In 1574 the Podestà and the judges of the _Ruota_ moved into the old castle of Altafronte, which Cosimo I. some twenty years before had bought from the family of the Castellani, and the captain of the city, or head of the police, called the Bargello, took up his abode in the Palazzo del Podestà. The fine building was barbarously maltreated. The arcades of the courtyard and of the beautiful loggia were walled up, and turned into cells, and three floors, each containing many cells, were put into the magnificent hall. The same was done in the chapel, where the frescoes disappeared under many coats of whitewash; the lower floor, being next to the kitchen, was turned into a pantry, and above were cells. The very name of the palace was lost, for henceforth it took the name of its new inmate, and was known as the Bargello. Uccelli says the word is derived from the debased Latin _Barigaldus_ (Barachel in Spanish), meaning head of the police, _princeps apparitorum_. The Roman _apparitores_ were the administrators of justice who preceded the magistrate, called by the Longobards _berrovieri_. The word was shortened, the “e” became an “i,” and thence the familiar Tuscan appellation of _birri_, a name of opprobrium given by the criminal classes to the police.[72] In 1841 an Englishman and an American, Mr. Seymour Kirkup and Mr. Wilde, applied for permission to uncover the frescoes in the chapel of the Bargello. After infinite delays the government decided to do the work itself, but unluckily employed an incompetent artist who “restored” the portrait of Dante. A nail had been driven into the eye, and when pulled out it brought away a piece of plaster; this he restored, and then heightened the colour of the face to suit his own eye, altered the shape of the headdress and changed the green of the white, red and green dress, into a dingy brown. Mr. Kirkup fortunately made a tracing and a coloured sketch of the head when it was first uncovered, which was published by the Arundel Society of London, and thus a record of the real portrait exists. In 1847 the people rose against the _birri_, who had made themselves odious by their insolence and violence, and would have released the prisoners in the Bargello if the civic guard had not been called out. Ten years later the Grand Duke gave orders that the building should be restored, and all the prisoners removed to the Murate. In 1860 it was finally decreed that the weatherbeaten, stern old Palazzo del Podestà should be turned into a national museum. PALAZZO PUCCI _Via de’ Pucci. No. 4._