36 



THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 



botany by the foundation of botanic gardens. According to Loudon the earliest private botanic 

 garden was formed in 1525 at Padua by Gaspar de Gabriel. To this garden succeeded those of 

 Corner at Venice and Simonetta at Milan. The first public botanic garden was that founded 



* ■ 



by the Senate of Venice at Padua about i54S- It contained in 1581 four hundred plants 

 cultivated in the open air, besides a large number kept in pots to be taken into houses or 

 sheds during the winter; at the same time Cosimo de' Medici established one at Pisa, which was 



moved in 1591 to a larger and more con- 

 venient site, the number of new plants having 



so far accumulated as to render a larger 

 garden necessary. Two borders were found 

 sufficient for the ornamental flowers, and a 

 greenhouse was constructed for such as were 

 too tender for the open air. The garden 

 at Bologna was next established by Pope 

 Pius v., then that of Florence by the Grand 



Duke, and afterwards that of Rome. 



To Italy belongs the distinction of 

 having printed the earliest Herbal, and the 

 first printed book actually known with 

 botanical figures ; it is ascribed to one 

 Apuleius Platonicus, and though it had been 

 in existence for several centuries was first 

 . printed in Rome about 1480, and was a very 

 popular work : the drawings are very rough 

 and by no means true to nature. After 

 this very early Herbal the Italians were, until 

 the middle of the sixteenth century contented 

 with reprints and translations of German 

 works. ^ 

 In 1598 the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati was begun and completed some five years 

 later from the designs of Giacomo della Porta, Vignola's most famous pupil, who was also 

 employed on the Villa d' Este, Tivoli. Girolami Rainaldi, a Roman architect, was responsible 

 for much of the garden architecture of this day, and designed the grounds of the Villa 

 Borghese and also the gardens of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati [Plate in]. At the rear 

 of the Borghese Palace in Rome is a charming little town garden with fine wall fountains by 

 Rainaldi. This little enclosure, of which we give a plan, is very ingeniously fitted to its very 

 awkward position. Seen through the colonnade of the great courtyard, its fresh greenness and 



1 For further information see an interesting article on ' Old Herbals, German and Italian,' by J. F. Payne, M.D., Magazine of Art, 1S85. 



PAL: BORGHESE 





