THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
learned society engaged in the study of the tenet of Vitruvius. This slight notice of the man 
is justified in view of his great influence on the villa and garden architecture of Italy. At 
Rome in the Villa Giulio, at Frascati, and here at the Villa Lante we find him concerned in 
the most sober and best detailed examples. Pirro Ligorio alone probably could excel or 
compare with him in this garden architecture. Daniel Barbaro, whom we shall meet 
with at Maser, visited, and greatly admired, Caprarola. He says, “ Non minuit, immo 
magnopere vicit pra^sen- 
tia famam.” A. T. B. 
250.— THE FOUNTAIN OF PEG.ASUS, VILLA LANTE. 
From an old deed in 
the archives of Viterbo we 
learn that Bagnaia in the 
twelfth century was the 
propertv of the Lombard 
Counts of Castellardo, by 
whom it was given to the 
Commune of Viterbo. 
This deed was deposited 
by Christian, Archbishop 
of Mayence, Chamber- 
lain to the Emperor 
Frederick I, in 1173. It 
was, in fact, restored by 
him to Viterbo, which 
had forfeited it as a 
punishment for having 
destroyed the city of 
Ferento. 
In the fourteenth 
century Ranieri, Bishop 
of Viterbo, was a mighty 
hunter. He used to hunt 
and hawk in the moun- 
tains round Bagnaia, and 
built himself there a little 
hunting lodge, to which 
he could escape in the 
intervals of administering 
his see. That little lodge 
still stands, stout and 
solid, and forms the stable 
of the present villa. 
Through the stucco and 
whitewash with which it is covered struggle the dim traces of a coat of arms, the heraldic device 
of Bishop Ranieri. The bishopric was a poor one, and the municipality of Viterbo, wishing 
its bishop to have an income more worthy of it, presently made over to the see the whole of 
the lands and township of Bagnaia, which became the country seat of its bishops, who one 
after another laid out and embellished the grounds. 
In 1566 Cardinal di Gambara was elected to the bishopric. The craze for building villas 
was just reviving in Italy, and no villas were more beautiful than those which rose round 
Rome— the stupendous pile of Caprarola, the romantic scheme of Este, and the lovely and 
lovable Lante. 
Cardinal di Gambara employed the great Vignola, who was already at work a few miles 
oft' at Caprarola, and it is interesting, as illustrating the variety of which this famous architect 
