ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



the lion of St. Mark floated over distant lands and 

 I cities, the gardens of Venice were famous for their 

 extent and beauty. They excited the wonder and 

 admiration of every traveller who saw " the triumphant 

 city " for the first time such, for instance, as Pietro 

 Casola, the Milanese canon who came to Venice in 1494, 

 on his way to Jerusalem, and waited a fortnight to 

 sail with Agostino Contarini in the pilgrim-fleet for Jaffa. 



" I cannot refrain," he writes in his Journal, " from 

 repeating that nothing has surprised me more in 

 this city than the many beautiful gardens which are 

 to be seen here, especially, I must say, those belong- 

 ing to the different religious Orders." 1 



In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries these com- 

 munities were as wealthy as they were numerous, 

 and their churches and convents were among the 

 most imposing buildings in the city. There were 

 the Benedictines of S. Giorgio Maggiore, who num- 

 bered as many as two hundred in the palmy days 

 when Cardinal Pole paid them a visit, and expressed 

 equal admiration for their fine library and shady 

 gardens. And there were the Augustinian canons 

 attached to the well-known church now known as 

 the Madonna dell' Orto, who had a spacious orchard 

 full of apple and quince trees, and a hermitage on 

 the island of S. Cristoforo, where, Casola tells us, 

 they made white wax enough to supply all the 



i Canon P. Casola's Pilgrimage^ ed. by M. Newett, 142. 

 104 



