nter
christening spoiled by rain.[86] It was not, however, till 1571 that
the old font, surrounded by its small basins, one of which Dante broke
in saving a man from drowning there, was removed from the church by
Francesco I, Grand Duke of Tuscany, for the christening of his son.

Certain vestiges of the oldest church remain: you may see a sarcophagus,
one of those which, before Arnolfo covered the church with marble, stood
without and held the ashes of some of the greater families. But the most
beautiful thing here is the tomb that Donatello made for Baldassare
Cossa, pirate, condottiere, and anti-pope, who, deposed by the Council
of Constance (1414), came to Florence, and, as ever, was kindly received
by the people. It stands beside the north door. On a marble couch
supported by lions, the gilt bronze statue of this prince of
adventurers, who grasped the very chair of St. Peter as booty, lies, his
brow still troubled, his mouth set firm as though plotting new conquests
even in the grave. Below, on the tomb itself, two winged _angiolini_
hold the great scroll on which we read the name of the dead man,
Johannes Quondam Papa XXIII: to which inscription Martin V, Cossa's
successful rival at Constance, is said to have taken exception; but the
Medici who had built the tomb answered in Pilate's words to the
Pharisees, "What I have written, I have written." The three marble
figures in niches at the base may be by Michelozzo, who worked with
Donatello, or possibly by Pagano di Lapo, as the Madonna above the tomb
almost certainly is.

Coming up once more into the Piazza from that mysterious dim church, dim
with the centuries of the history of the city, you come upon two
porphyry columns beside the eastern door. They are the gift of Pisa[87]
when her ships returned from the Balearic Islands to Florence, who had
defended their city from the Lucchesi. The column with the branch of
olive in bronze upon it to the north of the Baptistery reminds us of the
miracle performed by the body of S. Zenobio in 490. Borne to burial in
S. Reparata, the bier is said to have touched a dead olive tree standing
on this spot, which immediately put forth leaves: the column
commemorates this miracle. So in Florence they remind us of the gods.

In turning now to the Duomo we come to one of the great buildings of the
world. Standing on the site of the old church of S. Salvatore, of S.
Reparata, it is a building of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuri