Page - 473 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 1

473The Neugebäude Croatian-Hungarian diplomat and prelate Antun Vrančić had been sent to Constantinople as Imperial ambassador; with Busbequius, who headed the delegation that arrived to support and replace him in 1555, he discovered the Monumentum Ancyranum. As a native of Šibenik (Sebenico), the medieval suc- cessor to Diocletian’s birthplace Salona, which is quite close to Split, Vrančić certainly would have been aware of Diocletian’s palace and could have given a report on it to Maximilian and his architects. The engraver Martino Rota (Martin Rota Kolunić, 1520–1583), who worked at and for the Imperial court, also was a native of Šibenik. He had worked as an engraver in Rome and Venice in the 1560s; his antiquarian interest is documented by prints of Roman anti- quarian topics, his knowledge of his native country by a set of maps of Šibenik and its region, including one of Split [Fig. 9.44]. Like Vrančić, of whom he made two engraved portraits [Fig. 9.45], he must have been very much aware of the principal Roman monument in his fatherland.67 Moreover both Vrančić and Rota were close associates of Strada. Vrančić was a friend and colleague- antiquary who contributed to Strada’s collection, as we have seen above, and greatly respected his expertise and culture.68 Rota worked as a draughtsman and engraver in Strada’s projects, as is clear from a letter by Ottavio Strada to his father of November 1574 and his engraved portrait of the young Ottavio (Ch.11, Fig. 11.08).69 Finally, a third learned Croatian from Šibenik, the Protonotarius apostolicus Stefano (Stjepan) Pisani, had an influential position in Vienna as Canon and Cantor of St Stephen’s Cathedral.70 67 Illustrated and described in Pelc 1997, nr 179–182, pp. 229–232: Il Vero retractor di Zara et di Selenic co(n) diligenza ridotte in questa forma a commodita de lettori si come elle si ritro- vano al presente del anno mdlxx da Martino Rota Sebenzan(o) ac Reverendissimo Domino Marco Loredano Episcopo Enonien(si) D(edit), Venice 1570; the map of Spalato (Split) is nr. 181 (p. 231). Earlier, less detailed maps of the region had been printed in 1560 by the Venetian cartographer Paolo Forlani. Among Rota’s antiquarian subjects a.o, a set of 24 engravings of portrait busts of Roman Emperors, published by Claude Duchet stands out: Imperatorum, Caesarumque, vigintiquatuor effigies, A Iulio usque ad Alexandrum Severum ex antiquis marmoribus ac numismatibus desumptae, (ibidem, nr. 77–101, p. 161 ff); the por- traits of Vrančić dating from ca 1570 (ibidem, nr 127–128, pp. 189–192). 68 Doc 1558-12-04. On their relationship, see below, Ch. 11.3. 69 Doc. 1574-12-05: Ottavio Strada to his father, Nuremberg 5 December 1574: ‘Del Martino non è pacato, se ben è povero homo e superbo; Voi vedrete che Dio lo castigara. Et se lui non vi vole render quelli danari che li prestai bisogno far conto che li abbia per ‘l mio ritratto. Quando havera fame ‘l vera a lavorare, et fate lavorare in la Series se’l vora lavorar; più presto ci daria di più quache [sic] coseta per rame, acciò che andasi inanti’. This passage suggests that other works by Rota—such as the Emperor’s portraits cited in the preceding note—may have been commissioned by or through Strada. 70 His portrait was also engraved by Rota in 1573, see Pelc 1997, nr. 141, p. 204.