15.1 Profession: Antiquarius
The foregoing chapters have attempted to provide an overview of what is known at present about the life and the career of Jacopo Strada. Some aspects which deserve more detailed consideration have only been touched upon in passing. For instance, an inventory and study of the libri di disegni on various subjects which Strada and his workshop provided to his patrons, a practice assiduously continued by his son Ottavio, would contribute to a better understanding of these interesting objects themselves, on the practice and functions of drawing, and on the intellectual aspects of encyclopaedic collecting in the later sixteenth century. An investigation of Stradaâs approach to numismatic method would throw light on the early history of classical scholarship and on the use of visual classical sources in the art of his period.1 A comparison of his career with that of similar personalitiesâin particular with other self-styled âantiquariesâ, but also with other agents, brokers, dealers and âexpert advisorsââwould add to our knowledge of the dynamics of production, dissemination and reception of ideas, fashions and trends as well as of concrete cultural products. Such a comparison, however, can only be fruitful when the results of empirical research into the activities of a sufficient number of such professionals are available. The present study attempts to provide this for at least one such individual, Jacopo Strada.
The question remains whether at the time the varied group of professionals assuming or being indicated by the term âantiquariusâ was generally considered to belong to one single and established âprofessionâ. As a hypothesis this is doubtful, given that no commonly accepted, unequivocal term exists for representatives of such a profession. In his groundbreaking essay on the role of the antiquary in the study of ancient history, Arnaldo Momigliano complained:
the notion of the âantiquariusâ as a lover, collector and student of ancient traditions and remainsâthough not an historianâis one of the most typical concepts of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century humanism.3
Such passionate interest in remnants of the past could easily lead to severe criticism from sceptical spirits. An example is the lemma Robertus Stephanusâ Thesaurus linguae Latinae of 1543 devoted to the term âAntiquariusâ: here one meaning of the term is someone who is overly fond of ancient or old-fashioned formulaâs of speech, i.e. habitually uses pretentious, tasteless or obsolete phrases.
The second significance given by Stephanus is much more general: âAntiquaries are also called those who are assiduous students and experts of Antiquityâ. So the word antiquarian, used both as a noun and as an adjective, could very generally indicate someone interested and, or knowledgeable in ancient things, including the writings of the past. In this sense the Renaissance humanists all were âantiquariansâ: Stephanus did not distinguish between students of the texts and students of the material remains, and that distinction would have made no sense to a Renaissance antiquary. Though doubtless there were many scholars exclusively devoting themselves to literary testimonials of the past, there were no antiquaries exclusively studying its material remains. After all their interest in such objects was kindled by what they had read in the ancient historians; they needed the texts to identify and explain the objects, and used the objects to interpret or even correct the textual traditions. When Antonio AgustÃn speaks of Lazius as âVolfango è molto antiquario, et buona persona et dottaâ, he used it in this general senseâperhaps even implying some of the positive moral qualities the term also could denote, as ârepresenting the simple virtues of the Ancientsâ. Yet we will see by the very example of Wolfgang Lazius and Jacopo Strada that in the sixteenth century the study of the material remains did develop into a specialized field of expertise.
In the Renaissance the term âAntiquityâ most often implied âclassicalâ Antiquity, the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome; but that is not self-evident from Stephanusâ lemma. In fact many antiquaries followed the precept of the classical study of âantiquitatesâ in also devoting attention to other civilizations and epochs, in particular to the past of their own home towns, fatherlands or peoples. One example is the self-styled antiquarius John Leland, who laid the foundations of British historiography under the aegis of Henry viii. Certainly interest in the one did not exclude a lively interest in the other, witness the various references to Spanish history in Antonio AgustÃnâs correspondence.5
That Leland styled himself âantiquariusâ implies that he must have had a clear concept of its meaning and that he expected others to share thisâan
It is unclear whether self-styled antiquaries such as Leland and Fulvio considered the study of antiquities as (a part of) their âprofessionâ, but if they opted to identify themselves as such that seems not unlikely. If this was the case, they provide an earlier parallel to Strada, who did explicitly consider himself to exercise a âprofessionâ indicated by the term âantiquariusâ.8 On the title page of Stradaâs earliest printed book, the Epitome thesauri antiquitatum of 1553, its provenance âEx Musaeo Iacobi de Strada Mantuani Antiquarijâ is proudly indicated.9 When Strada was first employed by Ferdinand I in 1558, he was appointed as a âBaumeisterâ, that is as an architect, and the second office he obtained after Maximilian iiâs accession is indicated in very general terms as âEin Diener von Haus ausâ. Yet already in his own letter to the young King Maximilian of
⦠to Your Majesty and to the world how much I know and can do in my profession, in which I have not limited myself merely to know the names and to recognize the portraits of the ancient personalities [depicted on the coins], but have learnt by long and assiduous study not only to draw them on paper, but also to model them both in gold and other metals and in marble.10
Stradaâs understanding of the antiquary as a profession was not limited to numismatics, his own specialism and the subject of this letter. Besides documenting ancient coins, Strada himself also engaged in measuring Roman ruins and commissioned documentation of ancient sculpture and other figurative antiquities from other artists, implying that all such remains of ancient civilisations were worthy of careful study and were relevant to his âprofessionâ as an antiquary. Strada asserted that the knowledge of such material remains, and the art of correctly interpreting them, required both practical experience and specialized knowledge. These are professional qualifications: so,
â¦if Doctor Lazius, even though he is an erudite and learned historian, would remember that Greek proverb, he would not pretend to judge the profession of others, for it is not right that the cobbler should judge beyond his last.11
This implies that Strada thought of the antiquary as someone contributing to the study of Antiquity in particular by a profound appreciation and knowledge of its material remains, which he collected, documented and studied in the
A[gustÃn]: Of the Circus Maximus, and other [circuses] that were in Rome I have seen no medals, but only certain drawings of my friend Pirro Ligorio from Naples, a great antiquarian and painter, who without knowing Latin has written more than forty books of [ancient] medals, and of buildings and of other things.
