Fontana di Piazza della Cancelleria

The wall-fountain fed by Acqua Vergine in Piazza della Cancelleria is a work by Publio Morbiducci winner in 1928 of a competition announced by the Municipality for the replacement of ten small cast iron fountains with “artistic” fountains. The work by Morbiducci draws its inspiration from the nearby Renaissance Palazzo della Cancelleria(Chancery) and is made of travertine. The fountain stands on a small base with decorations enclosed within a triangle that presents the coat of arms of cardinal Ludovico Trevisan, better known as Mezzarota Scarampi, camerlengo (treasurer) of Eugene the Fourth Condulmer (1431-1447), who at the middle of the fifteenth century modernised and restored Palazzo della Cancelleria. The water pours from a tap that comes out of the small rosette in the coat of arms and flows into the rectangular pond below, with the inscription SPQR of the Municipality of Rome and two small pillars on its sides.