Page - XIX - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

xixAcknowledgements partner in my further research into this splendid complex. Mario Carpo’s help in the reconstruction of Strada’s house and on Strada’s relationship with Serlio has been invaluable. Duncan Bull made me realize the relative importance of the document which probably represents a partial inventory of Strada’s col- lection—or dealer’s stock; his enthusiasm greatly stimulated my decision to take up my project again after a long interval of other work. Veronica Dirk- sen, at that time my boss at POSG Hedel, not only allowed, but encouraged me to spend some of my working time in research for this project. Finally, for sustained and continuous interest, support, suggestions, and encouragement I  owe a big debt to Elišká Fučíková and to Thomas daCosta Kaufmann. Specific information or insights due to specific individuals I have acknowledged in the footnotes as much as possible, hoping that those whom I may inadvertently have forgotten will forgive me. The present book is a slightly revised version of what was my belated doc- toral dissertation at Leiden University, 2015. It is satisfaction that here I am no longer barred by Leiden custom to acknowledge the critical contribution of the members of the reading committee, Jeroen Duindam, Robert Evans and Koen Ottenheim, and the patience, precision, wise counsel and encour- agement of Nicolette Mout, under whose guidance the project was finally brought to fruition. The revision has profited from my continuing work on Strada, as a research-fellow in the project Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus at the Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt; I am indebted to many discussions and exchanges of information with my colleagues, Martin Mulsow and Volker Heenes, and for their patience with my distraction during the last phase of the revision. I am particularly indebted to Bernd Kulawik, an invaluable associate of the project, who has taken the trouble to read and comment the text in great detail. My thanks are due, moreover, to the publisher, Brill at Leiden, for their decision to include the book in the Series Rulers and Elites. I am particularly obliged to the editor of the series, Jeroen Duindam, whose insistent stimulus proved essential to overcome the last hurdles in finishing the project. The book is richly illustrated: this would not have been possible without the generosity and public spirit of the many institutions who made the im- ages of the objects in their care available for free or at a nominal charge, and the individual photographers who have released their work in the public do- main or share it under a Creative Commons licence. I am indebted to my sister Jeske Jansen, who helped organize the administration of the illustrations, and to my Gotha colleagues Erdmut Jost, who helped prepare the definitive image files and list of illustrations with indefatigable patience and acumen, and Jens