Fontana dei Libri
Attraction · Sant'Eustachio, Italy
A wall fountain set in a niche in the flank of the Palazzo della Sapienza: the rione's stag's head between four antique books on two brackets, with water running from two bookmark-shaped spouts and from the two upper volumes. It is inscribed S. EVSTACCHIO and the rione numeral R IV, and Roma Capitale points out that the numeral is wrong, because Sant'Eustachio is the eighth rione.
History
Pietro Lombardi made the fountain in 1927, within a Comune di Roma programme of fountains recalling the old rioni and vanished trades, which replaced cast-iron nasoni then thought ugly. The books refer to the university housed in the Palazzo della Sapienza, whose wall carries the fountain, and the street was once called via dell'Universita; the staderari who gave it its present name were makers of steelyard balances. Above the niche is the Medici emblem, for Palazzo Madama opposite.
Visit
Via degli Staderari, 00186 Roma RM
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