ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



" Tell the Friar," he writes, " that new trees must 

 be planted in the grove at Murano, and let him take 

 care to see that they are placed in formal rows at some 

 interval, and above all, let him put in plenty of roses 

 between the grove and the boundary wall, and see that 

 they are trained to grow on a trellis, after the fashion 

 which I admire in Spain. And see that in the autumn 

 he goes to Selva, to see how the laurels are growing, 

 and if the fruit trees have done better than they did 

 last year. And I beg of you, my dear Ramusio, to 

 adorn your own villa with fair trees, so that when I 

 return home we may enjoy what remains to us of life 

 with our books in the shade of our own groves." x 



But the peace and leisure for which the scholar-poet 

 yearned never came. At the end of four years he at 

 length returned to his beloved home, but he had hardly 

 set foot on Venetian soil than he received orders to go to 

 France as Ambassador to King Francis I. Before he had 

 been at the French Court three months he fell ill of 

 fever and died at Blois on the 8th of May, 1529^0 the 

 infinite grief of his friends in Venice. He was buried 

 by his own wish in the church of S. Martina at Mur- 

 ano, in a grave touching the garden which he loved. 

 Poets and scholars lamented him in elegant Latin 

 verse, and Sadoleto linked Messer Andrea's name with 

 that of his friend Castiglione in a memorable letter, 

 deploring the heavy loss which Italy had sustained 



1 Atanagi, 668. 

 122 



