THE GARDENS OF ESTE AND 
GONZAGA PRINCES 
“ Bel paese b Lombardia, 
Degno assai, ricca e galante.” 
Gaspare Visconti. 
The gardens of North Italy, in the days of the 
Renaissance, were especially famous. This was, no 
doubt, in a great measure owing to the abundance of 
water and consequent fertility of the soil. Castiglione, 
in the letters which he sent to his mother at Mantua, 
constantly alludes to the barren nature of the ground 
at Urbino, and remarks that even in the more fruitful 
province of Pesaro nothing grows as it does “ at home 
with us in Lombardy,” a name commonly applied to 
the whole district north of the Apennines. But the 
beauty of the gardens in North Italy was also largely 
due to the number of princes who held their courts 
in this favoured region. Milan, Ferrara, Mantua, 
Bologna, Carpi, Correggio, and Forli, were all the 
seats of reigning families, whose courts were centres 
of light and learning, and whose homes were adorned 
with all that was fairest in art and nature. 
Chief among these was the house of Este, the oldest 
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