Page - 198 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 4198 decision to dedicate his edition of the two books he had acquired from Onofrio Panvinio respectively to Ferdinand and to his elder son, King Maximilian. In order to supervise the printing of these books, the Fasti et triumphi and the Epitome pontificum romanorum, he must have gone to Venice in the spring of 1557, and it was probably there that he wrote and dated ‘Idib. Maijs’ his own dedicatory prefaces to both books. Strada had gone to considerable trouble and expense to do Panvinio proud: he had opted for an expensive folio format, selected beautiful type, as Agustín recognized, had gone to the trouble of printing the chronological tables in the Fasti in black and red ink, and had illustrated them with imperial effigies printed from the blocks used for his own Epitome thesauri antiquitatum. Stra- da’s ambition as a publisher is again apparent from the fact that he had them printed at his own expense and under his own imprint, furnishing the title page with a variant plate of the printer’s mark he had used for his Lyon Epitome thesauri antiquitatum. Strada dedicated his edition of Panvinio’s Epitome pontificum romanorum to Ferdinand [Fig. 4.5]. This was a relatively simple chronology of the Popes, briefly giving a formal biography of a few lines, the dates and composition of the conclave in which they were elected, a mention of their death and the place of their tomb. But its principal component were the lists of cardinals cre- ated or deceased during each pontificate, each entry in these accompanied by an illustration of the relevant coat of arms. This, together with the extensive indices appended to the book, makes clear that it was merely intended as a convenient work of reference. Figures 4.5–4.7 Strada’s editions of Onofrio Panvinio’s Epitome Pontificum and Fasti et Triumphi, which he dedicated to Emperor Ferdinand i and to King Maximilian ii respectively.