ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
since ancient times.” Unfortunately, both Julius the 
Second and Bramante died before the Loggie were 
completed, and the grandeur and unity of the Urbino 
master’s conception was destroyed by the tasteless 
additions of future Popes. Before the end of the 
century Sixtus the Fifth walled in the Loggie and 
built the Library, which cut the great Court in two, 
while in later times the roofing over of the Belvedere 
Cortile and building of the Braccio Nuovo completed 
the ruin of what was once the finest garden in the 
world. 
Many and varied are the testimonies that we have 
to the beauty of the “ Prato del Belvedere ”—the Bellum 
Videri Pratum , as the Giardino della Pigna was called 
in these early days. In 1510, when both Julius the 
Second and Bramante were still living, the Marquis of 
Mantua’s son, Federico Gonzaga, was sent to Rome as 
a hostage for his father’s good behaviour on his release 
from captivity at Venice, d he handsome ten-year-old 
boy, who was the apple of his mother Isabella s eyes, 
became the old Pope’s pet and plaything and the 
spoiled child of the Cardinals, who sought to win the 
Marchesa’s good graces by this easy way to her heart. 
“ Elis Highness is lodged in the finest rooms of the 
palace,” wrote his tutor Stazio Gadio, “ and takes his 
meals in a most beautiful loggia looking all over the 
Campagna, which is justly called Belvedere. He 
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