"Ghirlandajo, who felt the utmost enthusiasm for the august remains of Roman grandeur, was still more deeply impressed by the sight of the ancient mosaics of the Christian basilicas, the image of which was still present to his mind when he said, at a more advanced age, that 'mosaic was the true painting for eternity.'"—Rio.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE ISLAND AND THE TRASTEVERE.
Ponte Quattro Capi—Gaetani Tower—S. Bartolomeo in Isola—Temple of Æsculapius—Hospital of the Benfratelli—Mills on the Tiber—Ponte Cestio—Fornarina's House—S. Benedetto a Piscinuola—Castle of the Alberteschi—S. Crispino—Palazzo Ponziani—Sta. Maria in Cappella—Sta. Cecilia—Hospital of S. Michele—Porta Portese—Sta. Maria del Orto—S. Francesco a Ripa—Castle of the Anquillara—S. Chrisogono—Hospital of S. Gallicane—Sta. Maria in Trastevere—S. Calisto—Convent of Sta. Anna—S. Cosimato—Porta Settimiana—Sta. Dorotea—Ponte Sisto.
FOLLOWING the road which leads to the Temple of Vesta, &c., as far as the Via Savelli, and then turning down past the gateway of the Orsini palace, with its two bears,—we reach the Ponte Quattro Capi.
This was the ancient Pons Fabricius, built of stone in the place of a wooden bridge, A.U.C. 733, by Fabricius, the Curator Viarum. It has two arches, with a small ornamental one in the central pier. In the twelfth century the greater part was faced with brickwork. An inscription, only partly legible, remains. L. FABRICIUS. C. T. CUR. VIAR. FACIUNDUM. CURAVIT. EIDEMQ. PROBAVIT.—Q. LEPIDUS. M. F. M. LOLLIUS. M. F. COS. EX. S. C. PROBAVERUNT. From this inscription the inference has been drawn that the senate always allowed forty years to elapse between the completion of a public work, and the grant to it of their public approval. This bridge, according to Horace, was a favourite spot with those who wished to drown themselves; hence Damasippus would have leaped into the Tiber, if it were not for the precepts of the stoic Stertinius:
"Unde ego mira
Descripsi docilis præcepta hæc, tempore quo me
Solatus jussit sapientem pascere barbam,
Atque a Fabricio non tristem ponte reverti."
Horace, Sat. ii. 3.
The name of the bridge changed with time to "Pons Tarpeius" and "Pons Judæorum," from the neighbouring Ghetto. It is now called Ponte Quattro Capi, from two busts of the four-headed Janus, which adorn its parapet, and are supposed to have come from the temple of "Janus Geminus," which stood in this neighbourhood.
On crossing this bridge, we are on the Island in the Tiber, the formation of which is ascribed by tradition to the produce of the corn-fields of the Tarquins (cast contemptuously upon the waters after their expulsion), which accumulated here, till soil gathered around them, and a solid piece of land was formed. Of this, Ampère says:
"L'effet du courant rapide du fleuve est plutôt de détruire les îles que d'en former. C'est ainsi qu'une petite île a été entraînée par la violence des eaux en 1718."—Histoire Romaine à Rome.
On this island, anciently known as the Isola Tiberina, were three temples,—those, namely, of Æsculapius: