ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 
and lodged in Bembo’s house, sent her old friend 
cheeses and salted tongues, or cases of lemons from 
the shores of the Lago di Garda; while boxes of 
sweetmeats, preserved citrons, and pink sugar confetti 
came from the General of the Augustinians at Venice. 
Bembo’s own gifts of strawberries or flowers to his 
friends at Padua were generally accompanied with a 
sonnet or a canzone—“a few rhymes which saw the 
light this summer in the idleness of this dolce Noniano , 
and were born so lately that the ink on the page is 
hardly yet dry.” “You are too courteous, my dear 
Ramusio,” he exclaimed, when a richly bound copy 
of the donor’s Gallia arrived, together with a fine 
young tree and a jar of olives from the Venetian 
historian. 
From all parts of Italy, scholars and poets sent their 
masterpieces to receive the benefit of Bembo’s advice 
and criticism. Sannazzaro sent his De Partu Vir- 
ginis from Naples, Castiglione wrote from Toledo to 
beg that Bembo would revise the proof of his 
Cortegiano , Ariosto brought the new edition of his 
Orlando to lay before him. Trifone and Nava- 
gero, Molza and Tebaldeo, Bernardo Tasso of Ferrara, 
and the Veronese poet Fracostoro, Vittoria Colonna 
and Veronica Gambara, all consulted “this oracle of 
Apollo” regarding their productions, while countless 
other poets whose names are forgotten followed their 
I 5° 
