Page - 171 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

171In Hans Jakob Fugger’s Service medagliere of his other famous colleague, Enea Vico, but it appears that this visit took place in Venice.117 The most important collection Strada studied, however, was that belonging to Antonio Agustín, which appears to have been Strada’s primary source, of even greater importance than his own collection. In the five volumes I have been able to study Strada mentions about sixty to seventy serious collectors, but Agustín’s medagliere alone is responsible for over a fifth of the coins de- scribed. Though it is well known that Agustín was one of the principal experts in the field, whose Dialogos de medallas, inscriciones y otras antiguedades of 1587 remains an important source for the history of numismatics in the Re- naissance, very little is known about his collection.118 Strada’s descriptions are of signal importance in an attempt at reconstruction, a reconstruction that should be based on the holdings of the Royal Collection in Madrid, because King Philip ii inherited most of Agustín’s library and collections. Certainly it was of outstanding quality, if Strada so often preferred Agustìn’s exemplar of a given type to those preserved elsewhere. Yet it should be kept in mind that Strada’s exceptional dependence on Agustín’s collection does not necessarily mean that at the time of Strada’s visit it was unrivalled in Rome for quality and quantity of its contents. It rather indicates that Strada was accorded exception- al opportunity to repeatedly study and copy Agustín’s medals, and this suggests that the intimacy between auditor and antiquary was more intense than is sug- gested by the few references to Strada in Agustín’s published correspondence. It is difficult to recreate their relationship exactly. Strada’s labour in Agustín’s cabinet will rarely have been accomplished in the actual presence of his host, whose responsibilities allowed him little time for his erudite pursuits. But Strada was not the only student to occupy himself with Agustín’s coins, and imperceptibly he must have learned a great deal from comparing notes and exchanging opinions with his fellow-guests. In Agustín’s few moments of lei- sure more formal discussions must have taken place, either in his own house or elsewhere, in which many of the learned men Strada claimed to have known in Rome habitually took part. Decades later the venerable Archbishop of Tar- ragona still cherished the memories of such evenings, which he attempted to recreate in the moments when he could relax from his ecclesiastical duties: the Dialoghi intorno alle medaglie describes the aged prelate instructing his young friends in the importance of ancient coins as historical sources, and teaching 117 Strada referred to Ligorio in his letter to Maximilian ii, ibidem. 118 Agustín 1587; Italian translations by Dionigi Ottaviano Sada and by Ascanio Donangeli, both published in Rome in 1592: Agustín 1592<a>; Agustín 1592<b>.