ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE AND OTHER STUDIES - 1914 - IN MEMORY OF ENID, LADY LAYARD AND OF HAPPY DAYS AT CA CAPELLO, VENICE – PREFACE – THESE sk etches on Renaissance Gardens and their makers were first written at the suggestion of a lamented friend, whose memory is honoured and cherished by men and women of all classes and nationalities throughout Italy, Enid, Lady Layard . Everything connected with Venice, where she made her home for the last thirty-five years of her life, was dear to her, more especially the traditions which linger about the . palazzi and piazze, the narrow canals and call with which she had so close and intimate an aquaintance. And she loved the villas and gardens of the mainland, the district of Asolo and the Trevigiana, the shores of the Brenta and the Lago di Garda, the green slopes of the Berici and Euganean hills. Nor was her love of Italy confined to any one province. Umbria and Tuscany, Fiesole and Settignano, the stately fragments of Roman gardens, the villas of Tivoli and the Campagna, were alike dear to Lady Layard, and her memory still haunts these enchanted regions. To-day most of the gardens described in these pages have unfortunately perished, and only live in the writings of Renaissance hu . m . anists, in the pFose of Boccaccio and Bembo, in the verse of Poliziano and Ariosto. But the enthusiasm for beauty and the ardent love of Nature which inspired their creators are themes of which the scholar and the poet will never tire. Four of these studies appeared in the Nineteenth Century and After, and are reprinted by the kind permission of the editor, Mr. Wray Skilbeck. The paper on Cardinal Bembo and his Villa first saw the light in theCornMZZ, that on The Certosa of Val d Ema was published many years ago in the PorfoZio, then edited by Mr. Philip Hamerton, and is now reprinted by Messrs. Seeleys permission, while I have to thank Mr. John Murray for leave to include in this volume the account of the warrior Guidarellis Tomb at Ravenna, which originally appeared in the Monthly Review. The article on Giovanni Costa, the Roman painter and patriot, was first published in the National Review, and is reprinted by the courtesy of Mr. Leo Maxse that on Bianca Sfona, the short-lived daughter of Lodovico Sforza, whose portrait in the Ambrosian Library we all know, is entirely new. JULIA CARTWRIGHT. … Vlll CONTENTS GIOVANNCI OSTA-HIS LIFE AND ART I904 . 273 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS A CARDINALSP LEASURE-HOUS E V illa d Este, TivoZz From a pho fograph by Anderson, Rome fion tisf iece THE VILLA URBANA Villa PaZmieri . . Fatingp. 6 From a photograph by Alinari, Flwence THE VILLA RUSTICA Villa Salviaiz . S 9 10 From a photograph by Alinari, Fbrence A PALACE-GARDE NPa lazzo Pitti . 99 32 From a hoiogn h A linari, FImencr A CONVENT-GARD S E . N B ernardi zo, V erona . 9 9 49 THE VATICAN GARDENS . 9 9 68 From a photografh by Anderson, Rome CARDINA D L E R EDICIS VILLA, ROME . 99 99 From a photograph by Bmgi, Fhrence A VENETIANP LEASURE-HOUS EA lZtgori L del Ricco Ejulone, Bonfazio . 9 9 I 10 From a photograph 2y Anderson, R o w CATERINCAO RNARO Q, U EEN O F CYPRUS after Tiiian ., , 126 From a photograph Andcrson, Rome LUCREZIAB ORGIA, D UCHESS O F FERRAR P A in - tuntchio …