Page - 336 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

Chapter 5336 149 Strada’s 1575 edition of Caesar was supplemented by illustrations of the pitched battles and sieges described, cf. below, Ch. 14.5.3. 150 Vienna, Prague, Library of the Strahov Monastery, Prague, cod. DL iii 3, fol. 106; on Satu Mare, cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satu_Mare and http://www.satu-mare.ro/despre/ istorie.html.de. 151 Discussed in Crowe/Cavalcaselle 1877–1878, p. 658, n. 12; Zimmermann 1901, pp. 830–835; Wethey 1969–1975, ii, cat. 100, p. 141; Mucchi 1977; Ferino-Pagden 2008, cat. nr. 1.13. The material he collected on the subject shows that he was interested in it, or at least was aware of its importance. As in other sciences, the practitioners of strategy of the Renaissance—one thinks of Maximilian ii’s intellectual, hu- manist-trained commander-in-chief, Lazarus von Schwendi—will have been interested in practice and precepts of their antique predecessors, certainly of those of great warriors such as Alexander, Caesar and Trajan.149 Strada was in a position to hand them the materials and comment on these, and it is as such, as a learned counsellor, that he may possibly have played a minor role in the military deliberations at court. In addition he may have been expected to use his contacts in the learned world and the book trade to obtain information and documentation that might be useful in developing concrete strategies. Finally it is possible that his workshop was employed in preparing and/or copying maps, sketches and designs necessary for the war effort. Thus the en- graver Martino Rota, who is documented working for Strada and engraved a portrait of his second son Ottavio, also specialized in antiquities and in maps. A sketched map of the situation of the stronghold Szatmár (now Satu Mare in Romania) among Strada’s papers in the Strahov codex in Prague [Fig. 5.90], is a possible relic of some such involvement, probably on the occasion of its siege by the Ottoman army under Ibrahim Pasha in 1562, or later, when it had been reconquered, and Lazarus von Schwendi ordered the architect Ottavio Baldi- gara to rebuild the citadel according to modern principles of fortification.150 Even if Strada would have been involved in this case, the dearth of sources indicates that such activity would at most have been a side-line for him, though it might help explain the inscription on Strada’s portrait [Fig. 5.91]. This reads JACOBVS DE STRADA. / CIVIS ROMANUS CAESS: / ANTIQVARIVS ET COM: / BELIC: AN: AETAT: LI: etC: / M.D. lxvi. Though ancient, this in- scription is doubtful, and was probably renewed or adapted sometime after his death.151 The only possible solution of the abbreviation com: belic: is ‘Commissarius Bellicus’, which one could translate in German as ‘Kriegscom- missar’. This was a rank or function that in fact did exist in the Imperial army at the time, but there is no indication at all that Strada ever was a soldier, let