DOI chapter:
I. Florentine villas
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61216#0084
ITALIAN VILLAS
arches divided by slender coupled shafts. Very fine,
also, is the arched and rusticated doorway surmounted
by a stone escutcheon.
The villa is approached by a cypress avenue which
leads straight to the open space before the house. The
ridge on which the latter is built is so narrow, and the
land falls away so rapidly, that there could never have
been much opportunity for the development of garden-
architecture ; but though all is now Anglicized, it is easy
to trace the original plan: in front, the open space sup-
ported by a high retaining-wall, on one side of the house
the grove of cypress and ilex, and at the back, where
there was complete privacy, the small giardino segreto,
or hedged garden, with its parterres, benches and
statues.
The purpose of this book is to describe the Italian
villa in relation to its grounds, and many villas which
have lost their old surroundings must therefore be
omitted; but near Florence there is one old garden
which has always lacked its villa, yet which cannot be
overlooked in a study of Italian garden-craft. Even
those most familiar with the fascinations of Italian gar-
dens will associate a peculiar thrill with their first sight
of the Villa1 Campi. Laid out by one of the Pucci
family, probably toward the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury, it lies beyond Lastra-Signa, above the Arno, about
1 Villa, in Italian, signifies not the house alone, but the house and
pleasure-grounds.
54
arches divided by slender coupled shafts. Very fine,
also, is the arched and rusticated doorway surmounted
by a stone escutcheon.
The villa is approached by a cypress avenue which
leads straight to the open space before the house. The
ridge on which the latter is built is so narrow, and the
land falls away so rapidly, that there could never have
been much opportunity for the development of garden-
architecture ; but though all is now Anglicized, it is easy
to trace the original plan: in front, the open space sup-
ported by a high retaining-wall, on one side of the house
the grove of cypress and ilex, and at the back, where
there was complete privacy, the small giardino segreto,
or hedged garden, with its parterres, benches and
statues.
The purpose of this book is to describe the Italian
villa in relation to its grounds, and many villas which
have lost their old surroundings must therefore be
omitted; but near Florence there is one old garden
which has always lacked its villa, yet which cannot be
overlooked in a study of Italian garden-craft. Even
those most familiar with the fascinations of Italian gar-
dens will associate a peculiar thrill with their first sight
of the Villa1 Campi. Laid out by one of the Pucci
family, probably toward the end of the sixteenth cen-
tury, it lies beyond Lastra-Signa, above the Arno, about
1 Villa, in Italian, signifies not the house alone, but the house and
pleasure-grounds.
54