THE GARDENS OF VENICE 



roses and lilies, the citron and orange trees. The deli- 

 cious verdure of the lawns round Benedetto Cornaro's 

 house, in Pietro Aretino's words, " surpassed all the 

 splendours of this favoured shore," while the same 

 writer extols the gardens of the scholar-printer Fran- 

 cesco Marcolini in the same impassioned language. 

 Marcolini himself was a very remarkable man, the 

 chosen friend of Titian, of Bembo, and Sansovino, 

 excellent alike as goldsmith, architect, printer, and poet. 

 He was called in to alter the works of the clock on the 

 tower of S. Stefano, and in 1545 Sansovino employed 

 him to design the wooden bridge at Murano, which 

 was only removed twenty-eight years ago. That he 

 was a good gardener, too, we learn from the Aretine, 

 who declares that in the summer heat, Marcolini's villa 

 on the Giudecca was the most enchanting place in the 

 whole world. 



" Where else can you find deeper and cooler shades, 

 more fragrant flowers, where else can you listen to the 

 songs of endless birds which, with their Petrarchian 

 music, refresh the weary soul and charm the tired 

 senses to sleep ? " 1 



In this same quarter of the Giudecca was the villa 

 of Sante Cattaneo, with its stately columns and marble 

 halls after the style represented in Bonifazio's well- 

 known painting of "L'Epulone," or the parable of 



1 Letterc, i. 107 ; v. 122. 

 109 