B.: How can that be, that without understanding Latin he could have written well about such things?
A.: In the same way as do Humberto Golzio, Enea Vico, Iacopo Strada, and others, so that who reads their books would believe that they have seen and read all the Latin and Greek books that ever were written. They make use of the labour of others and being able to draw well with a brush, they wield a pen equally well.12
It is actually not easy to understand what AgustÃn exactly meant with this remark. Considering that elsewhere he had spoken with appreciation of Ligorioâs and Vicoâs efforts, had supported Strada against Lazius, and included all
It seems no coincidence that AgustÃn coupled the names of Ligorio, Vico, Goltzius and Strada: though the emphasis differs in each case, their activities largely overlap, and their approach seems very similar [Figs. 15.1â15.4]. Certainly Strada was aware of their existence and their work, and it is very likely that he personally knew them, perhaps already from his stay in Rome in the 1530s and 1540s, if not from his stay in Rome in 1553â1555. In his letter to Maximilian ii he cites an opinion of Pirro Ligorio as an authority, and he certainly frequented Enea Vico in Venice in the mid-1550s: Vico cited coins from Stradaâs collection, just as Strada cited coins from Vicoâs, and they also copied or exchanged each otherâs drawings of ancient sculpture. Moreover, at some time Vico was presented with a coin from Fuggerâs collection through Stradaâs mediation. But Strada knew Vico by reputation even before that, and seems to have been influenced by Vicoâs earlier numismatic works.14 In his exhaustive
Pirro Ligorio, the title page of his Libro delle antichità di Roma, nel quale si tratta deâ circi, theatri et Anfitheatri, Venice 1553
Simon Frisius, after Antonio Moro, portrait of Hubertus Goltzius; engraving from Effigies pictorum aliquot celebrium praecipué Germaniae inferioris, The Hague, 1610
Enea Vico, the pages showing the obverse and the reverses of the coins of Augustus, in his Omnium Caesarum verissimae imagines ex antiquis numismatis desumptae, s.l. 1554.
15.2 Stradaâs Qualities as an Antiquary
The passage in AgustÃnâs Dialogo delle medaglie quoted above shows that in his own time Strada enjoyed a wide reputation as a learned antiquary, at least among the general public. As already indicated in the first chapter, this reputation did not survive the seventeenth century, if so long. His publications were not sufficiently reliable and precise to be of any use to later archaeologists. Moreover, it is clear that, though he recognized and emphasized the value of the artefacts he studied for the history of Antiquity, his use of them was rather limited. In the first place he was only really expert in ancient numismatics, and even then considered the ancient coins primarily for the iconographic information they provided, that is, the features of the historical personalities depicted in their obverses, and the symbolic, emblematic images adorning their reverses. He obviously was aware of the value of such visual material to aid the historical imagination, stressing in a letter to Jacopo Dani that for his Series he had selected the most beautiful and rare large medals, and âquelli che portano la historia con essiâ.16
This suggests that Strada saw his âmedaglioniâ primarily as illustrations of ancient history as known from literary sources. Though he probably grasped the significance of the more adventurous investigations of contemporaries such as Pirro Ligorio, which he probably knew about, and Guillaume du Choul, with whom he was intimate and whose research he supported, he hardly used the material he had collected to draw new conclusions on specific aspects of classical civilization himself.
The only exceptions to this were the fields of architecture, warfare and public festivities. Stradaâs interest in the military strategy and the engineering feats of the Romans is evident in the surveys he collected or commissioned of the friezes of the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome and that of Arcadius in Constantinople, of Serlioâs illustrations of Polybius, and of the reconstructions of Caesarâs battles he published in his 1575 edition of the
In several instances Strada complemented his description of the reverse with a succinct description of the monument itself, based on the available literary sources, but often also including references to relevant inscriptions. Examples are the Mausoleum of Augustus, the aqueduct of the Aqua Claudia, the Colosseum; his description of the âPalatium Nervaeâ is so detailed, and includes an inscription of such a length, that it is evident that he cannot have used an authentic medal or a coin as his (only) source. Other examples are the Circus Maximus and the Pons Aelius, followed by a description of both the bridge and the adjoining mausoleum of Hadrian, now the Castel SantâAngelo [Fig. 15.6].17 Occasionally Stradaâs phrasing suggests his first-hand observationâor rather admirationâof the relics of such monuments, for instance when he comments on the âThermae Antoninaeâ, the Baths of Caracalla [Fig. 15.7 and 15.8]:
Pages from Stradaâs Epitome thesauri antiquitatum, Lyon 1553: image of a coin of the Triumvirs and the description of its reverse (p. 11), and descriptions of the Mausoleum of Hadrian (p. 72) and the Baths of Caracalla (p. 105).
The Baths of Caracalla in their present state of ruined grandeur.
⦠in fact one still sees their incredible ruins, huge walls, most high vaults, most beautiful columns half-standing, large marbles broken and
dispersed, floors in mosaic in black and white, various and spacious rooms, and in some spots deep basins full of water conducted by the Appian aqueduct now mostly damaged or ruined.18
In view of Stradaâs later involvement in festivals organised at the Imperial court, it is of some significance that he also paid detailed attention to public festivities in classical Rome. Thus for Vespasian [Fig. 15.9] he selected a reverse illustrating the Emperorâs triumph after having subdued the Jewish revolt, using an example close to a type actually struck under Titus, interpreting it as the triumphal curricle carrying the Emperor and his son Titus preceding a procession of the spoils of war [Figs. 15.10â15.11].19 Strada then added two and a half pages describing the triumph, a passage taken straight from Book vii of Flavius Josephusâ Judean War.20 Though he did not mention it, he may well have selected this event because it is so well documented in the beautiful reliefs of the Arch of Titus in the Forum Romanum.
The image of Vespasian from Stradaâs Epitome, and an exemplar of the coin type on which he may have based his description of a reverse.
For Trajan [Fig. 15.12] he selected not one of the coins illustrating the famous Column, still standing in the centre of the remains of that Emperorâs forum, as might have been expected in view of his later interest in that monument,
Finally Strada used a coin-type of Domitian for a short explanation of the Secular Games or Ludi Saeculares. He described not so much these games themselves as the three days of religious sacrifices and ceremonies that preceded them, doubtless again basing himself on classical texts. It is such dependence on literary sources that AgustÃn meant when he contended that Strada and his fellow antiquaries âmade use of the labour of othersâ. Indeed, in his text Strada repeatedly refers to the literary sources he had used for individual passages, and he pays ample tribute to the many friends and colleagues who had contributed to the material he collected and with whom he had critically discussed his finds and their interpretation.
In his preface Strada compares his effort favourably with those of existing and prospective rivals, thinking that none of them could beat him as to the quantity of images included, or the diligence in which he had searched for them. He stresses the importance of critically examining each item in order to select true, ancient exemplars and to avoid modern counterfeits, being perfectly aware that ânowadays one finds so many excellent and subtle sculptors, that truly they merit to be prized no less than the ancients [themselves]â. For the same reason one should carefully consider the workmanship of each object: Strada claims to have done his utmost to select images of outstanding beauty and elegance.
His selection of the reverses described doubtless reflected Stradaâs own interests. His preface was probably a sincere statement of his intentions; and his Epitome thesauri antiquitatum did satisfy the very many contemporaries who wished to own a copy. Yet it is not surprising that it did not satisfy later serious numismatists, for the book was in fact not very numismatic in character. Though the ancient coins at first sight appear to be its raison dâêtre, and in its preface Strada did talk about the ample quantity of coins he had documented, the coins of which he illustrated the obverses are never described as objectsânot even the metal is givenâand it seems that the reverses described are rarely related to the obverses illustrated [cf. Figs. 15.9â15.14]. The clue to this enigma can be found in the subtitle of the Latin version:
Epitome Thesauri Antiquitatum,
hoc est, impp. Rom. Orientalium et Occidentalium Iconum,
ex antiquis Numismatibus quam fidelissimè
deliniatarum
Abridgment of the Treasure house of Antiquities,
That is, Images of the Roman Emperors of the East and the West
most faithfully drawn after [their] ancient coins
This makes clear that the book was not intended primarily as a manual for collectors of ancient coins. The medals merely served as the source for the images, the portraits or effigies of the Emperors, the lives and connections of whom are the true object of the book and of its intended readership. From that point of view the book makes sense: basically it is a relatively careful and precise compilation of historical facts taken from literary sources, aiming to make the history of the Roman Empire, including its Byzantine and German successors up to the present day, easily accessible to a well-educated, but not necessarily scholarly audience. The French edition Strada published simultaneously shows that he aimed at a wide-ranging readership. Thus, the Epitome fits squarely into the tradition of Bildnisvitenbücher first investigated by Paul Ortwin Rave.22
Strada did tryâor at least pretendedâto present historically valid images, based on existing coins orâwhen these were lackingâon seals or other material sources. This distinguishes both the contents and the readership of his book from those of more fanciful bestsellers such as Guillaume Rouilléâs Promptuarium. It is useful to compare Stradaâs Epitome also with a more serious competitor such as Enea Vicoâs Le immagini con tutti i riversi trovati et le vite de gli imperatori, printed in Venice in 1558. The latter is more elegant and shows the images of many reverses, but it is limited to the first twelve Emperors. Stradaâs treatise is far more comprehensive: it provides a repertory of all those individuals who had attained or pretended to the purple and their dependents. Moreover, Stradaâs compilations of their biographies, though eminently readable, are more serious and far more detailed.
The apparatus which Stradaâs adds to his volume corroborates its intended function as a work of reference. Only the first of the three indices has a truly numismatic function: this is a list of the inscriptions of all those coins he included which had not been published earlier [Fig. 15.15]. The other two are a chronological index of all personages included and a very comprehensive alphabetical index, including references both to these personages again (printed in capitals) and to events and objects discussed (printed in italics) [Fig. 15.16â15.17]. This section closes with a page listing âErrata sic corrigitoâ.23
15.3 Stradaâs Method
In addition to these indices, Strada also included a family tree clarifying the genealogy of the Julio-Claudian dynasty into the Epitome. Though it cannot compare in splendour and detail with Enea Vicoâs huge print of 1555 showing the genealogical ramifications of the first twelve Emperors with surprising precision, Stradaâs scheme shows that he was well aware of the use of such up-to-date graphical aids to quick comprehension [Fig. 15.18].24
The image of Trajan from Stradaâs Epitome, and an exemplar of the coin type on which he based his description of a reverse.
The three indices appended to Stradaâs Epitome thesauri antiquitatum: a list of coin-inscriptions not published earlier, a chronological register of theindividuals included, and an alphabetical index.
Family tree of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, inserted into Stradaâs Epitome thesauri antiquitatum after the chapter of its last Emperor, Nero.
Strada owed such systematic rigour to his close connections with Hans Jakob Fugger and the very learned men of his circle, such as the zoologist and bibliographer Conrad Gesner and the Greek scholar Hieronymus Wolf, who served as Fuggerâs librarian and who developed the intricate and efficient shelving system which was later adapted for use in the library of Duke Albrecht
The uniform formula Strada developed for these descriptions likewise probably reflects methodical practice current in Fuggerâs circle, in particular the uniform entries on individual authors in Conrad Gesnerâs Bibliotheca Universalis.25 Each entry gives a standardised methodical description first of the obverse, than of the reverse of the coin, always concluding with its inscription; the entry always closes with a mention of the specimen on which the description is based, naming the metal, providing an indication of its size and sometimes its quality, and the collection in which Strada had seen it, for instance: âThis most elegant and large coin was shown to us by Julius Romanus in Mantuaâ.26
The contents of these descriptions are as interesting for what they omit as for what they include. Strada must have been aware of the usage as currency of the coins he described, and he did at least distinguish the material of his exemplars. But he did not specify their exact size and weight; consequently the currency value of the coins are not noted. This suggests that his interest in them was primarily iconographical: his aim was to reproduce the images, to identify the portraits on the obverses and the objects on the reverses, and then to interpret their symbolism and to explain their historical significance.
