When Charlotte and I were in Italy a couple of months ago we toured a lot of landmarks and saw these ugly mugs in just about every palace, government building and church we visited.
It's a complaint box.
The complainer would write out his grievance on a slip of paper and deposit it in the slot. A box on the other side collected the gripes and they were read - and acted upon -- by the King, governor, tax man, sheriff...whoever was in charge of that particular offense.
My Itallian STILL isn't any good, but the inscription warns the complainer to TELL THE TRUTH. It wanted you to know that if you were just making up sh** on somebody you didn't like, then you'd face the consequences. It was modern day tort reform - LOSER PAYS -- before we snapped to it centuries later.
The punishment might be a fine, or imprisonment if your bogus accusation was civil or criminal.
If your complaint more of the MORAL variety, you were warned that you were in for a celestial a** whipping...like the fire of eternal damnation:
The Itallians were tolerant of a lot of things, but ONE THING they WOULD NOT TOLERATE was a whiny bit** snitch!
Pingates