ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
right to the benefices which he already held. He 
was thoroughly sick of Rome, and hated the sight 
of a pen. At length, in June 1521, he obtained 
leave of absence on the score of ill health, and left 
the Eternal City, with the fixed resolve never to 
return there. 
“ God knows,” he wrote from the Villa to his old 
Urbino friend, Archbishop Fregoso, “ that I left 
Rome and Pope Leo, on pretence of taking a short 
holiday for the good of my health, but with the 
firm resolution never to return and to spend what little 
is left me of life, for my own enjoyment, not for 
that of others. I am settled in Padua, a beautiful 
city with a temperate climate, quiet and convenient 
and singularly well adapted for the pursuit of letters. 
I spend part of my time in town, and part in this 
Villa, free from all cares, or, if my slender resources 
entail some burdens that I cannot lay down, these 
are comparatively light and do not hinder my studies. 
I would have taken this step long ago if it had 
been possible, and should not have wasted ten of the 
best years of my life which have been thrown away, 
excepting so far as they have procured me a little 
fortune and freedom.” 1 
During the next ten years most of Bembo’s life 
was spent at his beloved Villa. In 1527 he succeeded 
in buying a fine palazzo in the parish of S. Barto¬ 
lommeo in Padua, close to the great church of the 
1 Lettere, i. 118. 
140 
