ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



and most beloved of all the dynasties that held sway 

 between the Adriatic and the Mediterranean. It was 

 a common saying that three ruling passions the love 

 of building, of travel, and of threatricals distinguished 

 all the members of the ducal family. In those days 

 the art of building, as we have seen, included the laying 

 out of the gardens, an object that was held worthy to 

 occupy the attention of the best architects. Accord- 

 ingly, the sumptuous pleasure-houses and delicious 

 gardens which sprang up all round Ferrara in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were among the most 

 remarkable features of the golden age when the white 

 eagle of Este floated from the towers of the Castello 

 Vecchio. If no other record of these vanished palaces 

 remained, the works of Boiardo and Ariosto would 

 show how great a part they played in that court life 

 which is so vividly reflected in the verses of these 

 poets. The gardens of Belfiore and the Schifanoia, 

 of Belriguardo and Belvedere, were the scene of those 

 manifold pageants and festivities that were held in 

 honour of illustrious guests, or of births and marriages 

 in the ducal family, and helped to make each incident 

 in the Prince's private life a memorable event in the 

 history of his people. These wide terraces, flanked 

 with loggias and adorned with marble fountains and 

 statues, these grassy lawns surrounded with hedges of 

 box and laurel, with groves of ilex and cypress, afforded 

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