et diligenza, ch’io dico, che per lo inebriarsi tutto il giorno si scorderebbono sempre quello, c’hanno da fare; Oltre à questo quelli che sono schiavi del sonno, mal possono far cosa alcuna, che buona sia, ne essere intorno à chi la faccia. Partenio. Pare à me, che basii l’esser continente in queste due cose, o pur isogna altro? Vitauro. Non basta, perche l’haver l’animo preso ne lacci d’amore, leva meravigliosamente il pensier d’ogni altro negocio, percioche non si trova al monda maggior dolcezza di quella ch’è nelle prattiche d’amore, ne maggior  173 [i.e., 177]  passione di quella dell’amante quando è poco stimato dal la cosa amata, si che in man di tali huomini non da porre in nessun modo il governo delle cose sue. Partenio. Quelli che sono amici del guadagno stimate voi, che sieno atti all’ufficio del fattore de villa? Vitauro. Nessuna sorte d’huomini è piu atta à ciò, che questi che tu dici, perche basta solamente à mostrar loro, che dalla sua diligenza vi sia per nascer il guadagno. Partenio. Hor se sara alcuno continente di tutte le cose c’hai detto et amico mediocremente del guadagnare, che via tenete per farlo curioso & sollecito. Vitauro. È agevol cosa; percio che quando io veggio ch’egli habbia usata sollecitudine in qualche cosa io lo lodo, & mi sforzo di honorarlo; & s’io conosco il contrario m’ingegno di moderlo, ò con parole ò con farlo in qualche modo vergognar d’haver mancato. Partenio. Poi che voi detto m’havete le parti che si ricercano in un buon fattor di villa, vorrei hora che voi mi diceste dall’altra parte quale ha esser colui, che lo instituisce, & pone sopra alle cosa della villa sua, & prima se gli è possibile, che un neghittoso & trascurato possa far altrui diligente? Vitauro. Non altrimenti, che possa uno ignorante nell’architettura far un perfettissimo architetto; percio che tien dell’impossibile, che sendo il maestro

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Partenio: Do you think that those who are friends of profit are fit for the job

of villa steward? Vitauro: No one kind of man is more fit for it than these that you mention, because it is enough merely to show them that their profit is being born from their diligence. Partenio: Now if someone will be composed of all that you have said and friend moderately of profit, then what path do you take to make him curious and solicitous? Vitauro: It is an easy thing; because when I see that he has practiced solicitude in something I praise him, and I force myself to honor him, and if I know the contrary I do my best to correct him, either with words or by making him in some way ashamed of having been lacking. Partenio: Now that you have told me the parts that are examined in a good villa steward, I would like you to tell me now about the part that has to be with him who initiates him and puts him over the things of his villa, and first if it is possible that a lazy and careless person can make others diligent. Vitauro: No more than it is possible for a person ignorant of architecture to make a very perfect architect;108 because if the teacher is ignorant the students will never be learned, and because if a master is lazy and slow the servants will never be solicitous and curious. And in conclusion, he who wants to make others clever and diligent needs first to show himself to have the same concern for things, and to long for everyone to be rewarded according to merits, and to have contempt for anyone who earns a reward without meriting it. And I consider very beautiful the answer of that person who, having been asked what would make a horse fat in a short time, replied, the eye of the owner; so I tell you that the care of the master is what directs everything well. Partenio: Now after you have made this steward of yours diligent enough, will he therefore be fit for performing his office adequately, or is it necessary for you to teach him something else? Vitauro: This affection and diligence is not enough, if still he is not shown how and when he has to do everything, otherwise he would be of no more value to the villa than a doctor would be to a patient, if he was diligent in visiting him morning and evening but not wise enough to know what can relieve the sickness. In Oeconomicus 12.18, Ischomachus says, “No more than a person who is unskilled in the arts could make others artistic” (Pomeroy’s translation, pp. 174-175). 108

