ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



delights dear to his soul. It was "to please Messer 

 Andrea " that Bembo and Castiglione joined Raphael 

 and their Venetian friends one spring morning, and 

 went on a memorable excursion to Tivoli, there 

 to explore the ruins of Hadrian's villa, and walk by 

 the rushing waters of Arno, in the dewy orchards sung 

 by the Latin poet. And Navagero was never so happy 

 as when he could spend a week with one or two 

 chosen friends in his own garden at Murano. Here 

 he devoted himself to the cultivation of flowers and 

 plants with the same ardour which he showed in the 

 study of letters, and clipped his yews and pruned his 

 roses as carefully as he composed his Latin verses or 

 edited Virgil or Lucretius for the Aldine Press. An 

 eloquent description of Messer Andrea's garden has 

 been left us by Christophe Longueil, the Flemish scholar, 

 who was driven by the jealousy of the Roman scholars 

 at Leo X's Court to take refuge at Padua. 



" I have been at Venice for a fortnight," wrote 

 Longolio, as he was called by his Italian friends, to 

 Bembo in June 1 520, " and spent a week of the greatest 

 enjoyment with our dear friend, Messer Andrea 

 Navagero, in his country house at Murano. The 

 garden belonging to this villa was a very pleasant sight, 

 since all the trees in the orchard and plantations are 

 laid out in the form of a quincunx." 



This method of planting trees, to which Sir Thomas 

 Browne alludes as " the quinquncal lozenge in use 

 116 



