“This,” writes Roberto Gherardi, “is the fountain now called Font’ all’ Erta, at the foot of Monte Ceceri looking due south, below the villa of the Signori Pitti-Gaddi; of which one can only now see some pieces of wall, and some ruins and vestiges in the public road at the beginning of the slope; but the people are still alive who assure me that about the year 1710 the course of the water which came from a tank a little above and from other springs near by, was deviated because it chilled the land below and damaged the crops of the podere. At the time of our Boccaccio I find that this podere with Houses, Tanks, &c., extending to the end of the plain of San Gervasio, was sold on the 5th June 1370 by Giovanni di Agostino degli Asini to Messer Bonifazio Lupo, Marquis of Soragona and a Knight of Parma, who at that time was admitted a citizen of Florence. Being moved by a spirit of much-to-be-praised piety and a feeling of gratitude towards the Florentine Republic, he obtained from the same on the 20th December 1377, as is stated by Ammirato in his XIII. book, permission to found the hospital in Via San Gallo of the said city, called precisely Bonifazio from the name of so pious a benefactor.”[65] [Illustration: COSIMO I, DE’ MEDICI. By PIETRO POLO GALEOTTI. (_Villa di Pelraja_).] [Illustration: ALESSANDRO DE’ MEDICI. By DOMENICO DI POLO. (_Villa di Cafagginolo_).] [Illustration: FERDINANDO I, AND CHRISTINE OF LORRAINE. By MAZZAFERRI. (_Villa di Pratolino_).] When Florence became the capital of Italy the old Via di Font’ all’ Erta was done away with and a broad boulevard took its place. Remains of an old water-conduit and cistern of Roman work were unearthed below the tank mentioned by Roberto Gherardi; a rusty sacrificial knife, some human bones and a few bits of Roman pottery were also found near by. On moonlight nights “the White Spectre,” as the peasants call it, a dim form—a cloud of white mist—floated hither and thither over the spot, but the uneasy spirit has not been seen since the new road was made.