When he turned to the reverses, however, Stradaâs approach was much less discrete, and he was much quicker prepared to interpret what he saw in the light of his historical knowledge. Though the descriptions have a similar structure as those of the obverses, the objects depicted are often not merely described, but also identifiedâespecially when they represent triumphs or games organized, and public works or monuments realized during the reign of the Emperor depicted on the obverse. In his preface to the DιαÏÎºÎµÏ Î· Strada gives an exhaustive list of the types of military and civil institutions and of the monuments documented in such coins. He moreover claims that he conferred these images with the remains of the original constructions, if still extant. Though he does not cite the relevant sources, it is obvious that his identifications were based both on ancient texts and on the authors of the later antiquarian tradition, such as Flavio Biondoâs Roma Instaurata. As in the Epitome, the images documenting monumental buildings are exhaustively described, in far greater detail than was warranted by the image on the actual coin.
That in these descriptions Strada, instead of documenting an individual coin type, reconstructs the monument depicted on it, is corroborated by the related drawings in his numismatic albums. Thus Stradaâs drawing of a coin type of Trajan showing the Circus Maximus, roughly five times the size of the actual object, shows many worked-out details which are not found, and could not have been shown in the coin [Figs. 15.19â15.20].
The same holds for Stradaâs drawing of a reverse of a coin of Trajan which is traditionally interpreted as (a section of) the famous bridge across the Danube built by that Emperor [Fig. 15.21]. Though in his description in the DιαÏκεÏ
η, Strada mentions that possibility, he himself interprets it as a âportusâ, a harbour, naval arsenal or boathouse. His corresponding drawing [Fig. 15.22] owes much to contemporary representations of the principal element of a theatre for a Naumachia or mock sea-battle, such as those included in Pirro Ligorioâs Anteiquae Urbis Imago [Fig. 15.23]. Stradaâs suggestion that the object represented on the coin is not a bridge at all is not implausible and in any case demonstrates the ingenuity and creativity of his approach.27
Reverse of a coin of Trajan, showing the Circus Maximus, compared to Stradaâs design of a similar type, in his Vienna Series, önb-hs, ms. 9414, fol. 96.
Reverse of coin of Trajan, showing a bridge (?) and Stradaâs drawing of a similar type, in his Vienna Series, önb-hs, ms. 9414, fol. 88, interpreting it as a boathouse or a theatre for staging naval battles or Naumachia.
Pirro Ligorio: reconstruction of a Roman Naumachia, detail of his Anteiquae Urbis Imago (1561).
Strada appears to have derived some elements from a coin type of Nero, depicting a triumphal arch [Fig. 15.24], for his drawing of the reverse of an unidentifed, probably spurious coin he assigned to Vespasian [Fig. 15.25]. But his drawing again shows a wealth of detail which could never have been readable in his model. In fact, such Mannerist detail looks suspiciously similar to that of ephemeral arches designed for festive entries of Stradaâs own time, to which he occasionaly contributed designs, rather than to the still existing antique
Reverse of a coin of Nero, showing a Triumphal Arch, compared to Stradaâs design of a similar type, in his Magnum ac novum opus in Gotha, vol. 11, fol. 27.
In a similar reconstruction of a triumphal arch [Figs. 15.26â15.28] Strada adapted the decorative scenes of the socle zone directly from the two famous reliefs of the triumph after the Judaean War on the inside of the Arch of Titus. The trophies, the quadriga and the Victories on top of the arch are very similar to
Jacopo Strada, drawings of the reverse of a coin of Vespasian, in his Magnum ac novum opus in Gotha, vol. 11, fol. 17, showing a triumphal arch; and details of its socle zone including free versions of the reliefs on the inside of the the Arch of Titus in the Forum Romanum.
A spurious coin of Hadrian, probably a sixteenth- century imitation, showing the Pons Aelius, compared to Stradaâs drawing of the type in his Vienna Series, önb-hs, ms. 9414, f. 33.
As discussed in Chapter 2, Strada first learned to document antiquarian material in the immediate circle of Giulio Romano, on the basis not only of Giulioâs own splendid numismatic collection, which is cited as the source of many coins described in Stradaâs DιαÏκεÏ
η, but also of Giulioâs own reinterpretation of such sources. A good example is Stradaâs reconstruction of the Pons Aelius in Rome, now known as Ponte SantâAngelo [Fig. 15.31]. Though ostensibly based on a Hadrianic coin type, which in fact appears to have been a Renaissance invention [Fig. 15.29], Stradaâs drawing [Fig. 15.30] owed a lot to Giulioâs reconstruction of that monument in the background of his Vision of
That Strada followed Giulioâs interpretation is borne out by a comparison with the rather different reconstruction in Pirro Ligorio Anteiquae Urbis Imago of 1561 [Fig. 15.33]. But Strada was faithful neither to the coin, nor to Giulioâs model, nor even to the still existing bridge: he reconstructed its substructure as though executed in bugnato, heavy rustica masonry.
In this he appears here to have inspired himself on contemporary architecture, such as Giulioâs garden facade of the Palazzo del Te or his Pescheria in Mantua, rather than directly on classical models [Figs. 15.34â15.35]. This means that he presented the bridge not as it is actually shown in the reverse, but as he thought it originally looked like, or perhaps even as he thought it ought to have been depicted on the coin. A parallel to this high esteem for contemporary
The Pons Aelius, now Ponte SantâAngelo, in Rome (second century ad, balustrade and sculptures seventeenth century)
Giulio Romano, the Pons Aelius, detail of his fresco The Vision of the Cross, Sala di Costantino, Vatican Palace, compared with Pirro Ligorioâs reconstruction in his Anteiquae Urbis Imago.
Giulio Romano, garden facade of the Palazzo del Te and the Pescheria or covered fish market, both in Mantua.
