ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
setting for the palace or villa. But the student of 
Vitruvius and Alberti, the friend of Leonardo and 
Luca Pacioli, came to Rome with new ideas teeming 
in his brain. He remembered the Duchess’s garden in 
the court of the great palace at Urbino, with its 
stately fountain, well-ordered walks, and glorious view 
of the Apennines, and thought of Beatrice d’Este’s 
sunny pleasaunce under the loggia of the Rocchetta, 
where clear waters gleamed among the flowers and 
grassy lawns. Now he had to work on a larger scale 
and lay out the Vatican precincts in a manner worthy 
of the Supreme Pontiff. 
It was the Pope’s wish to connect his own rooms in 
the old palace with the Casino of the Belvedere, built 
by Innocent the Eighth on a spur of the Vatican hill, 
in order that he might be able to visit his collection 
of precious antiques, without exposure to weather. 
Accordingly Bramante designed two long parallel 
galleries or loggie, each consisting of three stories 
of arcade, to bridge over the valley lying between 
the Vatican and the rising ground on which the villa 
stands. One loggia looked out on the wooded slopes 
of the hillside, the other commanded a beautiful view 
of Rome and the Campagna. The enclosure between 
these galleries was divided into two portions. The 
lower court, nearest to the Vatican, was to serve as 
theatre or arena for jousts and pageants, bull-fights 
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