204 



THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 



copper and stucco, in which were perched mechanical birds, which sang " each in his natural 



voice " till a civetta or owl appeared, when they became silent ; the owl withdrew, and they 



sang again. 



The Cardinal employed Ligorio to excavate in Hadrian's Villa and in Tivoli itself, and the 



gardens were adorned with numbers of statues, many of them superb works of antiquity. In 



1664 Archbishop Fabio Croce gives a list of over sixty groups, figures and busts " still 



remaining." 



The laying out of the grounds was largely completed in the lifetime of Cardinal Ippolito, 



and Mureto and Bulgarini, poet and historian, have left a pleasant picture of his life there. 



He died in 1572, and is buried in the cathedral of San Francesco in Tivoli. Mureto's 



funeral oration gives us 

 a very full impression of 

 a great churchman of 

 the Renaissance. 

 " Who," he says, " was 

 ever more splendid and 

 magnificent in every 

 relation in life ? What 

 sumptuous edifices he 

 raised, what works of 

 antiquity he unearthed, 

 which, but for him, 

 might never have been 

 discovered. What illus- 

 trious artists he inspired 

 to make fresh experi- 

 ments. What princes, 

 what lawyers, what 

 great and powerful men 

 he gathered round him, 

 receiving them like a 

 splendid Cardinal, 

 almost a King. How 

 liberal and magnificent 

 he was to the poor you 

 know, oh Tiburtines, 

 who remember his con- 

 tinuous and daily alms- 

 giving, and how, when 

 sickness came, he sent 

 every day to visit every 



213. SEAT IN THE ENCLOSURE CALLED THE BATHS. person who was sick SO 



No. ii on Plan. , , . . . . r 



that none should be left 



out or lack what was necessary for the recovery of their health or to keep their families during their 

 sickness. No one more loved doctors and men of letters, no one had a greater number at his 

 court, and no one treated them with more generosity. They would converse familiarly with 

 him while he sat at his suppers and talk of public business, and towards them and his dependents 

 he behaved with such familiar and homely kindness, like an equal, joking and talking, correcting 

 faults with paternal love rather than with anger or pride. No one forgot injuries or ingratitude 

 more easily, and was so ready to accord fresh benevolence. He proved his piety and religion 

 in every hour of his life, and in the last moments of his mortal career he called upon God's 

 sacred minister, he confessed his sins, and expressed his deep penitence for all in which he had 

 come short, and then cast himself on the Divine mercy." We can picture him pacing these 

 wide terraces surrounded by his court, or sitting on summer evenings at the old stone tables 



