THE GARDENS OF VENICE 
like mirrors, the bedsteads and chairs were carved 
and painted, the carpets and hangings were of costly 
Oriental stuffs. In the words of the poet Calmo, 
“ This was a palace where a monarch might fitly 
make his home, and Jove himself might worthily be 
received.” Priuli’s lifelong friend, Cardinal Pole, was 
often his guest at Treville, “ and wrote many letters to 
Messer Alvise ”—ex villd tua. “ This angelic spirit,” 
as Cardinal Contarini called the saintly English prelate, 
was always happy in the country, and in one of his 
letters from Treville, he says that he may well call 
Priuli’s villa “ a. Paradise, because of its situation in 
these delicious hills, and even more because of the 
friends whose company I am enjoying.” When Priuli 
came in his turn to pay the Cardinal a visit at the 
monastery of Carpentras, Pole wrote to their mutual 
friend, saying that Messer Alvise was most diligent in 
the study of philosophy and agriculture, and thinks 
of turning horticulturist, “ in which idea he is en¬ 
couraged by the beautiful garden belonging to these 
good Fathers, and their truly excellent gardener.” 1 
Another interesting Venetian, like Priuli, the friend of 
Bembo and his circle, was Alvise Cornaro, whose Treatise 
on the Simple Life (La Fit a Sobria ) became first 
known to English readers through Addison’s paper in 
the Spectator. This scholar and philosopher lived to be 
1 Poli, Ep. ii. 162. 
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