GARDENS OF ESTE AND GONZAGA PRINCES 
an admirable setting for the pastoral plays and tourna¬ 
ments, the banquets and dances, which lent so much 
romance and charm to daily existence. 
The three sons of Niccolo d’Este, who reigned in 
turn over Ferrara in the fifteenth century, were all 
men of culture. Leonello, the pupil of the learned 
humanist Guarino, and the friend of Alberti and 
Pisanello, was that rare being who, in the eyes of his 
contemporaries, fulfilled Plato’s ideal of the philosopher 
upon the throne. During the nine years of his wise 
and peaceful rule this gentle Prince made great im¬ 
provements both in his town house and in his villa of 
Belfiore without the walls. He planted a fair garden 
under the windows of his study in the Corte Vecchia 
with white lilies and dark cypresses, with roses, myrtles, 
and violets, as well as fruit trees bearing sweet apples 
and lemons, “which he liked for their bitter taste.” 
Here, in the rooms hung with the portraits of Roman 
heroes, including that of Julius Caesar, which the 
painter Pisanello gave him as a wedding present, the 
little band of humanists whom Leonello had brought 
to lecture at the University met to hear the wisdom of 
Guarino or to discuss the latest codex which the Marquis 
had acquired for his library. On summer evenings 
Leonello would walk to Belfiore with his friends or 
ride out under the stars to his more distant villa at 
Belriguardo, discussing the story of Cato’s death or 
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