ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
the lion of St. Mark floated over distant lands and 
cities, the gardens of Venice were famous for their 
extent and beauty. They excited the wonder and 
admiration of every traveller who saw “ the triumphant 
city ” for the first time—such, for instance, as Pietro 
Casola, the Milanese canon who came to Venice in 1494, 
on his way to Jerusalem, and waited a fortnight to 
sail with Agostino Contarini in the pilgrim-fleet for Jaffa. 
“ I cannot refrain,” he writes in his Journal, “ from 
repeating that nothing has surprised me more in 
this city than the many beautiful gardens which are 
to be seen here, especially, I must say, those belong¬ 
ing to the different religious Orders.” 1 
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries these com¬ 
munities were as wealthy as they were numerous, 
and their churches and convents were among the 
most imposing buildings in the city. There were 
the Benedictines of S. Giorgio Maggiore, who num¬ 
bered as many as two hundred in the palmy days 
when Cardinal Pole paid them a visit, and expressed 
equal admiration for their fine library and shady 
gardens. And there were the Augustinian canons 
attached to the well-known church now known as 
the Madonna dell’ Orto, who had a spacious orchard 
full of apple and quince trees, and a hermitage on 
the island of S. Cristoforo, where, Casola tells us, 
they made white wax enough to supply all the 
1 Canon P. Casola’s Pilgrimage, ed. by M. Newett, 142. 
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