Outdoor Water Fountains of Rome
The building housing the Fountain of the Porter was completely different from the one that is there today, because in 1720 it was entirely rebuilt by Alessandro Specchi on the orders of Livio De Carolis. The latter had gradually bought up the buildings that formed the "Porter's Island & Fountain ", including the residence of the Grifoni family who had come to Rome from Florence as long ago as the first half of the 15th century. In connection with the Grifoni family and their house, I feel I must mention something written about the fountain by Ameyden around 1645: "... The Grifoni family comes from Florence... In 1446, Valerio Griffoni [sic], of the Treio District, was one of the Roman gentlemen Pope Eugene honored by permitting them to wear the dress of the nobility... Matteo de Griffoni was Bishop of Tarento and built the house the Griffonis own today, just alongside the Roman College; the design is by Michangelo and, for the place it occupies, worthy of the Master. The name of the Bishop is above the doors and fountains; he died in 1563...", and, according to tradition, it was Michelangelo himself who carved his tomb in the nearby church of St. Marcello. To return to the building: despite the total renovation by Specchi, the Porter Fountain was put back at the same corner as before, as shown on the 1748 plan of Rome by Gian Battista Nolli and as pictured in a print of the fountain by Vasi in 1753. Preceding the last two dates there was a long, boring poem in Latin by Giov. Michele Silos in 1673. In "The Porter Fountain on the Corso" the author quite indignantly invites the Porter Fountain to stop pouring out fresh water since (he says) the Romans simply do not deserve it because they still dare to prefer wine. After Silos, we come to the very important contribution left by Luigi Vanvitelli who, in a signed manuscript dated 22 September 1751, gave us the "Description of the Fountain at the Residence on the Corso facing the Church and Monastery of St. Marcello, that used to belong to the De Carolis Family and has now been bought by the Most Reverend Jesuit Fathers of the Roman College". This extremely detailed description-cum-inventory of the whole premises, from the attics to the cellars, puts the Porter at the very bottom of the list in the following words: "On the side of the Building, beneath the ground floor window overlooking Santa Maria in Via Lata, there is a public fountain known as the Porter, sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti".
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