New-York tribune., 1901-12-07


European nations have possessed great country
houses and England, OF course, has been espe-
cialIy rich in them But the italian villa re-
mains unique, inasnuch as 1t was built chleny
for pleasure-not, like the italian palace IN city
and country, a fortress-and at the same
time shared the stately magnifcence of the
chief edif1ces in Florence and Rome Take, for
example, the Medicean villa Of Cafaggluolo.
That its inhabitants enjoyed the simplicities Of
life Is shown by the letters Of the factor 10
Piero de- Medici giving him news Of his children
and their grandmother. On one occasion he
writes: Yesterday We went out fishing and
they caught enough for their dinner and re-
turned horre at q reasonable hour; tomorrow,
If they viii. go out riding after dinner and
begin to show them the estate as you ordered"
A year later he writes:
Madonna Contessina and the boys are Wei.
may God preserve themt Lorenzo wants To
smooth the ground in frcnt OF Cafaggiuolo Here
we stand in need Of and tallow candies L
-old madonna Contessina. and she said TO
take white Venetian ones, but they appear 10
me too honorable for Cafaggiuolo- II 1t seems
so to you also tell Madonna Lucrezia TO SEND US
others and at al events let tallow ones be sent
for common use. Yester-fnorn Madonna Contes-
sina LoreEzo and Giuliano with the household
went On horseback to the Friars Of the Wood
en6 heard High Mass. Madonna rode Lorenzo's
mule and was astonished TO find herself more
agile than she had expected As 1t seems 10
please her we shall go TO Cornusnole ana ABOUT
n the plain to have a little amusement, but
always with two footrnen at her stirrup, and we
shall do what we can 10 save her all fatigue
end trouble in the management Of the house
The boys are having happy time and go blrd
catching and shooting and return al reason
able hoIr: they enliven her and the neighoor-
hood
This ,;c+11re like countless others in the liter
e-u-a and archives OF the Renaissance, shows
rs how artless and homelike even the family OF
a great public man could be when they were In
the country. Yet Cafaggiuolo is described oy
an eighteenth century historian OF the MuseHo
as having been built by Michelozzo Micheiozzl
for Cosirno the Elder, with sundry towers and
rnoa-s round il and drawbridges- Inside is a
large chapel dedicated to the Saints Cosimo and
Dau1iano, protectors Of the royal mouse OF
Nedici There are likewise many halls and
great rooms with various courtyards, loggie
and galleries which make II (though ACCORDING
TO ancient fashion) very noble and magnificent
When Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned
Gfulano da San Gallo to design the villa at
Poegio a Caiano, he insisted upon having in
Guided large hall, vaulted with one arch OF
huge span, and SO imposing was the building
tha, when the Emperor paused there for q
day in 1896 he remarked that such
walls were not meet for a private clu-
zen, and before leaving for Lucca ne crealeo
the bastard Alessandro de- Medici Duke OF 1us-
cany." In short the princes and r1ch merchants
Of that time left Florence 10 take their ease
and TO drink in healthfulness with the piano
airs Of the Tuscan hills; but while they might
be indulging in the merest domestic 1rollcs Oh
one day. they might be entertaining an emperor
cardinal on the next, and so they carried
their Tnaguifcence with them Mrs Ross
volume contains ample illustration OF Doth Sues
OF the life that went on in those grandiose sum-
mer houses. She takes US into the privacy OF
her personages: she shows US Marguerite LOUISE
the French wife Of the bigoted CoslIno ILL.,
romping at Poggio a Cajano with her COOK iof
lack of more amusing company; and at Caressh
that mighty and historic pile among the ceoars'
she pictures Lorenzo among his friends. listen
ing 10 the defamation of Pulci, or 10 Pollzano-
Marsio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola are
there; SO also are Bernardo Rucellai. Leo Bat
tista Flberti and Cristofano Landino, with
Michael Angelo in a corner. Tt was at Careggl
thar Cosirno the Elder gathered round him per-
haps the most extraordinary company or artlsrs
and men Of culture ever known; and II was AT
Careggi that the great Lorenzo died and had
that tremendous interview with SaVonarola
which forms one of the most interesting cpl
sodes in F1orentine history
Turning from the personal 10 the purely ar
tistic and picturesque phase CT her theme, Mrs
Ross puts the villas before as they are and
as they were Numerous and very excellent pen
drawings by Miss Nelly Erichsen exhibit them
in their present condition. Reproductions of the
admirable etchings made by Zocchi IN the eish-
teenth century give a pretty clear notoh OF
what they were like in their palmy days BoIh
drawings and pictures especially useful IN
disclosing the elements of design which were
preferred in this kind of architecture by the
eminent men who built them. They sought re-
fneuaent Of line and dignity Of mass, using or
narlent, on the whole sparingly- Those broad
surfaces that gleam in the are broken. as 4
rule by Windows and doors placed with the