Page - 561 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

561Strada’s Circle ii’s support, by the Viennese printer Gaspar Stainhofer, and at least it implies his personal acquaintance with its author, who lived in Vienna from 1569 until shortly before his death in 1571. That was to be expected: many an Italian of some rank visiting the Imperial court would seek the acquaintance of compa- triots employed by the Emperor. Strada himself would be eager to meet a man of letters as erudite, as well connected and as famous as Castelvetro. In view of his own knowledge of the book trade he would be eager to help him print what he realized was going to be a bestseller [Fig. 11.20].29 Perhaps because of his own persecution by the Inquisition in Mantua in 1567, Strada appears to have felt some sympathy for Italian Evangelical exiles, such as Castelvetro. But even before that he had had business deals with the famous Calvinist printer Pietro Perna from Lucca, who had settled in Basle, though these were not very satisfactory, because Perna did not pay his dues.30 Perhaps it was through Perna that Strada came in contact with the Lombard 29 That Strada’s name is not mentioned in the book does not rule out his participation: in view of Castelvetro’s heretical reputation, and his own first-hand experience of the rigors of the Inquisition, he may not have wished to publish their connection. 30 Doc. 1564-00-00: Strada’s request to Maximilian ii for a permit to travel to Germany. Strada had sold Perna, printer and bookseller, the remaining copies of his editions of Panvinio’s Fasti et triumphi and Epitome pontificum in commission, against payments at each Frank- furt book fair. Strada request a letter of recommendation to the Frankfurt authorities to help him regain this debt, and offers to obtain books from his creditor for Maximilian’s library. Perna would also print the second edition of Castelvetro’s Poetica (Basle, 1576). Figure 11.18 Pieter Pourbus, Portrait of Hubert Languet; Manchester Art Gallery. Figure 11.19 Giovan Bernardino Bonifacio, Marquis of Oria, on his deathbed; Gdansk, Polish Academy of Sciences. Figure 11.20 Lodovico Castelvetro’s Italian translation of Aristotle’s Poetica, Viena 1570, titlepage.