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The decks had been made of concrete and marble, and amidships there had been fountains whose falling waters mingled with those of the lake. The mystery surrounding the purpose and construction of those huge vessels is yet unsolved, but in the seventeenth century it still stirred men's imaginations with all the force of fresh discovery. Both Maderno and Pietro Bernini could not have been ignorant of it, and they must have seen the exquisite bronzes and lead pipes bearing the stamp of the Emperor Tiberius which had been detached and brought up from the sunken vessels. The Barcaccia fountain is the last work of Pietro Bernini, the father of Lorenzo. He had been employed to bring a branch of the Trevi Water from its reservoir at the head of the Vicolo del Bottino as far as the foot of the Pincian Hill in front of the Trinita de' Monti, and the fountain done by order of Pope Urban VIII (i623-i644) was the adequate consummation of that work. From whatever cause he derived his inspiration, his design of the Barcaccia fountain is so admirably suited to its position that it explains and almost excuses the popular idea that the fountain was made low in order not to obscure the view of the Spanish Steps. A reference to dates at once shows the absurdity of this last suggestion. In the Keats Memorial House hard by there can be seen an engraving by Falda (born in i64o) showing Pietro Bernini's completed fountain against the background of the tree-planted slope of the Pin-cian Hill. The fountain was finished before the death of Pope Urban VIII, which occurred in 1644, and the steps were not begun until 1721, nine pontificates after that of Urban VIII.
On the prow and stern of the boat is carved the coat of arms of the Barberini family, for Urban VIII was the Barberini Pope and the founder of that family in Rome. This pontiff, whose character was a formidable compound of priest, statesman, warrior, and man of letters, delighted in the design of the fountain. Pie-tro Bernini had placed cannon at either end, thus making his boat into a war-vessel, whereupon Urban VIII composed a Latin distich in its praise:
"Bellica pontificum non fundit machina flammas,
Sed dulcem, belli qua perit ignis, aquam."
" The war-ship of the priest, instead of flames,
Pours water, and the fire of battle tames."
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