ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



and a fountain sends up its sparkling waters in the 

 little cloister with its slender marble columns and 

 graceful terra-cotta mouldings. Without is the great 

 cloister surrounded by the monks' cells, each one 

 provided with a charming little garden and a loggia 

 for use in wet weather. 



Another of the Moro's works which survived his 

 downfall were the gardens along the Naviglio Grande, 

 the favourite waterway between Abbiategrasso and 

 Milan, by which ambassadors and courtiers were 

 constantly travelling to and fro. The beauty of these 

 blossoming gardens excited the admiration of the 

 French King's Benedictine chronicler, Jean d'Auton, 

 when he accompanied Louis the Twelfth on his 

 conquering march to Milan. 



" On either side of the canal," he writes, " are great 

 leafy guelder rose bushes and beautiful green meadows, 

 planted with orchards and watered by running brooks. 

 And all along the water's edge you see villas and 

 pleasure-houses, connected with each other by draw- 

 bridges thrown across the stream ; and I was told that 

 Signor Lodovico had been pleased to lay out this 

 district, which is indeed so pleasant and delicious that 

 it is more like Paradise than this earth." l 



To this day several of these gardens along the old 

 Lombard canals remain. One especially there is on 

 the banks of the Martesana Naviglio, near Monza, 



1 ChroniqueSy ii. 187. 

 50 



