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The Academy Nymphaeum.

by Egenia Salza Prina Ricotti

– The garden between the Academy Nymphaeum and the Pretorio noble part. It is a very long strip of ground which had been surely planned to be planted as a garden. Now the only notable element left is the beautiful Nymphaeum set at the east side of the Academy. The previous sketch (Ligorio) and the surveys (Contii and Piranesi) saw it as a continous sequel of little water falls gliding on marble stairs set between pillars. Probably nobody cleaned it well and no one noticed that at the center of it there was a very large waterfall (14 m long). Little niches in the pillars probably contained small Eros statues: at least this has been the impression I received by a marble shoulder and arm that I found there.