Details from the âSpecimen exileâ of Wolfgang Laziusâ planned catalogue of the Imperial coin collection, compared to Stradaâs drawing of a reverse of a coin of Vespasian showing a similar round or tetrastyle temple, in his Magnum ac novum opus in Gotha, vol. 11, fol. 13.
15.4 Stradaâs Aims
Altogether, it appears that Strada attempted to unite three different, not always easily compatible aims:
- âhe wished to collect, document and study the remains of the past, and thus to contribute to a better understanding and appreciation of its glories, in particular of the Roman Empire;
- âhe wished to disseminate the material he collected to a wider interested public, at first through the drawings he made for Hans Jakob Fuggerâs library, but soon also in print, as has been related in Chapter 14.
This ambition was not limited to purely historical and antiquarian subjects, but soon became encyclopaedic in character, as is clear from Stradaâs editorial projects discussed in that chapter:
- âin addition to the advancement of learning about the glorious past, it was also Stradaâs ambition to exploitâand to help his patrons and readers exploitâits greatest achievements: he wished to further the use of Antiquity and of the works of its Italian emulators as examples for contemporary projects.
15.4.1 The Glories of Antiquity
There can be no doubt that Strada was deeply interested in the actual, authentic material relics of the past; he went literally out of his way to find rare authentic pieces, as the list of collections he visited makes clear. His practice of including empty circles in his Epitome, in lieu of the coins of those rulers of whom he had not (yet) found a reliable numismatic image, indicates his ambition to provide authentic sources. As such he must be taken more seriously as a scholarly antiquary than at least some of his colleagues: he certainly did not invent quantities of images wholesale, as did Guillaume Rouillé in his Promptuarium.
Nevertheless, from Stradaâs selection and in his representation of the objects included, it appears that his concept of authenticity was rather different from ours, and even from that of some of his contemporaries. Though he was quite aware of the existence of very deceptive forgeries, and explicitly warns for these, in practice he was rather uncritical. Thus he included many images and descriptions of coins which appear not to have existed in exactly that form, as was noted even by some of his contemporaries. He may occasionally have been taken in by excellent imitations such as Cavinoâs, or outright fakes, but it is more likely that he sometimes inadvertently or deliberately mixed up his drawings and his notes. Thus he ranged among the gold coins a head or a reverse which probably exists only in bronze; he borrowed an inscription from one coin-type to restore a damaged original of another type; or he combined obverse and reverse of different coins to come up with a convincing ensemble.
It seems that for him true authenticity was to be found in showing the objects as they were in their prime: thus he also restored in pen-and-ink many of the statues included in his manuscript Statuarum antiquarum, and was involved in the restorations of the actual marbles he acquired on behalf of the Duke of Bavaria. Moreover, like a humanist philologist intent not only in restoring an ancient text, but also in emending it to make it more comprehensible, Strada thought it quite legitimate to show a coin as it should have been designed, rather than as it was, in order better to convey the âgrandeur that was Romeâ. As a method this is questionable: Strada forgot that the humanist editor always emended later, defective copies, and in his emendation tried to reconstitute the lost original; whereas Stradaâs âemendationâ improves on the original itself, at the expense of what we would consider the authenticity of his documentation.
Stradaâs drawings present idealized images of their objects, not merely restoring the damage caused by time and use, but also improving the original design. It provides the observer with an ideal representation or reconstruction of Antiquity. If that was Stradaâs aim, it is easy to understand his criticism of the way in which Wolfgang Lazius and his engraver, Hans Lautensack, had reproduced the coins in the sample they had had printed to promote their planned illustrated catalogue of the Imperial collection [Figs. 15.36â15.37]:
Even if a medal is somewhat defective, it does not for that reason loose the perfection of its design. They [Lazius and his engraver] look at nothing but the outside contours, showing the damage to the rim; so that whoever looks at it will conclude that His Majesty has the most unsightly [âgoffeâ] medals in the world.30
There is a world of difference indeed between Laziusâ and Lautensackâs careful rendering of the actual coins in Ferdinandâs collection and Stradaâs own detailed drawing of a restored reverse, drawn at roughly five times the size of the numismatic model, which allows a careful reconstruction of the monument it illustrates [Fig. 15.38]. In Stradaâs eyes Ferdinand was not served by Lautensackâs âclumsyâ engravings of second-rate and damaged objects, however authentic, but only by beautiful and refined images evoking the splendour of the Emperorâs august predecessors, which helped enhance his prestige. When Strada distinguishes his âprofessionâ or vocation from that of Lazius, he implied two distinct, but equivalent, competences. He prized his capacity to provide such careful reconstructions, visual interpretations or explanations of the objects and their iconography, as highly as his purely antiquarian expertise, which allowed him to accurately transcribe and interpret the inscriptions on the coins, to attribute them correctly, and to place them in the context provided by the relevant literary sources.
In June 1559, Strada referred in a letter to Fugger to the âinterpretationeâ his fellow antiquary Antoine Morillon had provided of the ancient stelae, altars and tombs illustrated in an album in the possession of Cardinal Granvelle. He praised Morillon not only for his industry (âfaticaâ) but also for his ingenuity (Morillon was âcapricciosoâ), which had enabled him to get right (âindovinareâ,
Stradaâs reconstructions discussed above give some inkling of what he considered convincing and pleasing. That differs very considerably from the norm maintained by some of his contemporaries, such as Lazius, Panvinio and AgustÃn. But his approach does not differ so very much from that of Guillaume du Choul, who used some of Stradaâs reconstructions to illustrate his own treatises reconstructing aspects of classical Antiquity [above, Ch. 3.5.3, Figs. 3.55â3.57]. And it is equally close to Serlioâs, who exploited his considerable, well-informed imagination in a similar way when representing the ancient monuments of Rome or reconstructing the Roman Castra as described by Polybius.
