ABSTRACT
The political landscape of Italy in the fourteenth century was very different from that of today. There was no national government and scarcely a national language. Settlements, subject to attack from neighbours and foreigners, had to be defended. Great cities, like Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan and Florence could hold their own against each another but fell to invading armies. Wealthy nobles therefore lived behind high walls. Some built castles on isolated peaks; others integrated their defences with the towns they controlled. On hilltops, space was limited and water scarce. Rather than live in isolated farmsteads, farmers made daily journeys from the safety of town to cultivate their fields. Such conditions did not favour garden-making.1
