Orti Oricellari

An informal academy of Italian writers, artists and scholars who met in Florence in the early years of the 16th century. The group was a continuation of the Florentine Academy, and met in the Orti Oricellari gardens (also known as the Rucellai Gardens) to hold debates.

The political thinker Machiavelli was among the leading members, and he later used several other members as characters in his dialogue Dell'arte della guerra/On the Art of War (1521).

The gardens had been laid out by Bernardo Rucellai (1448–1514), who assembled in the garden statuary looted from the medici after their expulsion in 1494.