ign Ercole had sent to Florence to borrow
Alberti's Treatise on Architecture from Lorenzo de' Medici, and had
carried out his improvements on the principles advocated by the
Renaissance architect. On every side new churches and palaces rose into
being, a lofty Campanile was added to the ancient Lombard Cathedral, an
equestrian statue of Niccolo III. and a bronze effigy of Duke Borso
adorned the piazza in front of the Castello. Soon Ercole's subjects
caught their duke's passion for building, and vied with him in erecting
new and sumptuous houses. His brother, Cardinal Sigismondo, raised the
Palazzo Diamante, that magnificent Renaissance structure in the Via
degli Angeli. The Trotti and the Costabili, the Strozzi and Boschetti,
all followed suit and built palatial residences in the neighbourhood.

These fine buildings were surrounded with spacious gardens. One of
Ercole's first improvements had been to lay out the noble park outside
the town, and to people it with stags and goats, with gazelles and
antelopes and the spotted giraffes which Niccolo da Correggio describes
in his poems; and on the gates leading from the city were marble busts
carved by the hand of Sperandio, the famous medallist who had worked so
long for the ducal house, and who has left us portraits of all the chief
personages at the Ferrarese court. The courtyard of the ancient Este
palace was adorned with wide marble staircases, the villa of Belfiore
was enlarged and beautified, while that of Belriguardo, twelve miles
from the city, on the banks of the Po, became celebrated as the most
sumptuous of all the stately pleasure-houses in which Renaissance
princes took delight. No pains or expense were spared in the decoration
of these luxurious country houses. The terraced gardens and marble
loggias were adorned with fountains and statues, the halls were hung
with costly tapestries and gold and silver embroideries. Eastern carpets
and carved ivories, cameos and intaglios, precious gems and rare
majolica from Urbino and Casteldurante were brought together in the
Camerini of the Castello and the halls of the Schifanoia palace, that
favourite Sans-Souci of the Este princes close to the court-church of S.
Maria in Vado and to the convent of Leonora's friends, the nuns of S.
Vito. In this charming retreat, where Borso and Ercole alike loved to
escape from the cares of state, we may still see the remnants of these
splendid decorations which once adorned these halls: