ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
Academy. When, in 1 5 2 5 > th e Vicentine poet, Gian- 
giorgio Trissino, came to Venice as Papal Legate, he 
took a house in the parish of San Donato at Murano, 
and spent much of his time in Trifone’s society. On 
summer mornings the Legate would join the youthful 
scholars who met daily at Trifone’s villa, and held 
learned converse with them in his friend’s garden, or 
in those of Navagero and Alvise Priuli. These dis¬ 
cussions were often prolonged to a late hour, and after 
vespers the enthusiastic band of scholars might still be 
seen pacing up and down the shores of the lagoon, 
drinking in every word that fell from their teacher’s 
lips. 
But even Murano could not satisfy the new passion 
for rural delights which had sprung up among these 
Venetian humanists. They sought the hills and 
forests of the mainland, the “ Marca Amorosa ” of 
Treviso, the mountain region of Castelfranco under 
the dolomite peaks which Gian Bellini and Cima were 
never tired of painting, where Giorgione was born and 
Titian had his home. Or they settled in the pleasant 
district of the Euganean hills, where Arqua and 
Monselice and half a dozen other bright little towns 
nestle among the woods. Trifone Gabriele found the 
seclusion which he loved in his villa at Ronchi, and 
Bembo spent the happiest years of his life in his 
“ dolce Noniano ,” that delightful country-house between 
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