Page - 236 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 4236 how far Jacopo Strada himself was involved in this project: in his testament he accuses Ottavio of having commissioned these engravings without his authori- zation. But a letter from Ottavio to his father exists which appears to contradict this. Written from Nuremberg, where Ottavio was supervising the printing of some of his father’s planned editions, it implies that Ottavio had discussed the project with his father, and that the elder Strada, even if he had not taken the initiative, did not disapprove of it at the time.87 In fact he must have approved of it, since the fifth item in a copyright privilege conceded to Strada by Maxi- milian ii in May 1574 bears the same title as the Dresden album, confirming that this or a similar volume is the book Ottavio referred to.88 Ottavio incited his father to have the ‘mascare’ printed because ‘he knew that they would sell well’, and advised his father to write the accompanying descriptions as soon as possible and have them translated into Latin. Otta- vio then would take care of having them translated into German and French. Ottavio’s optimism as to the success of this multilingual coffee-table book was probably based on the idea that many of the participants in the prestigious festivities it documented would wish to acquire a copy. There can be no doubt that Amman’s engravings were made for this project, which never materialized as planned by Ottavio. Whether this is due to his father’s opposition or for other reasons cannot now be determined.89 But what we do know is that Strada disposed of at least two hundred designs for various courtly festivities, as well as of the inside information necessary to write the ac- companying descriptions—both indications that he himself had been closely involved in their preparation. This supposition is further corroborated by his connection, likewise documented in Ottavio’s letter, with the humanist and draughtsman Giovanni Battista Fonteo, responsible for the cartels and other texts of the festivals designed by Arcimboldo. Strada’s contribution was based on his antiquarian expertise and the visual documentation he had collected in his Musaeum, witness a manuscript pre- senting hundred designs of ‘Ancient helmets and crests as were used of old by the Greeks and the Romans and also by other peoples both in spectacles 87 DOC. 1574-12-05; text transcribed in Appendix A; it will be discussed in greater detail in chapter 14.3. 88 DOC. 1574-05-30; cf. the title of the Dresden volume, Kupferstichkabinett Ca 93, cited above, note 84; moreover the presence of ‘satelllites’, attendants on foot dressed to cor- respond to the individual equestrian figures, tallies both with the Dresden drawings and with the descriptions of such festivals. 89 In his ambitious publishing programme the elder Strada probably set other priorities; on this, and his conflict with Ottavio, see below, chapter 14.