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The First Fountain: Gateway to the Ghetto and a Proclamation
So it was that in 1591 the first fountain was built in this overpopulated district, where almost all the Jewish households in Rome huddled together around this little square. The fountain sat right in front of the "Jewish enclosure" -- the gateway to the Ghetto -- that divided this small neighborhood from the rest of the city. The area now corresponds with Via del Portico di Ottavia and is much larger than it was then.
We know, as well as this first fountain, that a number of other fountains were built in the immediate area of Via del Progresso as can be inferred from the following proclamation dated August 20, 1614: "… all and every person, men and women, Christians and Jews, adults and children, are prohibited and ordered not to dare or presume on any pretext whatever to wash clothes, entrails or anything else in the fountains inside the Jewish Ghetto, nor to throw in rubbish or other foul objects, nor urinate or do other foul or filthy things therein nor within the space of two 'canes' around (the length of a "cane" varied in different cities), the penalty for contravention being 10 scudi on each occasion, to be applied (paid) half to the accuser, whose name shall be kept secret and the other half to the office of the Street Supervisors … Nor shall any of the aforenamed dare to damage the said fountains, nor their ornaments and conduits, or break down the walls thereof to great or little extent, even through play or in pretending to play, or on any other occasion, or they will be penalized… You are hereby warned that such penalties shall be exacted on the sworn evidence of a single witness, even one who is a Jew."
