THE GARDENS OF ESTE AND 

 GONZAGA PRINCES 



" Bel paese Lombardia, 

 Degno assai, ricca e galante." 



GASPARE VISCONTI. 



THE gardens of North Italy, in the days of the 

 Renaissance, were especially famous. This was, no 

 doubt, in a great measure owing to the abundance of 

 water and consequent fertility of the soil. Castiglione, 

 in the letters which he sent to his mother at Mantua, 

 constantly alludes to the barren nature of the ground 

 at Urbino, and remarks that even in the more fruitful 

 province of Pesaro nothing grows as it does " at home 

 with us in Lombardy," a name commonly applied to 

 the whole district north of the Apennines. But the 

 beauty of the gardens in North Italy was also largely 

 due to the number of princes who held their courts 

 in this favoured region. Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, 

 Bologna, Carpi, Correggio, and Forli, were all the 

 seats of reigning families, whose courts were centres 

 of light and learning, and whose homes were adorned 

 with all that was fairest in art and nature. 



Chief among these was the house of Este, the oldest 



