Page - 271 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

271Imperial Architect: Background seems pointless. In fact, if the topos of the do-it-yourself prince is sufficiently attractive and popular, it may actually have incited a real prince to try and live up to the example it was intended to provide. So one should be wary to assume that these inscriptions were pure flattery, and avoid the common prejudice that holds that princely or noble blood automatically precludes one having any artistic talent and any wish to exercise it. 38 Simons 2009, p. 37 refers to an illustrated manuscript from Ambras, identified in an old label as ‘Matematica Manuscripta Archiducis Ferdinandi in Inspruck. Dilligentissime conscripta a suo Praeceptore’, reason why it has been considered as an old ‘school book’ of Ferdinand ii of Tirol; this tradition was criticized already by Hirn 1885, i, pp. 9–10, n. 2 who noted that it included a section on the Gregorian calendar reform. Yet as a scrapbook or compendium it might possibly be evidence of a continuing interest in mathematics on the part of Maximilian’s brother. Mazal/ Unterkircher 1963 relate it, however, to their nephew, Archduke Ferdinand of Inner Austria, afterwards Emperor Ferdinand ii. A more precise inspection of the volume (Vienna, önb-hs, Ser. n. 2632) might possibly solve the problem; at present it can merely serve to indicate an interest in mathematics with at least one sixteenth-century member of the House of Austria. 39 Book 1, xlix; Castiglione/Bull 1967, p. 97; Castiglione/Bonora, p. 93: ‘Non mancarono ancor molti altri di chiare famiglie celebrati in quest’arte; della qual, oltre che in sé nobilissima e degna sia, si traggono molte utilità, e massimamente nella guerra, per disegnar paesi, siti, fiumi, ponti, ròcche, fortezze e tai cose; le quali, se ben nella memoria si servassero, il che però è assai difficile, altrui mostrar non si possono’. It should be noted that Castiglione talks about knowledge and understanding, not the actual practice, of the fine arts—this in contrast to the practice of literature and music, in which his ideal courtier was consum- mately accomplished. The stress laid in this text on ‘measuring’ and ‘compassing’, which pres- ents the building almost as the solution of a problem of applied mathemat- ics, demonstrates that a certain esprit de géometrie must have been among the Archduke’s motivations. As one of the disciplines of the quadrivium geometry was an essential element in the curriculum, and there can be no doubt that both Maximilian and Ferdinand had studied it in detail.38 That this curriculum also included learning to draw is very likely: in his Libro del Cortegiano of 1528 Baldassare Castiglione had presented the knowledge of drawing, painting and sculpture as an accomplishments of his ideal gentleman. Though he discusses these on a rather elevated, theoretical and even metaphysical level, he begins his disquisition by indicating the practical use of painting: In fact, from painting, which in itself is a most worthy and noble art, many useful skills can be derived, and not least for military purposes: thus a knowledge of the art gives one the facility to sketch towns, rivers, bridges, citadels and fortresses and similar things, which otherwise can- not be shown to others even if, with a great deal of effort, the details are memorized.39