ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



May 1527 the peace of the Villa was rudely disturbed 

 by the news of the terrible disaster which had befallen 

 Rome -the capture and sack of the city by the 

 Imperialist armies. Like all who had known the 

 Eternal City in the golden days of Leo, Bembo was 

 filled with consternation. In his letters to Sadoleto 

 at Carpentras, he poured out the anguish of his soul, 

 and mourned over the ruin which had overtaken his 

 dearest friends. Foglietta was killed by a chance shot, 

 Ghiberti, the Papal Datary, was dragged from prison 

 to prison by Spanish soldiers, Angelo Colocci's price- 

 lese collections were plundered before his eyes, Negri 

 lost his library and Paolo Giovio the manuscript of his 

 history. Tebaldeo, the beloved friend of Bembo and 

 Raphael, was given up for lost, and was only saved by 

 taking refuge in Palazzo Colonna. In his joy at 

 hearing of his friend's safety, Bembo sent Tebaldeo 

 a present of thirty ducats to relieve his most pressing 

 needs, and begged him to come to Padua or Venice, 

 assuring him of the most friendly reception from his 

 many admirers. " Come here to those who love you 

 and await you," he wrote, " and leave this miserable 

 corpse of our once beautiful Rome." l 



But by this time all Italy was overrun by foreign 

 invaders. A squadron of German and Spanish troops 

 ravaged Bembo's Commenda at Bologna, cutting down 



1 Lettere, iii. 157. 

 152 



