ABSTRACT
In the meantime the aforesaid count,1 together with the company, went on a tour of this place, and especially of its noblest parts, such as some of the studios, chapels, salons, chambers, and garden, all of which are constructed and decorated with admirable mastery, decorated on every side with gold and fine marbles, with carvings and sculptures in relief, with pictures and inlays done in perspective by the most accomplished and perfect of masters even to the very benches and floors of the house; tapestries and household ornaments of gold and silk; silverware and bookcases that are endless and without number; then the vaults or rather ceilings of the chambers and salons, which are for the most part done in fine gold with diverse and various forms; then a garden done in the finest of polished marbles with diverse plants, which seem a thing not natural but painted. And among other things there is an adder2 in the form of the device of Your Excellency,3 and besides it there is the shield with the arms of the aforementioned Cosimo. This adder and arms are of newplanted grass in a piece of ground so that, the more the grass grows, the more that device will grow,4 I am not saying these things distinctly, for it would not be possible, since they are things which can not only be expressed, but also imagined. And whoever sees them judges that they are celestial rather than earthly things, and everyone is agreed that this house is the most finished and ornate that the world has ever had or may have now, and that it is without comparison. In sum, it is believed by all that there is no other earthly paradise in the world than this. If Your Lordship were to see it, I take it for certain that it would cost you a good sum of money, because with the magnanimity and greatness of mind that you have, you too would want to do something worthy — and not only equal this but surpass it if that were possible. To me it seems like being in a new world, and I am of the opinion that in my days I shall never see anything worthier than this which I have seen and am first seeing. And not only I hold this opinion, but all the company here, who do nothing else but discuss it.
