ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
times a week to pay my respects to Madama Isabella 
d’Este, Marchesa di Mantova, in her most delightful 
palace of Porto, and spend the whole day discussing 
different subjects with her lords and ladies, sometimes 
in the presence of Her Excellency, sometimes among 
ourselves.” 1 
As they sat in the cool marble halls looking out on the 
crystalline waters, “Madama Illustrissima” would desire 
Bandello to read some tale from Livy aloud to the 
company. This would give rise to animated discus¬ 
sions over the action of the Roman matron Lucrezia or 
some similar incident, and while the secretaries, Mario 
Equicola and Capilupi, were still arguing the question, 
perhaps a new personage would appear on the scene in 
the shape of the “ noble, gentle, and learned knight,” 
Baldassare Castiglione, and Madama would invoke his 
authority to settle the dispute. On sultry afternoons, 
when the heat was oppressive and not a breath stirred 
the leaves, Madama and her ladies were in the habit of 
retiring to their rooms on the upper floor for a brief 
siesta, and Pirro Gonzaga or Bandello himself would 
lead the way to the grove of poplars which Isabella had 
planted in memory of her father, Ercole, a few months 
after his death. Here, sitting on the fine smooth turf 
by the running stream, they would tell merry tales of 
Archdeacon Gabbioneta, the laughing-stock of all the 
1 Novelle , i. 125. 
58 
