to drench all those who came near to see the fountain.
Nor is one able to escape either quickly or with ease, because Tribolo
made round the fountain and the pavement, in which are the jets, a
seat of grey-stone supported by lion's paws, between which are sea
monsters in low-relief; which was a difficult thing to do, because he
chose, since the place was sloping and the square lay on the slant, to
make it level, and the same with the seat.

Having then set his hand to the fountain of the labyrinth, he made on
the shaft, in marble, an interwoven design of sea monsters cut out in
full relief, with tails intertwined so well, that nothing better of
that kind could be done. And this finished, he executed the tazza
with a piece of marble brought long before to Castello, together with
a large table, also of marble, from the Villa dell'Antella, which M.
Ottaviano de' Medici formerly bought from Giuliano Salviati. By reason
of this opportunity, then, Tribolo made that tazza sooner than he
might otherwise have done, fashioning round it a dance of little
children attached to the moulding which is beside the lip of the
tazza; which children are holding festoons of products of the sea, cut
out of the marble with beautiful art. And so also the shaft which he
made over the tazza, he executed with much grace, with some very
beautiful children and masks to spout water. Upon that shaft it was
the intention of Tribolo to place a bronze statue three braccia high,
representing Florence, in order to signify that from the above-named
Mounts Asinaio and Falterona the waters of the Arno and Mugnone come
to Florence; of which figure he had made a most beautiful model which,
pressing the hair with the hands, caused water to pour forth. Then,
having brought the water as far as the space thirty braccia square,
below the labyrinth, he made a beginning with the great fountain,
which, made with eight sides, was to receive all the above-mentioned
waters into its lowest basin--namely, those from the waterworks of the
labyrinth, and likewise those of the great conduit. Each of these
eight sides, then, rises above a step one-fifth of a braccio in
height, and each angle of the eight sides has a projection, as have
also the steps, which, thus projecting, rise at each angle in a great
step of two-fifths of a braccio, in such a way that the central face
of the steps withdraws into the projections, and their straight line
is thus broken, which produces a biza