There is a case to be made that both Stradaâs image of Antiquity and his antiquarian approach ultimately hark back to his earliest Mantuan memories, to even before the advent of Giulio Romano. They are ultimately rooted in his admiration for the works realized in Mantua by Andrea Mantegna and his followers at the end of the Quattrocento, which were as reverent of the Classical past as Giulioâs. In his article, âArchaeology and Romanceâ, Charles Mitchell discussed the archaeological excursion cum picnic undertaken by Andrea Mantegna and his friends, the Veronese antiquary Felice Feliciano and the magistrate Samuele da Tradate along the shores of Lake Garda. His conclusion can be applied with equal force to Stradaâs approach:
<â¦>their learning<â¦>anticipated their objective: they were looking, not so much for novel finds, as for fresh reflections and confirmations of an Antiquity that shone in their imaginations. Antiquity was becoming an ideal of life, rather than an object of inquiry.32
15.4.2 Sharing Knowledge: The Encyclopaedic Ambition
If Titianâs portrait of Strada can be considered an example of that masterâs psychological penetration, there can be no doubt about the enthusiasm with which Strada shared his possessions and his passions with his patrons,
But Stradaâs ambition owed as much to Italian as to German example. The emphasis on the use of classical sources in Stradaâs dictionary project corresponds with contemporary humanist preoccupations; in particular it reflects ideas current in the learned circles around the Papal Curia in Rome, with which Fugger himself was in close contact. An emphasis on the material remainsâas most reliable sources for ancient historyâand therefore on antiquarian examination and documentation of inscriptions, coins, objects and figurative works of art was a component of such studies at least since Raphaelâs appointment, in 1515, as supervisor of all archaeological finds in Rome. Already in his teens in Mantua, Strada had been initiated in these ideas by Raphaelâs favourite pupil, Giulio Romano, and he had obtained ample first-hand experience in the field during his prolonged sojourns in Rome in the 1530s and the mid 1550s. The idea to codify the results of such studies in an alphabetically ordered and illustrated dictionary or encyclopaedia was initiated in this Roman circle, and various relics of these efforts are preserved, for instance in the work of Stradaâs colleague, the architect and antiquary Pirro Ligorio.33 But Stradaâs ambition to extend such a work beyond Antiquity and the classical languages appears to have been his own idea. In part it was a logical consequence of his close connection with Fugger, whose interests included the later history of the Holy Roman Empire as well as practical contemporary politics, and in part of Stradaâs permanence at the multilingual Vienna court, where both ideological and practical reasons created a demand for it. Stradaâs wish to reach an audience beyond that of the professional intellectuals thus was the consequence of the demand of his patrons, as much as of his own didactic ambitions.
15.4.3 Examples to Emulate: Antiquity in Contemporary Dress
Strada owed his admiration for the ancients and for the works of art they created directly to his apprenticeship in the studio of Giulio Romano, and indirectly to Giulioâs teacher Raphael. Their example showed him not only how to document and interpret the material remains of a venerated Antiquity, but also how to translate that experience towards new, original works of art. Considering the splendour, the elegance, the profound understanding of the classical precept that characterizes the work of these two masters, especially in architecture and decoration, it is not surprising that their practice would become a paradigm of excellence for a young, ambitious artist such as Jacopo Strada. The designs of the buildings with which he himself can be associated, such as the Stallburg, his own house and the Neugebäude in Vienna, and his design for the Munich Antiquarium show that he had taken their example to heart. But Strada did not limit his efforts to propagating their legacy and to tacitly following their example in his own works. As discussed in Chapter 13.8, he also commissioned splendid sets of documentary drawings of their principal works, which he intended to publish.
Workshop of Jacopo Strada, design for a helmet in the âantiqueâ style and for a turban
Workshop of Jacopo Strada, two designs of an ornamental ewer and a vase; Wolfegg, Kunstsammlungen der Fürsten Waldburg-Wolfegg.
It is important to realize that this project is closely connected to Stradaâs efforts to publish authentic antique remains. The manner in which he describes Giulioâs frieze in the Camera degli Stucchi in the Palazzo del Te, presenting it as the equivalent of the frieze of the Trajanic column, shows that for Strada the emulation of the classical example was not only a possibility but a self-evident artistic necessity. That conviction is reflected not only in his reconstructions of ancient monuments in his numismatic drawings shown above, but also in the mannerist designs for festival costumes and sumptuous gold and silver tableware collected in his libri deâ disegni, which were explicitly presented as âin the antique mannerâ. The title of the Vienna album of helmets and related headdresses stresses itsânot exclusivelyâantique origins:
Ancient crested helmets such as in the past were used by the Greeks and the Romans and by other peoples both in spectacles and public games, and in the wars; the forms and images whereof have been derived from bronze and marble statues, as well as from bronze, silver and gold coins, and most precisely and exquisitely drawn.34
Whereas in fact they are largely derived from designs for fanciful costumes made for contemporary festivitiesâa supposition borne out not only by the style of the designs, but also by the inclusion of Turkish turbans and medieval helmets, reminding one of the many tournaments based on the tales of Ariosto and Tasso and on Amadis de Gaule, for which the originals that Strada copied had been designed [Fig. 15.39â15.40 and above, Figs. 4.26â4.31].
The same holds for the various sets of drawings after ornamental vases that can be attributed to Strada and his workshop, some of which explicitly pose as antiques. Several of these carry inscriptionsânot necessarily in Stradaâs own handâidentifying the alleged finding spots of these vases, or rather more often of âa similar vaseâ or âsuch a vaseâ. Instances are âA vase such as this was found outside of Naples in a vinyeard, it was of silver, and was brought to Rome to Cardinal della Vallaâ [Fig. 15.41] and âSuch a vase as this was found in the Forum of Trajan, and was of gold; a work never seen again in our time, and it was destroyed during the Sack of Romeâ [Fig. 15.42].35 Notwithstanding such
Combining antique precept and models with contemporary examples, and combining both in new creations, was by no means rare in the sixteenth century. Strada shared this practice with many of his fellow artistsâone thinks of Pirro Ligorioâs Casino built for Pope Pius iv in the Vatican gardens. It also appealed to the patrons commissioning building such as the Casino, though it appealed perhaps less to Stradaâs scholarly acquaintances such as AgustÃn, who more clearly distinguished between a sixteenth-century Christian present and a glorious, but distant, pagan past that was irrevocably lost.
