This picturesque palace was built by Giulio Parigi for the Senator Niccolò dell’Antella, who commissioned thirteen artists to fresco the façade.[17] The upper part was painted in 1619 in fifteen days, as is recorded on a scroll held by one of the figures, while the lower part was finished the following year in eight. The frescoes by Giovanni da San Giovanni were considered the best, _i. e._ the arms of the Antella family surrounded by three _amorini_; the various deities and virtues, amongst which is the figure of an old man with an owl by his side, the reputed portrait of Donato dell’Antella, father of the Senator Niccolò; and a Cupid asleep with a swan. The whole façade is sadly dilapidated, and the frescoes are fast disappearing. Below the third window on the ground floor is a marble disk, said by some to mark where the dividing line was drawn across the Piazza when the game of calcio was played. But, as far as I can understand the extremely technical account of the game by Count Giovanni de’Bardi, surnamed il Puro in the Academia degl’Alterati,[18] it marks the spot against which the ball was thrown at the beginning of each game. He describes the Piazza, as fenced in by posts and rails 2 braccia high; the length of the _campo_, or field of play, being 172 braccia, and the width 86. One side of the enclosure was called the _muro_, or wall, the other the _fossa_, or ditch, and in the centre of one side the six umpires were “on an honourable and elevated seat,” while at either end stood a pavilion draped with the colours of the players. Of these there were fifty-four, twenty-seven on either side, dressed in their distinctive colours, under the command of _alfieri_, or captains, and divided as follows: fifteen _innanzi_, or “forwards,” also called _corridori_, in three companies of five each, who followed the ball; five _sconciatori_, or “half-backs,” whose duty it was to prevent the _innanzi_ from getting the ball (they often gave heavy blows, whence their name, from the word _sconciare_, to injure or hurt); four _datori innanzi_, or “three-quarters,” and three _datori addietro_, or “full-backs,” a kind of rear-guard to the former. I must refer my readers to Mr. Heywood’s delightful book _Palio and Ponte_ for a full and vivid account of the game of calcio, from which I extract the following lines. “The object of the players was to drive the ball, with feet or fists, over what, for convenience sake, we may term the enemy’s ‘goal-line,’ although, as a matter of fact, in the Florentine game there were no goals, the whole line of posts and rails, at either end of the field of play, being open to attack. In order to score, it was necessary that the ball should be driven over this line by a direct punt or a fist blow. This was called a _caccia_, and the game was won by the side which gained the greatest number of _caccie_. The players were allowed to run with the ball, to kick, strike or throw