ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



times a week to pay my respects to Madama Isabella 

 d'Este, Marchesa di Mantova, in her most delightful 

 palace of Porto, and spend the whole day discussing 

 different subjects with her lords and ladies, sometimes 

 in the presence of Her Excellency, sometimes among 

 ourselves." l 



As they sat in the cool marble halls looking out on the 

 crystalline waters, "Madama Illustrissima" would desire 

 Bandello to read some tale from Livy aloud to the 

 company. This would give rise to animated discus- 

 sions over the action of the Roman matron Lucrezia or 

 some similar incident, and while the secretaries, Mario 

 Equicola and Capilupi, were still arguing the question, 

 perhaps a new personage would appear on the scene in 

 the shape of the " noble, gentle, and learned knight," 

 Baldassare Castiglione, and Madama would invoke his 

 authority to settle the dispute. On sultry afternoons, 

 when the heat was oppressive and not a breath stirred 

 the leaves, Madama and her ladies were in the habit of 

 retiring to their rooms on the upper floor for a brief 

 siesta, and Pirro Gonzaga or Bandello himself would 

 lead the way to the grove of poplars which Isabella had 

 planted in memory of her father, Ercole, a few months 

 after his death. Here, sitting on the fine smooth turf 

 by the running stream, they would tell merry tales of 

 Archdeacon Gabbioneta, the laughing-stock of all the 



1 Novelle, \. 125. 

 58 



