THE GARDENS OF PAPAL ROME 



he wrote to the Grand Duke Cosimo : " Some day, if 

 it please your Excellency, I will show you the designs 

 which Bramante prepared for the lawns and fountains 

 of Pope Giulio's gardens, and which Raphael of Urbino 

 afterwards imitated in the grounds that he laid out 

 for Popes Leo and Clement. In these same Belvedere 

 gardens I lived for many years myself." And the 

 sculptor proceeds to explain how those great examples 

 have taught him to adapt the shape and ornament of 

 his fountain to its surroundings, and to impress upon 

 Cosimo the desirability of preserving the grassy mead 

 in front of his palace " a corner it seems to me as 

 full of natural loveliness as any place on earth." 



Here, too, by Pope Leo's invitation, that noble soul, 

 Count Baldassare Castiglione, took up his abode in the 

 summer of 1521, when his duties as Mantuan am- 

 bassador kept him at the Vatican. In the sad days, 

 when he mourned for his lost Ippolita, and could 

 hardly believe himself to be in Rome now that his 

 poor Raphael was gone, the sorely stricken man could 

 find no better comfort than the peace and beauty of 

 these shades. Here, as he wandered at will among 

 the orange groves and fountains, he could feast his 

 eyes on those wonders of antique sculpture, the 

 Laocoon which inspired his friend Sadoleto's Muse 

 and the Cleopatra which he had himself celebrated 

 1 Bottari, Raccolte di Lettere^ p. 93. 



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