GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 



an admirable setting for the pastoral plays and tourna- 

 ments, the banquets and dances, which lent so much 

 romance and charm to daily existence. 



The three sons of Niccolo d'Este, who reigned in 

 turn over Ferrara in the fifteenth century, were all 

 men of culture. Leonello, the pupil of the learned 

 humanist Guarino, and the friend of Alberti and 

 Pisanello, was that rare being who, in the eyes of his 

 contemporaries, fulfilled Plato's ideal of the philosopher 

 upon the throne. During the nine years of his wise 

 and peaceful rule this gentle Prince made great im- 

 provements both in his town house and in his villa of 

 Belfiore without the walls. He planted a fair garden 

 under the windows of his study in the Corte Vecchia 

 with white lilies and dark cypresses, with roses, myrtles, 

 and violets, as well as fruit trees bearing sweet apples 

 and lemons, "which he liked for their bitter taste." 

 Here, in the rooms hung with the portraits of Roman 

 heroes, including that of Julius Caesar, which the 

 painter Pisanello gave him as a wedding present, the 

 little band of humanists whom Leonello had brought 

 to lecture at the University met to hear the wisdom of 

 Guarino or to discuss the latest codex which the Marquis 

 had acquired for his library. On summer evenings 

 Leonello would walk to Belfiore with his friends or 

 ride out under the stars to his more distant villa at 

 Belriguardo, discussing the story of Cato's death or 

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