Page - 554 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 11554 festivities of Archduke Charles and princess Maria of Bavaria in 1570.11 Another example is the German nobleman Franz von Domsdorf, whose extensive trav- els are documented in his Stammbuch, in which both Strada himself and his son Paolo inscribed their names on the occasion of Domsdorf’s visit to Vienna in September 1579.12 11.3 ‘Urbanissime Strada’: Accessibility of and Hospitality in the Musaeum That Titian’s insight was right, and that Strada’s house was in fact an open house, is suggested by a letter Strada wrote to his old friend, Jacopo Dani, sec- retary of Francesco de’ Medici, now Grand Duke of Tuscany, in November 1581. He reacts to a (lost) letter of recommendation Dani had written to introduce Riccardo Riccardi, who was visiting Vienna at about this time. Strada reassures Dani of his friendship, and tells him that immediately on reception of the let- ter he had sent his son Paolo to Riccardi to invite him to come and visit the studio. To Strada’s great disappointment Riccardi had excused himself. That the later founder of the still existent Biblioteca Riccardiana did not think a visit to Strada’s house worthwhile is perhaps an indication that Strada’s star had dimmed after Rudolf ii moved his court to Prague: I had already organized everything to offer him a banquet, and to invite the Archbishop of Kalocsa, who is now Bishop of Györ, and Supreme 11 asf, Medici del Principato 827, fol. 318, Ottavio Strada to Prospero Visconti, Prague 1 November 1590: ‘Riccordandomi della S[ignori]a V[ostr]a Ill[ustrissim]a quando la fu in Vienna con la altezza del Alberto Duca di Baviera, alle nozze del Ser[enissim]o Archiduca Carlo, et della amorevolezza che V[ostra] S[ignoria] Ill[ustrissima] ha dimostrato a mio padre, bona memoria, nel venir in el nostro studio, et nel mandar di poi un inventario delle sue medaglie<…>’; on Visconti and his connections with Munich, see Simonsfeld 1902; he has moreover the distinction to be a possible model for Prospero, Duke of Milan, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s Tempest, cf. Gombrich 1990. 12 Israel 1989, nr. 60, pp. 46–47, ‘A good example of an ‘Album Amicorum”. I am grateful to Mr Israel to have allowed me to consult the volume. Strada’s entry is on f. 111 v.: ‘1579 – Festina Lente – Jacobus Strada’; Paolo’s on f. 112 r.: ‘1579 – Nobilitate et virtute praestanti vir0 Dno Francisco à Dumstorff amicitiae ergo scribebat haec Paulo Strada Serenissimi Archiducis Ernesti aulicus, Vienna Austriae Anno MDLXXIX die vii me<n>sis VIIbris’. The connection is interesting because of Domsdorf’s antiquarian interests: his Stammbuch also includes the signatures of Pirro Ligorio, Carlo Sigonio, Janus Sambucus, Jean Ma- tal, Hubert Languet, Adolph Occo and Marco Mantova Benavides, and somewhat later he would contribute to Joanes Rosinus’ Romanarum antiquitatum libri decem, printed at Basle by the heirs of Pietro Perna in 1583.