[61] This spring was celebrated as early as 1370, accommodation for bathers having been built by the Florentines in that year.
[62] See vol. ii., p. 54.
[63] The festival of S. John Baptist. Cambiagi in Memorie storiche, and Guasti in Le feste di S. Giovanni Battista, have written at length concerning this feast.
[64] These races were instituted by Cosimo I. in 1563, and were held in the Piazza S. Maria Novella.
[65] Ferdinand, who afterwards became Grand Duke in 1588.
[66] The effigy of the mule still exists. The verses run:—
“Lecticam, lapides et marmora, ligna, columnas
Vexit, conduxit, traxit, et ista tulit.”
[67] Montaigne describes this statue in vol. ii., p. 58.
[68] Montaigne questioned this right on the occasion of his first visit (vol. ii., p. 54).