This is the object of a research project at the Forschungszentrum Gotha, aimed at the digitization and the examination in context of Stradaâs numismatic corpus, the Magnum ac novum opus, preserved in the Forschungsbibliothek Gotha (cf. above, Ch. 3.3, and below, passim). The project is undertaken by Dr Volker Heenes and the author, with financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft/dfg.
Momigliano 1950, p. 286. Since Momigliano antiquarianism has developed into a flourishing specialism within the humanities: aspects have been treated by Eric Cochraneâs Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance: (Cochrane 1981), in particular Ch. 15; Francis Haskellâs History and its Images (Haskell 1993), Philip Jacksâ The Antiquarian and the Myth of Antiquity: The Origins of Rome in Renaissance Thought (Jacks 1993), and in various collections of conference papers and collaborative studies, first of all many essays in the three volumes of Memoria dellâAntico nellâarte Italiano, edited by Salvatore Settis (Memoria DellâAntico 1984â1986) and further Crawford/Ligota 1995; Miller 2007 and Miller/Louis 2012.
Momigliano 1950, p. 290.
S.v. in: Robertus Stephanus, Dictionarium seu latinae linguae thesaurus non singulas modo dictiones continens sed integras quoque latine et loquendi et scribendi formulas (etc.), Editio secunda, Tomus 1, Parisiis (Robertus Stephanus), 1543. For other examples of the use of the word, see Momigliano 1950, p. 290, n. 1.
Cf. his discussion of the origin of the title of grandee of Spain in his letters to Onufrio Panvinio of 14 and 28 August 1557: AgustÃn 1980, nrs. 185â186.
Though Leland styled himself an antiquary in a pamphlet offered to Henry viii, there is no evidence that this title was attached to his function at court, cf. Momigliano 1950, pp. 313â314.
This point is made in Ingo Herklotz, âArnaldo Momiglianoâs âAncient History and the Antiquarianâ: A Critical Reviewâ, in Miller 2007, pp. 127â153, in particular Section iii: âLiterary and Non-Literary Sourcesâ(pp. 136â141).
One might ask what Strada can have meant with he term âprofessionâ, which itself has a range of connotationsâfrom simple âlivelihoodâ or âmeans of subsistenceâ, via âschooled craft or artâ and âvocationâ, to the explicit public presentation or âprofessionâ of a given science and/or conviction. All these connotations existed in the sixteenth century, and Stradaâs use of the term reflects at least some of them. Since he does not specify these, I have not attempted a further interpretation.
But Strada does not use the term on the earlier title pages of his albums of numismatic drawings in Gotha (1550, for Hans Jakob Fugger) and Paris (1554).
Doc. 1559-06-00; Jansen 1993(a), pp. 233â235; cf. above, Ch. 4.2. In an earlier letter to King Ferdinand I [Doc 1558-02-21b] Strada had explained the insufficient result of the coin-catalogue planned by Lazius and the local engraver Hans Sebald Lautensack by their lack of âprofessionalâ experience.
Doc. 1559-06-00, Strada to Maximilian ii; Jansen 1993(a), pp. 233â235; cf. above, Ch. 4.2.
AgustÃn 1587, pp. 131â132: âDel circo Maximo, y de otros que hauia en Roma no he visto medallas, solamente he visto ciertos debuxos de Pyrrho Ligori Napolitano, conocido myo gran antiquario, y pintor, el qual sin saber Latin ha escrito mas de quarenta libros de medallas y edificios, y de otras cosas. Ð. Como puede ser, que sin saber Latin sеÑа escriuir bien destas cosas? A. Como escriuen Humberto Volcio [sic] y Enea Vico y Iacomo Estrada, y otros que quien lee sus libros pensara que han visto, y leido todos los libros Latinos, y Griegos que hai escritos. Ayudanse del trabajo de otros, y con debuxar bien con el pinzel, hazen otro tanto con la pluma. Pero boluamos à las medallas.â; in the Italian translation by Dionisio Ottaviano Sada, AgustÃn 1592 (a), pp. 117: âDel Circo Massimo, e dâaltri che erano in Roma non nâho vedute medaglie, ma solamente nâho veduti certi disegni di Pirro Ligori Napoletano mio conoscente grande antiquario, e pittore, il quale senza saper latino ha scritto più di quaranta libri di medaglie, dâedifitij, e dâaltre cose. B. Come può essere che senza sapere latino possi scrivere bene di queste cose? A. Come scriue Humberto Goltzio, et Enea Vico, et Iacomo Strada, et altri che chi legge i loro libri penserà che habbino veduto, e letto tutti i libri Latini, e Greci che sono scritti, aiutonsi delle fatiche dâaltri, e con disegnar bene col pennello fanno altro tanto con la penna. Ma torniamo alle medaglie<â¦>â; another translation published in the same year by Ascanio Donangeli (AgustÃn 1592(b).
The English translation as given in Stenhouse 2005, p. 80, is mistaken: Spanish âotro tantoâ, in the Italian translation âaltro tantoâ (modern: âaltrettantoâ) means âjust as muchâ, âequallyâ, not âotherwiseâ. The free translation given in Mandowsky/Mitchell 1963, pp. 30â31 implies the same mistaken interpretation. AgustÃnâs esteem of his antiquarian friends was definitely more positive that these translations suggest: âthough they made use of the research done by others, they wrote as well as they drewâ.
