Baptismal font of San Frediano, Romanesque baptismal font in Basilica of San Frediano, Lucca, Italy.

The Baptismal font of San Frediano is a circular, cup-shaped stone vessel with a diameter of 255 cm and a total height of 330 cm, housed in the Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca. A central pillar crowned with small columns and a lid rises above the basin. The exterior is carved with six arched reliefs, including scenes from the life of Moses, and the lid carries figures of the Apostles and personifications of the Months.

The font is first documented in 1173, when it was filled with water; a 1439 record calls it a marble lavatorium ad manus in the monastery cloister. It was dismantled in the 18th century, and its central part ended up at Villa Mansi in San Martino in Freddana, where figures on the lid were damaged. Reacquired for the Museo nazionale di Firenze in 1894, it was identified in 1926 by the scholar Campetti and reassembled in the basilica in 1952.

The Months carved beneath the cup give the font its everyday calendar: January as two-faced Janus, September treading grapes, December killing a pig. The Apostles ring the lid, Peter holding keys and Judas a money bag. A 1439 document calls a marble lavatorium in the monastery cloister, hinting the basin may first have served for hand-washing.

The font stands in the Basilica of San Frediano; the central pillar was long kept at Villa Mansi in San Martino in Freddana at Loppeglia, and the work was only reassembled and put back in the basilica in 1952. Look for the spiral colonnette added in the 14th century and the 18th-century statuette of the Baptist crowning it.

Only one sculptor signed his work: on the outer basin, beside a prophet under the small arches, the inscription reads "ME FECIT ROBERTUS MAGIST(er) IN A(rt)E P(er)ITUS", naming Master Roberto, probably from Lucca. The other hands, including the Master of the Stories of Moses and the Master of the Months and Apostles, are identified by style alone.