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ignorante sieno mai dotti li scolari, & che se un padrone è ocioso, e infingardo, sieno i servi solleciti e curiosi; Et in somma chi vuol far altrui  174 [i.e., 178]  svegliato e diligente, bisogna prima che si mostra egli stesso haver cura de le cose, & d’haver carò, che ciascuno sia premiato secondo i meriti, & haver à sdegno che alcuno porti guiderdone non lo meritando; & bellissima risposta giudico quella di colui, che sendo addimandato, che cosa in poco tempo faccia grasso un cavallo, rispose l’occhio del padrone; cosi dico io, che la cura del padrone è quella, che guida bene ogni cosa. Partenio. Hor posto che voi habbiate fatto diligente a bastanza questo vostro fattore sarà perciò idoneo à far compitamente l’officio suo, ò pur fa di mestieri, che voi gl’insegnate qualche altra cosa? Vitauro. Non basta questa affettione & diligenza, se non se gli mostra ancora, come e quando s’ha da fare ciascuna cosa, altrimenti non sarebbe egli d’altro giovamento alla villa, che si sia un medico ad un infermo, ilquale sia diligente in visitarlo mattina e sera, & non sappia poi conoscere quel che possa giovar à quella infirmita. Partenio. Dapoi che gli havrai mostrato minutamente in che modo & à che tempo debba far le facende sue hara egli bisogno d’altro? Vitauro. Bisogna dopo questo che l’impariate à sapere comandare à lavoratori e servi della villa ch’egli ha sotto’l governo suo. Partenio. Et chi gli mostra questo? [Vitauro.] Mi sforzo di mostrarglielo io piu ch’io posso. Partenio. Ditemi per cortesia, come voi facciate ad insegnare il saper comandare. Vitauro. Si vede chiaramente  175 [i.e., 179] Partenio, che in tutti altri animali due cose sono cagioni principalissime che si sottomettano & ubedischano à gli huomini, cio è quando ubedendo sono accarezzati, e repugnando son puniti; non per altra via un domator d’un cavallo se lo farà mansueto se no hor con lusinghe, hor con attiture, secondo il bisogno; e parimente ancora con silil arte si rendono i cani & altri animali ubedienti ad un cenno & ad un voce nostra; cosi interviene ancora à servi, & à lavatori, i quali con le ragioni & con le parole si lassano persuadere, facendoli noi conoscere, che il servir volontieri sia il meglio loro, gastigandogli se nol fanno, & accarezzandogli secondo i meriti & secondo la natura & appetito loro; percioche altri sono c’havendo posto à uso di fiere tutto’l sommo bene nel piacer della gola, bisogna premiargli cose, che sodisfacciano à questo appetito; altri per essere ambitiosi & invidiosi vogliono esser ristorati con lodi & honori; queste

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Partenio: After you will have shown him in detail in what way and at what

time he ought to do his jobs, will he have need of something else? Vitauro: After this he needs to be taught to know how to be in charge of laborers and servants of the villa that he has under his management. Partenio: And who shows him this? [Vitauro:] I force myself to show it to him as much as I can. Partenio: Tell me please, how do you go about teaching the knowledge of being in charge. Vitauro: It is seen clearly, Partenio, that in all other animals two things are the principal reasons that they submit themselves and are obedient to men: that is, when they obey they are petted, and when they are contrary they are punished. By no other way will a trainer of a horse make it tame except now with praise, now with beatings, according to the need. And equally still with similar skill are dogs and other animals rendered obedient to a gesture and to our voice. So it happens with servants and laborers, who are persuaded with reasons and with words, as we let them know that it is best for them to serve willingly by punishing them if they don’t, and by flattering them according to their merits and according to nature and their appetites. For there are some who, having placed the highest value on the pleasure of the gullet, in the manner of beasts, need first the things that satisfy this appetite. Others, being ambitious and envious, want to be compensated with praises and honors. Knowing these cautions, I have always taught my villa stewards so that they should know how to render the laborers and other servants obedient and kind, while being just and humane. Beyond this, they show, after my example, that they have to watch that the clothes and other rewards and payments that they have to divide among the servants are not all equal and similar but according to merits or improvements or values, because it very much causes good men to despair and to be discouraged to see that those who have been negligent in their work, and those who have been diligent in spite of danger and sweat, are rewarded equally; and for this reason, when I see that a steward of mine has taken this precaution in rewarding, I justly praise and honor him, and I equally reprimand him when without reason he has honored someone unworthily. Partenio: You seem to be so gifted in instructing your steward in the knowledge of dominating and being in charge that there can be no doubt that you know equally well how to instruct a prince and a king. But after you have shown him how to be in charge, does he need something else to be perfect?

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avertenze conoscendo io, ho sempre insegnato à miei fattori di villa, accioche sapessero con l’esser giusti & humani rendersi ubedienti & benivoli i lavorati, & altri servi; oltre à questo gli mostrano con l’essempio mio, che s’han da guardare, che le vesti, & altri premi, e mercedi, che à divider s’hanno fra servi, non sieno à tutti uguali & simili; ma secondo i meriti o migliori, o preggiori, però che molto fà disperare  176 [i.e., 180]  et avilire i buoni il vedere, che ugualmente sieno premiati coloro c’hanno foggita la fatica e sono stati negligenti nell’ufficio loro, & quelli che con pericolo & sudore sono stati diligentissimi; & per questo quando veggio che un fator mio habbia havuto questa avertenza in rimeritar giustamente lo lodo & honoro; è parimente lo riprendo quando senza causa habbia honorato alcuno indegnamente. Partenio. Voi li parete di tale ingegno nell’instruere il fattor vostro nel saper dominare & comandare, che on dubito ponto, che voi parimente sapeste instruere un Prencipe et un Rè; ma dapoi, che gli havrete mostro il modo del comandare hara bisogno d’altro ad esser perfetto? Vitauro. Bisogna che sia fidato al padron suo, & non si faccia parte nascosamente delle sostanze che gli vengono in mano, perche altrimenti, â che gioverebbe egli al padron suo con la sua diligenza? Partenio. Voi adunque gl’insegnate ancora il servar la giustitia? Vitauro. M’aiuta in fer questo il mostra gli quai sieno le leggi che puniscano i ladri, & quai sieno quelle, che prometano premio à gli huomini da bene; Et poi che una volta harò usato benignità verso alcuno, ne per questo sarà ponto megliore come inutile me lo tolgo dinanzi, quelli altri poi ch’io veggio, che non tanto per lo stimolo dell’avaritia quanto per aspettar da me lode & honore si affatigano vertuosamente, questi come liberi tengo appresso  177 [i.e., 181]  me, & gli honoro. Partenio. Volendo adunque elegere uno che governi le cose della villa bisogna havere avertenza à cinque cose che sia affettionato al patrone, che sia diligente, che sappia il tempo el modo di far ciascuno operatione della villa, che sappia comandare, & che sia fidato al padron suo; Ma ditemi se nel formare un perfetto fattor di villa bisogna avertir ad altro? Vitauro. Fa di mestier ancora, ch’egli sia nato in villa et non in cittade, perche spesse volte lasserebbe i campi per ritornar al suo natio loco. bisogna ancora ch’egli sia di sangue rustico, & che gustato non haggia l’ombra, il riposo, & le delitie delle città ne si de lasciar di pigliare un fattore, perche non sappia far conto & scrivere, perche tale ha maggior memoria, ne sà come un dotto, finger menzogne per ingannar il patrone, al quale piu spesso porta danari che libri. L’età sua deve esser virile, & foggir si de la soverchia giovinezza, et la troppa vec-

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Vitauro: It is necessary that he be faithful to his master, and that he not take

part secretly in the matters that fall into his hands, because otherwise how would he make himself useful to his master with his diligence? Partenio: Do you therefore even teach the servant justice? Vitauro: In this matter it helps me to show which are the laws that punish thieves, and which are those that promise reward to honest men. And after I have once used kindliness toward someone, for this reason it will be hardly better than useless for me to take him before those others that I see who strive virtuously, not so much by the motive of greed as by looking for praise and honor from me. These I hold close to me as free men, and I honor them. Partenio: Wanting therefore to elect one who governs the things of the villa, one needs to have caution with regard to five things that the master is fond of: that he be diligent, that he know the time and the manner for doing each operation of the villa, that he know how to be in charge, and that he be faithful to his master. But tell me, in forming a perfect villa steward, if it is necessary to be cautious about something else?109 Vitauro: It is still necessary that he be born in villa and not in the city, because often he would leave the fields to return to his native place. It is even necessary that he should be rustic by blood, and that he not have a taste for the shade, the rest, and the delights of the cities, lest he be dissuaded from taking a stewardship because he doesn’t know how to read and write because he has such a large memory, lest he know how as a learned man to feign deceit by tricking the master, from whom he takes money more often than books. His age ought to be full grown, neither too young nor too old, because on the one hand the dignity and on the other hand the force come together, so that he has the better [of both]. But it would not be good if love or jealousy were to make him abandon the work, nor would it be bad if his fastidiousness were to be forced to seek others. He ought to avoid dinner parties and feasts. He does not leave his land, except to buy or sell animals or crops. It does not suit him to seek to make new friends, and the one that he has at home ought to be scarce. The friends of the master ought not to be invited into his house and flattered. He does not let new roads be made in his fields but keeps them confined in those ancient boundaries that found them with ditches and hedges. He does not do Beginning on p. 175, line 12, and continuing through p. 181, line 8, Taegio is paraphrasing Oeconomicus 12.3–15.1. At this point Partenio and Vitauro continue in the manner of Socrates’ conversation with Ischomachus, but Taegio adds an argument that is not found in the passage of Oeconomicus cited above. 109

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chiezza perche all’una manca la degni tà, & all’altra la forza, conveniene ancora, ch’egli haggia meglio; ma non si bella, che amore ò gelosia lo faccia abandonare il lavoro, ne si brutta che fastidioso della sua sia sforzato à cercar l’altrui. foggir deve i conviti, e le feste. Non s’allontani dalle sue terre, se non per comprar o ven dere bestiami, ò biade. Il cercar di farsi novi amici non gli conviene, & di quello c’ha in casa deve esser scarso. In casa   178 [i.e., 182]  sua non de invitare et accarezzare se non gli amici del patrone. ne lassi far nuove strade ne suoi campi; ma tenga ristrette ne gli antichi confini quelle ch’ei trovò con fosse & siepi; delle cose, che servono solamente ad honore, gratia, & bellezza non faccia se non quel tanto, che comandato gli verrà dal padrone, & solo egli intenda alle cose di profitto. sia sempre il primo à metter mano nell’opera tra suoi lavoratori, à i quali sia largo di mercede & scarso di tempo per ciascuna stagione. Et si come il saggio Imperatore, che vede fuggendo tornar in drieto la gente sua pallida & afflitta, & che non gli val conforto ne priego alcuno per spingerla inanzi egli stesso tutto di sdegno acceso prende la trepidante insegna, & con voce piena d’honore, & di dispetto à viva forza passa per mezzo delle inimiche schiere; Onde l’abieta gente riprende ardire, & (si per vergogna, come per desio di racquistar l’honore) si forte segue il suo signore combattendo valorosamente, che la perdita si convertisce in vittoria, cosi il buon fattore di villa veggendo i lavoratori suoi pigri nel lavoro con l’essempio di se stesso deve spronargli alle fatiche; ancora mancar ne gli deono l’arme contro al verno per non haver occasione di starsi al foco quando sia vento, pioggia, o gielo. Ne deve haver vivande differenti da quelle de i lor lavorati, tra i quali de mangiare; percio che havendo il fattore  179 [i.e., 183]  compagno piu contento spesso restano del poco, chel senza lui del molto. Ne lascia uscire i lavoratori il confine de suoi terreni senza licentia, ne anche esso fuor di necessità deve mandargli altrove. Deve ancora vendere assai piu che comprare ancora che certo vedesse il guadagno; percio che tal cura sovente lo fa obliare quello che piu importa. Il tempo, che gli avanza lo de spendere nell’imparare dal vicino qualche bel segreto di agricoltura. De anco il buon fattore esser devoto & osservatore delle leggi, ne contro a i comandamenti della santa chiesa venga all’opere ne giorni festivi, ne i quali senza offesa del cielo potrebbe seccare un rivo che potesse inondare il grano o direzzare una siepe per assicurare il giardino dal vento, dal viatore, & dal cattivo vicino. Ne i tempi poi che non si puo lavorare alla campagnia, si de fuggir l’ocio col sgombrar le corti, nettar le stalle, condur la paglia nel fosso à macerare, arrotare il vomero, compor l’aratro & visitare tutte l’arme rusticane, & per la vignia ordinare i vincigli del salcio, & far per la sua famiglia hor ceste, hor corbe, hor seggi, hor arche, che sieno ricetto del villavisco thesoro, & altre cose simili per

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the things that serve only honor, grace, and beauty, except inasmuch as he will see them commanded by the master, and he attends only to things pertaining to profit. He should always be the first to put his hand to work among his laborers, to whom he should be ample of payment and scarce of time for every season. And he should be like the wise emperor who, seeing his people fleeing to turn back pale and sick, and not finding comfort in any prayer, with anger kindled takes up the trembling banner, thrusting it in front of all of them, and with a voice full of honor and contempt passes through the midst of the enemy troops with vital force, whence the abject people regain courage and (as much from shame as from a desire to recover honor) follow their valiantly fighting leader with such strength that the defeat is turned into victory, so the good villa steward, seeing his laborers lazy in the work, ought to goad them to exhaustion by his own example; yet they ought not to be lacking armor against the winter, since they don’t have occasion to stay by the fire when there is wind, rain, or frost. Neither should he have food different from that of the laborers among whom he eats, since, having the steward for a friend, they often remain more content with little than, without him, they are with plenty. Nor does he let the laborers leave the boundaries of his lands without permission, nor should he even send them elsewhere unless necessary. He also ought to sell more than he buys, unless he sees the need with certainty, for such concerns often make one forget those that are more important. He ought to spend the time that remains to him learning from the neighbor some beautiful secret of agriculture. Likewise the good steward ought to be devoted to and observant of the laws, nor does he go against the commandments of the holy church by working on festival days, on which not without offense of heaven would he be able to dry up a stream that would flood the grain or to raise a hedge to protect the garden from the wind, from travelers, and from the bad person nearby. At the times, then, when he cannot work in the field, he ought to escape idleness by sweeping the courtyards, cleaning the stables, taking the straw to soften in the ditch, sharpening the plowshare, making up the plow, and inspecting all the rustic armor, and ordering the willow ties for the vineyard, and making for his family now hampers, now baskets, now chairs, now chests, that are the shelter of country treasure, and other similar things for escaping idleness, which is the laziness that erodes riches, the heart, and honor, and is the father of all vices. Partenio: I know that you tell the truth, but about how and when the steward has to do the jobs of the villa, you have been too brief in the course of the words, and this and that part is more important than the others, since few would enjoy the love, the accuracy, the obedience, and the fidelity, with

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fuggir l’ocio, il quale è il tardo che insieme rode le richezze, il cuore, & l’honore, & è padre di tutti i vitii. Partenio. Io conosco che voi dite il vero ma circa al come  180 [i.e., 184]  e al quando il fattore habbia à fare le facende della villa voi nel corso delle parole sete stato troppo breve, et questa e quella parte che delle altre è piu importante però che poco giovarebbe l’amore, l’accuratezza, l’ubidienza, & la fedeltà con l’altre qualita chavete dette senza la dottrina particolare delle cose che sono necessarie alla villa e si contengono nella scienza dell’agricoltura; Il perche vorrei che di questo particolare, come di cosa piu necessaria & importante, me ne ragionaste à pieno. Vitauro. S’io guardassi all’appetito vostro le cose mie andarebbono male, voi mi fate sovenire di Socrate quando appresso Xenofonte ragionando con Critobolo, gli conta il discorso, ch’ei fece con Iscomaco, il quale mentre nel portico di Giove Eleuterio stava aspettando certi negocianti, dalle parole desso Socrate quasi non sene accorgendo fu tirato a ragionare di quelle cose c’hoggi fra noi sono state trattate, et finalmente fu indotto a parlare dellarte di coltivare i ampi, ma in questa ultima parte, se voi sete Socrate, io non voglio esser Isomaco, & mi risolvo differire il ragionamento dell’agricoltura à piu commoda occasione; in questo mezzo vivete & amatemi. Partenio. Voi sete pazzo à partirvi per questo caldo. Vitauro. Se la pazzia fosse dolore in ogni casa si sentirebbe stridere, ne  181 [i.e., 185]  conosco differenza dal pazzo al savio se non che l’uno fa le pazzie in palese & l’altro in occulto. Partenio. A dunq; tutti gli huomini sono pazzi. Vitauro. cosi è & chi savio esser si crede è piu de gli altri pazzo. Hor state sano, à Dio. il fine. M. D. LIX. a di XXX.Maggio. Con Privilegio dell’Ecc.mo Senato. Vista, & sottoscritta. Fran. Petranigra. F. Io. Bapt. Cla. G. Inq. Io. Fran. Sor. V.

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the other qualities that you have mentioned, without the particular teaching of the things that are necessary to the villa and are contained in the science of agriculture. So I would like you to reason fully with me about this in particular, as something most necessary and important. Vitauro: If I had paid attention to your inclination, things would have gone badly for me. You remind me of Socrates when, arguing with Critobolus in the presence of Xenophon, he tells of the conversation that he had with Ischomachus, who stood waiting in the portico of Jove Eleuterius for certain merchants.110 Socrates, almost without realizing it, was drawn to discuss with the same words those things that have been treated between us today, and finally he was persuaded to speak about the art of cultivating the fields,111 but on this last part, if you are Socrates, I do not want to be Ischomachus, and I resolve to defer the discussion of agriculture to a more convenient occasion; on this half thrive and love me. Partenio: You are crazy to leave in this heat. Vitauro: If madness were pain, screaming would be heard in every house, nor do I know the difference between the madman and the wise man, unless one is crazy in the open and the other in secret. Partenio: Then all men are mad. Vitauro: So they are, and he who thinks he is wise is crazier than the rest. Now stay healthy, good-bye. the end. May 30, 1559. With Privilege of the Very Excellent Senate. Seen, & Undersigned. Fran. Petranigra. F. Io. Bapt. Cla. G. Inq. Io. Fran. Sor. V.

The setting of conversation is described in Oeconomicus 7.1. Vitauro is referring to the conclusion of the conversation between Socrates and Ischomachus on the training of an epitropos. In Oeconomicus 15.4, Ischomachus agrees to teach Socrates about farming, but in La Villa Vitauro declines to discuss the same subject with Partenio. 110 111

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Ackerman, James S. The Villa: Form and Ideology of Country Houses. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990. Ady, Julia Maria (Cartwright). Beatrice D’Este Duchess of Milan 1475–1497: A Study of the Renaissance. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1905. Alighieri, Dante. Purgatorio. In The Divine Comedy, edited by Paolo Milano. New York: Viking Press, 1965. Argelati, Filippo. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Mediolanensium tomus secundus. Milan, 1745. Bagnoli, Raffaele. Ville, Castelli, Cascinalli in Lombardia: In compagna con i Milanesi di ieri. Milan: Libreria Meravigli, ca. 1979. Barbieri, Giuseppe. “La nascita della ‘terza natura’ : I nomi del giardino e il rapporto con la natura alla metà del Cinquecento.” In Arte documento 1, no. 6 (1996): 135–138. Baroni, Costantino. “Domenico Giunti architetto di don Ferrante Gonzaga e le sue opere in Milano.” In Archivio Storico Lombardo, n.s., 3 (1938): 327–351. Battisti, Eugenio. “Natura Artficioso to Natura Artificialis.” In The Italian Garden: First Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, edited by David R. Coffin. Washington, D.C.:, 1972. Beagon, Mary. Roman Nature: The Thought of Pliny the Elder. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Bishop, Morris, ed. and trans. Letters from Petrarch. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966. Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy. Translated by S. G. C. Middlemore. 2 vols. New York: Harper & Row, 1958. Cassirer, Ernst. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Translated by Mario Domandi. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1963. Cassirer, Ernst, Paul Oskar Kristeller, and John Herman Randall Jr., eds. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948. Castell, Robert. The Villas of the Ancients Illustrated. New York: Garland, 1982. Castellaneta, Carlo. Storia di Milano. Milan: Rizzoli, 1975. Cavalazzi, Giovanna, and Gau Falchi. La Storia di Milano. Milan: Zanichelli, 1989. Clark, Gregory. Dialogue, Dialectic and Conversation: A Social Perspective on the Function of Writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990. Coffin, David R. The Villa in the Life of Renaissance Rome. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979. ———. Villa D’Este at Tivoli. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960. Cognasso, Francesco. Storia di Novara. Novara: Libreria Lazzarelli, 1992. Comito, Terry. The Idea of the Garden in the Renaissance. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1978. Comoli, Ivana, and Renato Della Vesa, eds. Vie, Vicoli e Piazze di Novara: I Nomi—La Storia. Novara: Comune di Novara., n.d. Cox, Virginia. The Renaissance Dialogue: Literary Dialogue in Its Social and Political Contexts, Castiglione to Galileo. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Du Prey, Pierre de la Ruffinière. The Villas of Pliny from Antiquity to Posterity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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Fabiani Giannetto, Raffaella. Medici Gardens: From Making to Design. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Fassò, Luigi. “I Letterati del Novaria.” In Novara e Il Suo Territorio. Novara: Banco Populare di Novara, 1952. Finazzi, Giovanni Battista. Notizie Biografiche. Novara, 1890. Frazer, Alfred. “The Roman Villa and the Pastoral Ideal.” In The Pastoral Landscape, edited by John Dixon Hunt. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1992. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. Dialogue and Dialectic: Eight Hermeneutical Studies on Plato. Translated by P. Christopher Smith. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980. Garbari, Fabio, Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi, and Alessandro Tosi. Giardini dei Semplici: L’orto botanico di Pisa dal XVI al XX secolo. Pisa: Casa di Risparmio, 1991. Gargantini, Giuseppe. Cronologia di Milano. Milan: Cisalpino-Goliardica, 1874. Ghilini, Girolamo. Teatro D’Huomini Letterati. Venice: Guerigli, 1647. Grimal, Pierre. The Civilization of Rome. Translated by W. S. Maguiness. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1963. Hare, Christopher. Men and Women of the Italian Reformation. London: St. Paul, 1914. Harries, Karsten. The Ethical Function of Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1997. Harvey, John. Medieval Gardens. Beaverton, Ore.: Timber Press, 1981. Hunt, John Dixon. Garden and Grove: The Italian Renaissance Garden in the English Imagination, 1600–1750. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. ———. Greater Perfections: The Practice of Garden Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Ianziti, Gary. Humanistic Historiography Under the Sforzas: Politics and Propaganda in Fifteenth-Century Milan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988. Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters. Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1969. Lazzaro, Claudia. Italian Renaissance Garden. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990. Littlewood, A. R. “Ancient Literary Evidence for the Pleasure Gardens of Roman Country Villas.” In Ancient Roman Villa Gardens: The Tenth Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, edited by Elisabeth MacDougall. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1987. Lomaglio, Ernesto. “La Novaria” di Giovanni Battista Piotti 1557. Borgomanero, 1983. Lubkin, Gregory. A Renaissance Court: Milan Under Galeazzo Maria Sforza. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. MacDonald, William L., and John A. Pinto. Hadrian’s Villa and Its Legacy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. Marsh, David. The Quattrocento Dialogue: Classical Tradition and Humanist Innovation. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980. Martines, Lauro. Power and Imagination: City States in Renaissance Italy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988. ———. The Social World of the Florentine Humanists, 1390–1460. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963. Masson, Georgina. “Italian Flower Collectors’ Gardens in Seventeenth Century Italy.” In

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inde x

Ada, Costanzo d’, 192 Ada, Ferrante d’, 166 Amadea, Vittoria, 170 Amadeo, Giovanni Battista, 204 Amadeo, Lodovico, 182 Appiano, Cristofaro, 192 Archinto, Alessandro, 204 Arcimboldo, Antonello, 166 Arcimboldo, Giovanni, 192 Arcimboldo, Ottaviano, 176 Arconato, Giovanni Battista, 190 Arconato, Marc’Antonio, 192 Aresio, Marc’Antonio, 204 Arluno, 180 Arona, 156 Arrigona, Issabella, 196 Arrigono, Mario, 192 Arrigono, Pietro Paolo, 194, 204 Avogrado, Cesare, 204 Barbavara, Paris, 192 Barbavari, Alfonso, 192 Barbavari, Cesare, 192 Barbolo, Pietro, 192 Barza, Francesco, 192 Barzi, Giovan Iacopo, 192 Barzi, Giovan Paolo, 192 Bellasio (Bellagio), 158 Belzoioso, Ludovico, 192 Bentivoglia,, Ginerva, 168 Besozzo, Precivallo, 180 Bettusi, Gioseppe, 174 Biglia, Camillo, 192 Birago, Gaspar, 182

