THE ART OF GARDEN DESIGN IN ITALY 
botany by the foundation of botanic gardens. According to Loudon the earliest private botanic 
garden was formed in 1525 at Padua by Gaspar de Gabriel. To this garden succeeded those of 
Corner at Venice and Simonetta at Milan. The first public botanic garden was that founded 
by the Senate of Venice at Padua about 1545 - 14 contained in 1581 four hundred plants 
cultivated in the open air, besides a large number kept in pots to be taken into houses or 
sheds during the winter; at the same time Cosimo de’ Medici established one at Pisa, which was 
moved in 1591 to a larger and more con¬ 
venient site, the number of new plants having 
so far accumulated as to render a larger 
garden necessary. Two borders were found 
sufficient for the ornamental flowers, and a 
greenhouse was constructed for such as were 
too tender for the open air. The garden 
at Bologna was next established by Pope 
Pius V., then that of Florence by the Grand 
Duke, and afterwards that of Rome. 
To Italy belongs the distinction of 
having printed the earliest Herbal, and the 
first printed book actually known with 
botanical figures; it is ascribed to one 
Apuleius Platonicus, and though it had been 
in existence for .several centuries was first 
printed in Rome about 1480, and was a very 
popular work: the drawings are very rough 
and by no means true to nature. After 
this very early Herbal the Italians were, until 
the middle of the sixteenth century contented 
with reprints and translations of German 
works. 1 
In 1598 the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati was begun and completed some five years 
later from the designs of Giacomo della Porta, Vignola’s most famous pupil, who was also 
employed on the Villa d’ Este, Tivoli. Girolami Rainaldi, a Roman architect, was responsible 
for much of the garden architecture of this day, and designed the grounds of the Villa 
Borghese and also the gardens of the Villa Mondragone at Frascati [Plate hi]. At the rear 
of the Borghese Palace in Rome is a charming little town garden with fine wall fountains by 
Rainaldi. This little enclosure, of which we give a plan, is very ingeniously fitted to its very 
awkward position. Seen through the colonnade of the great courtyard, its fresh greenness and 
1 For further information see an interesting article on ‘Old Herbals, German and Italian,’ by J. F. Payne, M.D., Magazine of Art, 1885. 
