The Water Fountains of Old Rome
Trading in such an essential commodity as water, drawn not only from the Tiber but also from the wells and the few fountains that existed - including and perhaps exclusively from the Trevi Fountain - the Water Sellers' Corporation must soon have become very powerful and respected if, according to a tradition which I believe should not be refuted, it was this corporation that founded the famous hospital at St. John Lateran in 1316. Such high status would also be borne out if the institution gave its name to more than one church (S. Andrea de Aquarizariis and S. Maria de Aquarichariis) and even to a few street fountains. But there is another interesting aspect too: in the annual traditional solemn procession from St. John Lateran to St. Mary Major on 15 August there were many "devout" but bloody clashes amongst the corporations because they all wanted to take first place. To avoid the problem, it was decreed by law that anyone fighting would be fined 25 pieces of gold and that it was our very own "water sellers" who should have the honor of leading the procession. However, it was inevitable that when, from the end of the 15th century onward, restoration of the aqueducts and fountains began in earnest, the importance and usefulness of this Corporation should be shaken to its roots and that, when Gregory XIII (1572-85) flooded Rome with fountains, it should cease almost entirely to exist: its members were left without food because there was too much water. Progress also has its victims. Nevertheless, thanks to tradition, the only example - though I would prefer to say emblem - of the water sellers continued to exist in the papal court. In the words of that most erudite man, Moroni, when speaking of the Chancellery, "the custom of selling water continued until the days of Sixtus V" (1590), whereas formerly "in Rome, water from the Tiber, or from private wells or fountains, was carried around to the houses on donkeys after drawing it from the cisterns where the Tiber water had been cleansed. Right up to today [1840], the papal water seller used mules with two or three small barrels on each side to carry water on the flights of steps leading to the Vatican palace. In the same way, he would go to the Quirinale for water from the Trevi in order to deliver it to the pantries and papal kitchens and to the pope's chief ministers". As well as being interesting evidence in itself, this passage by Moroni is important because it tells how, in his day, water was still carried on "mules with two or three small barrels", which must have been just the way it was done in olden times, since it was pictured and perhaps taken as the coat-of-arms of the Corporation as early as the beginning of the 14th century.
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