Birago, Mario, 192 Borella, Francesco, 192 Boromeo, Dionigi, 190 Boromeo, Fedrigo, 190 Boromeo, Francesco, 190 Boromeo, Giovanni Battista, 190 Boromeo, Giulio Cesare, 190 Boromeo, Guido, 192 Borri, Giovanni Antonio, 194 Borri, Pietro Georgio, 194 Borro, Lodovico, 192 Borrommeo, Monsignor (Carlo), 156 Bosii, Giovanna de, 170 Bosso, Francesco, 202 Bosso, Girolamo, 182 Bosso, Marc’ Antonio, 182 Bramante, 204 Brebbia, Bernardo, 204 Brebbia, Lodovico 192 Brera, Monsignor, di, 174 Brione, 190 Brivio, Alessandro, 194 Brivio, Donigo, 192 Brivio, Iacopo, 182 Brugora, Galeazzo, 200 Brusato, Marco Antonio, 194 Caimo, Alessandro, 184, 270 Caimo, Alticonte, 194 Caimo, Francesco, 192 Caimo, Giovanni Alberto, 184 Caimo, Giovanni Battista, 184 Caimo, Marc’Antonio, 184 Calchi, Antonio Maria, 204

296 Calchi, Pietro Francesco, 204 Camillo, Giulio, 164-166 Candiano, Cesare, 204 Candiano, Felippo, 192 Canonica, 156 Capitani, Agosto de, 204 Capitani, Pirro de, 204 Caponago, 166 Capra, Girolamo, 204 Carcana, Bianca Pansana, 170 Carcano, Cesare da, 190 Carcanti, Alessandro, 192 Carcanti, Giovanni Battista, 192 Carpano, Horatio, 204 Carro, Annibal, 172 Casato, Cesare, 190 Casato, Gaspar, 204 Casato, Giovanni Francesco, 190 Casato, Giovanni Paolo, 166 Castaldo, Ferrante, 192 Castellanza, Francesco, 192 Castellazzo, 192 Castellazzo, Camillo, 192 Castelletto, Marc’Antonio, 192 Castel-Novato, Giovanni Battista, 192 Castiglione, Alessandro, 178, 182, 192 Castiglione, Camillo, 164 Castiglione, Giovanni Battista, 182, 194 Castiglione, Giovanni Francesco, 178 Cattaneo, Aurelio, 162, 204 Cattaneo, Giovanni Matheo, 204 Cavagliano, Giovanni Francesco, 204 Cazza, Gio. Bernardino, 194 Cazza, Giovanni Francesco, 204 Chiocca, Pietro Antonio, 166 Claro, Giulio, 172 Coiro, Giovanni Angelo, 192 Confallonero, Alessandro, 180 Conte, Lodovico del, 192 Cotta, Lucio, 182 Cotta, Pomponio, 264 Crespo, Antonio Francesco, 204 Crivello, Alessandro, 192 Crivello, Giovanni Battista, 192 Crivello, Iacopo Felippo, 182 Croce, Giovan Maria della, 192

index Croce, Pompeo della, 192 Crotto, Girolamo, 172 Cusago, 168 Cusano, Giovanni Battista, 192 Cusano, Giovanni Paolo, 176 Cusano, Ottavio, 182 Cusano, Pomponio, 204 Domenichi, Lodovico, 174 Elle, Girolamo da, 166 Fagnano, Giovanni Marco, 192 Falcultio, Vicenzo, 176 Fassato, Francesco Lodovico, 204 Ferraro, Fabritio, 192 Ferraro, Francesco Bernardino, 192 Fiesco, Pietro Luca, 170 Figliodono, Danese, 204 Foppa, Caradosso, 204 Fossano, Pietro Antonio, 190 Frascarolo, 154 Gallarato, Annibal, 192 Gallarato, Camillo, 192 Gallarato, Guido, 192 Giossano, Giuseppe, 178 Gorgonzola, 176 Gosselini, Giuliano, 202 Grasso, Alessandro, 192, 204 Gropello (d’Adda), 170 Inzago, 170 Lago Maggiore, 156 Lampugnano, Alessandro, 192 Lampugnano, Cesare, 204 Landriano, Francesco, 204 Landriano, Monsignor, 174 Litta, Giovanni Battista, 180 Locarno, Bartolomeo da, 194 Lodi, Aluigi da, 204 Lonato, Pietro Antonio, 192 Longo, Benedetto, 204 Maggienta, Lodovico, 204 Magno, Antonio Francesco, 192

index Maino, Hippolito del, 192 Malumbra, Francesco, 204 Malumbra, Pietro Iacopo, 204 Marchi, Antonio de, 192 Marchi, Constantino de, 192 Marliano, Aluigi, 204 Marliano, Girolamo, 192 Marliano, Senator, 204 Mendosio, Quintiliano, 204 Milano, 154–158, 162–164, 168, 172, 174–178, 184, 194, 196, 200, 204, 218, 262 Mirabello, 176 Moneta, Ferrante, 162 Moneta, Giovanni Ambrogio, 162 Moneta, Lodovico, 162 Montio, Girolamo, 204 Morone, Sforza, 192 Mozzone, Ascanio, 204 Mugiano, Marc’Antonio, 192 Nerviano, 182 Niguarda, 166 Novara, 168, 180 Novato, Giulio, 192 Novato, Pietro, 202 Ongarese, Gio. Iacopo, 194 Padova, 200 Pagnano, Hercole, 192 Panigarola, Cabrio, 172 Panigarola, Francesco, 182 Panigarola, Giovanni Battista, 204 Pecchio, Benedetto, 204 Pietrasanta, Cesare, 182 Pietrasanta, Felippo, 182 Pietrasanta, Furio Camillo, 182 Pietrasanta, Giovanni Alberto, 194 Piola, Alessandro, 166 Piotto, Giovanni Battista, 194 Pirovano, Giovanni Francesco, 192 Pisa, 200 Porro, Camillo, 176, 262, 264 Porro, Marc’Antonio, 200 Preda, Clemente da, 174

297

Preda, Mauritio da, 174 Pusterla, Baldesar, 192 Rainoldi, Giovanni Iacopo, 200 Rainoldo, Felippo, 164 Rainoldo, Giovanni Battista, 156 Reina, Pietro Francesco, 192 Reini, Cesare, 204 Reini, Gottardo, 204 Reinino, Captain, 192 Riccio, Ennio, 156 Rincio, Marco Marcello, 204 Riso, Sasso, 192 Ritio, Giovanni Angelo, 182 Rivolta, Franceso Bernardino, 180 Ro, Baldesar da, 192 Robecco (sul Naviglio), 166, 170 Sacco, Faustina, 170 Sacco, Felippo, 170 Salvatorino, Giovanni Battista, 204 Saoli, Domenico, 204 Saoli, Francesco, 172 Schiafinato, Giulio, 204 Secco, Lodovico, 164 Secco, Nicolò, 182 Senago, 180 Seregno, Giovanni Battista, 192 Seregno, Iacopo Felippo, 166 Sfondrato, Monsignor (senator of Milan), 158 Sforza, Violante, 168 Simonetta, Cesare, 158 Simonetta, Girolamo, 192 Simonetta, Giulio, 162 Simonetta, Scipione, 196 Simonetti, Alessandro, 192 Simonetti, Giovan Paolo, 192 Simonetti, Girolamo, 192 Sirtori, Gioseppe, 194 Somaglia,, Alfonso della, 192 Sormano, Giovanni Francesco, 176 Spetiani brothers, 192 Sproni, Spron, 174 Steffano, Giovanni, 204

298 Taverna, Cesare, 192 Taverna, high chancellor (Francesco), 154 Tela, Cavalliero della, 192 Terracina, Monsignor, 172 Terzago, Giovanni Battista, 180 Terzago, Teodoro, 194 Testa, Damiano 204 Testa, Giovanni Pietro, 182 Tolomei, Claudio, 174 Torniello, Enea, 166 Torniello, Giovanni Andrea, 192 Torniello, Giovanni Francesco, 204 Torniello, Giovanni Iacopo, 180 Torniello, Manfrè, 190 Torniello, Nicolò, 194 Torniello, Opecino, 194 Torniello, Rinaldo, 194 Torre, Francesco della, 190 Toso, Girolamo, 182 Trivultio, Giovanni Angelo, 192 Tuà, Giovanni Battista della, 204 Vaiano, Camillo, 204, 266 Vergano, 168, 180 Vergo, Girolamo, 204 Viboldone, 176

index Vidigolfo (Vidigulfo), 174 Vigevano, 170, 176 Vignarca, Cesare, 204 Vimercato (Vimercate), 164 Vimercato, Giovanni Antonio, 204 Visconte, Aluigi, 192 Visconte, Annibal, 190 Visconte, Carlo, 190 Visconte, Cavaliero, 168 Visconte, Cavallier, 192 Visconte, Cavalliera, 168 Visconte, Cesar, 192 Visconte, Fiesca, 168 Visconte, Gaspar, 192 Visconte, Giovan Maria, 192 Visconte, Giovanni Battista, 192 Visconte, Girolamo, 204 Visconte, Hermes, 192 Visconte, Otto, 192 Visconte, Pietro Francesco, 192 Visconte, Pietro Georgio, 204 Visconte, Sasso, 192 Vistarina, Isabella, 170 Volpe, Antonio, 174 Zarbellone, Giovanni Battista, 176

a c k n o wl e d g m e n t s

I am extremely grateful for assistance I received from many people and institutions in the course of this book’s preparation. A grant from the Salvatori Foundation enabled me to travel to Milan, where I benefited from access to more villas, gardens, libraries, and archives than I can mention here. Librarians in Italy, particularly at the Biblioteca Civica and the Biblioteca Negroni in Novara, the library of the University of Pavia, the Biblioteca Isimbardi in Milan, and the Archivio di Stato di Milano, were immeasurably helpful. Just a few of the many individuals to whom I owe thanks are: my professors at the University of Pennsylvania, especially John Dixon Hunt, for guiding me through the process of preparing the manuscript for publication in book form; Marina Dellaputta Johnston, for editing my translation in the critical early stages; and Kevin M. Stevens and Claudio Tartari, for advising me during my research in Milan. Above all I thank my parents and my wife, Elizabeth, for their patience, encouragement, and support.