manner has endeared himself to all his fellow-citizens and worthily continues the liberal traditions of his family. [Illustration: (Drawing of path leading to Villa door, a clock is built in over the doorway.)] FOOTNOTES: [47] See _Maiolica_. By C. Drury E. Fortnum. P. 76. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1896. [48] _Una illustre Avventuriera._ Corrado Ricci. Fratelli Treves. Milano. [Illustration: CATERINA SFORZA, By NICCOLÒ FIORENTINO. (_Villa di Castello_).] [Illustration: SAVONAROLA, By FRA LUCA, OR FRA AMBROGIO DELLA ROBBIA. (_Villa di Cafeggi_).] [Illustration: PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA, By NICCOLÒ FIORENTINO. (_Villa Medici a Fiesole_).] [Illustration: (Drawing looking up hill through an orchard at the Villa, which is near the top of the hill)] VILLA MEDICI A FIESOLE “Not more than two miles distant from Florence,” writes old Varchi, “shines Fiesole, once a city, now a fruitful hill; yet is she still a city.... I say still a city, because she always had and still has, her bishop.... Of a truth the position on this charming hill is so pleasant and delightful that the fable about its having been built by Atlantus under a constellation which bestows peace of mind, repose of body and gaiety of heart seems to be true.” Another tradition says it was founded by Comero Gallo, son of Japhet, in the tenth year of the Assyrian empire; he surrounded it with great walls, built high towers and erected two castles, one to the east the other to the west, for defence; others again attribute it to Jason, brother of Dardanus; while some say Hercules of Egypt laid the first stone. Hesiod affirms that Fiesole was one of the nymphs from whom sprang the constellation of the Pleiads which forms a half moon, still the emblem of the city; “Faesulas ex una Pleaidum ferunt esse dictum,” says also Volterrano. But Dante considers all these to be old women’s tales: “Another with her maidens, drawing off The tresses from the distaff, lectured them Old tales of Troy, and Fiesole, and Rome.”[49] Borghini in his history of Fiesole cautiously remarks: “From the divers opinions of so many and such various authors I can only conclude that the city is so ancient that her history can only be guessed at, not known or discovered; and as she is beyond all memory so is she beyond all other cities in renown. The more mysterious her origin, the more attractive she is.”