"_Fons Florentinus_.--In foro lympidas aquas fons effundit marmoreis
figuris Neptuni et Faunorum ab Amanate confectis."--_Templum Naturae
Historicum_. HENRICI KORNMANNI, A.D. 1614.
The most striking object in the most remarkable part of Florence is the
colossal marble Neptune in the Fountain of the Signoria, by Ammanati,
dating from 1575. He stands in a kind of car or box, drawn by horses
which Murray declares "are exceedingly spirited." They are indeed more
so than he imagined, for according to popular belief, when the spirit
seizes them and their driver, and the bronze statues round them, they all
go careering off like mad beings over the congenial Arno, and even on to
the Mediterranean! That is to say, that they did so on a time, till they
were all petrified with their driver in the instant when they were
bounding like the billows, which are typified by white horses.
Neptune has, however, lost his name for the multitude, who simply call
him the Biancone, or Great White Man; and this is the legend (given to me
in writing by a witch), by which he is popularly known: