ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



declared it to be the most beautiful which he had ever 

 seen. One May evening, after the young Duchess 

 Beatrice and her mother had left for Venice, Ercole 

 took his son-in-law to spend the day at Belriguardo, and 

 entertained him and his Milanese courtiers at a banquet 

 in the gardens. 



" I would not for all the world," wrote the Moro to 

 his wife, " have missed seeing this place. For, in truth, 

 I have never seen so large and fine a house and gardens, 

 or one that is so well laid out and adorned with such 

 excellent paintings. I do not believe there is such 

 another villa in the whole world, at once so noble and 

 spacious, and at the same time so thoroughly well- 

 planned and comfortable. To say the truth, if I were 

 asked to decide whether Vigevano, the Castello of 

 Pavia, or this house were the finest palace in the world, 

 the Castello must forgive me, for I would certainly 

 choose Belriguardo." l 



But even the splendours of Belriguardo paled by the 

 side of the new palace of Belvedere which Alfonso the 

 First reared twenty years later on an island in the Po, 

 just above the ancient fortress of Castel Tedaldo. A 

 flight of marble stairs led from the water's edge to a 

 court turfed with the finest grass, surrounded by cut 

 box hedges, with a superb fountain in the centre. 

 Facing this grassy court stood the villa, an imposing 

 building with porticos and colonnade flanked by lofty 

 1 E. Motta, Giornale st. d. kit. ital., vii. 387. 



4 o 