Bodon 1997, pp. 61â67, 172, 176; Jansen 1993(a), pp. 232. Vicoâs Le Imagini con tutti i riversi trovati et le vite degli [xii] imperatori tratte dalle medaglie et dalle historie degli antichi<â¦>, published by Zantani in 1548 (Vico 1548) must have impressed Strada for its elegance and the precison of its images. The idea to include empty circles illustrating emperors of which no authentic coin had (yet) been found, and the addition of elegant frontispieces with an âelogioâ for each emperor are among the aspects Strada practises in his own Epitome and/or his manuscript numismatic albums. Vico moved to Ferrara before Stradaâs visits to Venice in 1566â1569, so he was not among the âorefici o disegnatori di stampe in rame, o miniatoriâ with whom Strada associated according to Nicolò Stopioâs letter of 15 June 1567 [BHStA-LA 4852, fol. 35â36/29â30; cf. above, Ch. 2.5.2]. But they appear to have corresponded, and Strada remained in contact with the Ferrara court also through Giovan Battista Pigna, Alfonso iiâs secretary and historiographer.
Bodon 1997, p. 82.
Strada to Jacopo Dani, 17 June 1573 (Doc. 1573-06-17): âOra Vostra Signoria sappia che doppo châio son vivo, non ò mai fatto altro che accumular medaglie e coppie di esse, et la mia Series è tanto coppiosa quanto imaginar si possa; et sempre ò pigliato medaglioni, li più belli e li più rari, et quelli che portano la historia con essi, che io habbia fra di essa.â
Strada 1553(a), pp. 18â19 (Tiberius); 27â28 (Claudius); 56 (Titus); 62â63 (Nerva); 65â68 (Trajan) and 71â72 (Hadrian). Other coin reverses described as showing public and religious buildings are those of Augustus (Temple of Peace), Didius Julianus (Temple with Ionic columns), Septimius Severus (Septizonium), Heliogabalus (Temple), Alexander Severus (Colosseum and Triumphal Arch of Titus). For a more detailed listing, see Heenes 2003, pp. 18â20.
Strada 1553(a), p. 105.
Here, as elsewhere in this chapter, I have presented coin images of which the visual qualities are such that they may have served as Stradaâs sources; I have not attempted a definitive identifcation of the particular coin types Strada used. Such an identifcation has been undertaken by Volker Heenes, whose findings and critical analysis of Stradaâs numismatic practice will become available with the results of our collective research project, Jacopo Stradaâs Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus, which is financed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and based at the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt (fzg). Not wishing to anticipate his findings, I have not revised this section of my thesis, except as to find better exemplars of the coin-types I discuss.
Strada 1553(a), pp. 50â52; the text corresponds to Flavius Josephusâs Jewish War, Book viii, 116â155, cf. Josephus/ Thackeray 1961, pp. 538â551.
Strada 1553(a), pp. 65â68, again based on sources (âex variae autoribus desumptamâ). Strada refers to Dio Cassius and âSextus Ruffusâ, the mysterious author of the treatise De regionibus Urbis Romae first published by Onofrio Panvinio (Frankfurt 1558), which Strada quoted either from the manuscript in the library of Monte Cassino or, more likely, from extracts inserted in Flavio Biondoâs Roma instaurata (Verona 1482); cf. Jacks 1993, pp. 116, 311.
Rave 1959; see also Haskell 1993, Chs. A and 2; Cunnally 1999, passim.; Heenes 2003, pp. 18â20; Heenes 2010.
Strada 1553(a), fol. B3r.âC3r.: âIndex numismatum quae nusquam antea in lucem sunt editaâ; fol. Cv.âE3r.: âIndex imperatorum seu caesarum, eo ipso ordine, quo sibi ipsis invicem successeruntâ; fol. E3v.âL3r.: âIndex rerum, vocum et sententiarum maxime insignium, ordine alphabetico digestusâ.
I am grateful to Dr Ulrike Peter to have drawn my attention to the Vico print, on which see Peter/Rubach 2011; Stradaâs genealogy mentioned and illustrated on pp. 90â91.
On Fuggerâs circle, see above, Chs. 3.1 and 3.2. Stradaâs numismatic practice merits a more detailed investigation than is possible here; in addition the empirical, methodological aspects, it might be worthwhile to define the role played by the ekphrasis, the verbal description of a work of art (e.g. the shield of Achilles in the Iliad) that was an element in classical rhetoric, and of which Strada must have been very much aware.
A discussion of these descriptions and the drawings to which they relate in Jansen 1993(a), pp. 216â220; some examples are given in its annex 1 (pp. 227â230).
Cf. Jansen 1993(a), pp. 219, note 22.
In view of the close correspondence between the Renaissance imitation and the fresco, it cannot be excluded that the imitation may have been based on Giulioâs reconstruction, rather than the other way around.
Above, Ch. 14.7.3.
Lazius 1558; Jacopo Strada to MartÃn de Guzmán, Doc. 1558-02-21(b), transcribed in Appendix A. It should be noted that Strada also criticized the rendering of the inscriptions on the coins, which were often mistaken, causing many coins to be assigned to the wrong ruler; doubtless it was this, rather than the way they were reproduced, that moved Antonio AgustÃn to support Strada in the ensuing controversy.
Doc. 1559-06-06, transcribed in Appendix A.
Mitchell 1960, p. 478.
Cf. above, Ch. 3.7.1.
Vienna, önb-hs, Cod. min. 21,1: Galearum antiquarum cristatarum quibus olim Graeci et Romani atque alii etiam populi tam in spectaculis et in ludis publicis, quam in bellis usi sunt, formae atque imagines ex aeneis atque marmoreis statuis tum etiam ex aeneis, argenteis aureis que numismatibus desumptae, et elegantissimae aptissimaeque delineatae. Ex Musaeo Jacobi de Stradae. Mantvani. Caess. Antiquarii civis Romani. The same holds for the title of the Dresden album of festival designs (above, Ch. 4.3.5.).
Two drawings from a set of 61 drawings from an album of at least 66 that was at a later date incorporated in an album in the collections of the Princes Waldburg-Wolfegg. They can be related to several other albums of similar designs from the Stradasâ workshop; cf. Hayward 1970; Bukovinská/FuÄÃková/KoneÄný 1984; Fuhring 2003; Taylor 2014.