ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



villa of Belfiore, and crossing the Via degli Angeli 

 under a bridge, ran along the edges of the Barchetto to 

 the north-east gates. Here, at the angle of the city 

 walls, stood the Montagnola, a hill planted with orange 

 and citron groves and watered by running streams 

 descending in terra-cotta conduits from the summit. 

 At the base of the mount was the Rotonda, a villa built 

 by Ercole the Second, with cool subterranean halls, 

 hidden in bowers of roses and jessamine, which were a 

 favourite resort of the Court ladies in the summer heats. 



Further still, at the extreme end of the eastern walls, 

 looking down on the waters of the Po, the Viale reached 

 yet another palace built by Ercole the Second at the 

 foot of a hillock known as the Montagna di S. Giorgio, 

 made from the soil of the trenches dug by Alfonso the 

 First to defend Ferrara against Pope Julius the Second. 

 Here Ercole and his son had laid out a vast labyrinth 

 with marble fountains and a grotto adorned with niches 

 and mosaics in the style of Raphael's Loggie. Winding 

 paths, shaded by pergolas of vines and roses, led to the 

 top of the hill, where a small piazza commanded a 

 superb prospect over the city, while at its base was a 

 lake with rose hedges rising in tiers from the water, and 

 woods peopled with gold and silver pheasants. 1 



These villas were the scene of many sumptuous 

 banquets and spectacles in the reign of the pleasure- 

 1 M. A. Guarini, op. tit., p. 296. 



44 



