This last villa was built by Taddeo Barberini, a nephew of Urban VIII., 

 about 1626, on a portion of the site of the gardens of Nero; Luigi 

 Arrigucci and Dom. Castelli are said to have been the architects. The 

 plan of the house is simple but the effect good. The hill here is some- 

 what steep and the gardens, entered through the cortile, rise by a series 

 of terraces to an amphitheatre at the top, a series of gentle stairways 

 flanking each successive terrace. In making the excavations many 

 remains of ancient art were discovered. At the time when Percier and 

 Fontaine made their survey, these gardens were in a ruinous state, but 

 they give an interesting plan of them which indicates how successfully 

 even these later architects grappled with the difficulties of the site. 



Not far distant, just without the Porta S. Pancrazio, there is another 

 Villa Corsini. The writer before quoted mentions that at this second 

 villa, which he describes as " full of delights," there were, besides five 

 hundred vases of fruit-trees, oranges, lemons, &c., six hundred great 

 pots of flowers ; a fact which shows that the cultivation of flowers was 

 not altogether neglected as we are sometimes disposed to think. 



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