ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
grove, watching the rabbits peeping out of the bushes, 
and looking down on the foaming waters of the Dario 
in the gorge below. 
“Nothing is lacking,” wrote Messer Andrea, “to 
complete the charm and perfection of this spot, save 
the piesence of a scholar who would enjoy its beauty. 
Such a man might live here in peace and quietness, 
engaged in those studies that would make him happy, 
and in which he would be content to spend the rest of 
his life, careless of wealth or fame.” 1 
The quarters occupied by the Ambassadors at 
Granada were in the upper city, which was still inhabited 
by the Moors, whose carefully cultivated, well-watered 
gardens filled Messer Andrea with admiration. But 
the period of forty years’ grace, granted them by the 
conquerors, had almost expired, and in a few months 
the Inquisition was to be set up in Granada. Already 
many of the wealthier Moors were gone to Africa, and 
the kind-hearted Venetian looked with a sigh at these 
gardens of myrtle and musk roses, and thought sorrow¬ 
fully of the doom which hung over them. 
But none of these brilliant and varied scenes could 
make Navagero forget his own gardens at Murano and 
Selve, his other villa in the Trevigiana district. 
“ Sweetest Ramusio,” he wrote from Toledo, “I care 
more for my gardens at Murano and Selve than for 
1 Navagero, Viaggio in Spag 7 ia, 20-25. 
120 
