330 
THE GARDENS OF ITALY. 
of Massa, and was created Duke of Giuliano. A letter exists giving an account of the festivities 
and of the wedding presents, which included a picture by Raffaele d’Urbino. The letter gives a 
glowing description of Donna Veronica, but a contemporary declares that “ Donna Veronica 
was endowed with but small beauty, but had a most violent and imperious temper and a jealous 
disposition. Her 
husband, poor man, 
had small joy of 
her.” The Duke 
was handsome, 
gallant and accom- 
plished, and, as an 
anonymous account 
in the Marencel- 
liana library in 
Florence has it, 
” was driven to 
seek for comfort 
elsewhere.” hlrs. 
Ross, in her learned 
book on Florentine 
villas, to which I 
am indebted for 
many particulars, 
has translated this 
manuscript, which 
had never before 
been published, and 
it tells the events 
of the tragedy most 
graphically. 
There was an 
old gentleman in 
Florence, Giustino 
Canacci (to give the 
story shortly), who, 
being near seventy 
and having several 
grown-up children, 
took, as his second 
wife, Caterina, the 
voung daughter ot 
a dyer, who w^as 
popularly called 
” the fair Cherub,” 
from her silken 
gold hair and her 
exquisite colour- 
ing. Her husband 
342. — FOUNTAIN OF JOVE. being the ugliest, 
most tiresome, 
and the dirtiest man in Florence,” it w^as scarcely to be w^ondered at that Caterina had 
first one lover and then another. She finally made the acquaintance of the Duke, who fell 
violently in love with her and used to visit her frequently. He could not prevent his 
infidelity reaching the ears of the Duchess, wFo was bitterly jealous. She tried to poison 
