Page - 571 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

571Strada’s Circle them was Maximilian himself, who first visited it in 1565 at the instigation of Duke Alfonso ii of Ferrara. Apparently the Emperor was pleasantly surprised, because he would occasionally or regularly return, at least according to Strada himself: His late Majesty, of blessed memory, often used to come in my studio, and would remain from after lunch until dinner-time; and His Imperial Majesty called it the delight and museum of Strada, because he saw there so many rare and various things as ever struck the eye.53 Maybe Maximilian came now and then to inspect Strada’s collections, prob- ably incited by Strada himself, who could have let drop a hint of new acquisi- tions when he was in attendance on the Emperor.54 It is difficult to guess what material would have appealed most to the Emperor: the little we know about his intellectual interests suggests an orientation towards natural history and technical topics. Natural history seems to have had little attraction for Strada, though he did possess a book of drawings of ‘four-footed animals’. Technique, however, as a branch of architecture, was well represented in Strada’s library and even among his own works. Maximilian’s interest in the Lazius contro- versy suggests that he would also have been particularly interested in Strada’s ‘eretici confirmati’. This probably merely implies that they had not taken the risk to go and defend their case in person: it is very doubtful whether the Duke would have allowed them to be burnt in the flesh. Of course at the Imperial court, where there was much more direct contact between the various confessions, such accusations would have been taken with a grain of salt. There is no indication that Strada’s career at court was hampered by his religious position, and it should be noted that the Spanish ambassador, ex officio chief of the Catholic party, did add his name to Ottavio’s Stammbuch. 53 Doc. 1581-11-02: Jacopo Strada to Jacopo Dani: ‘Nel mio studio Sua Maestà morta, pia memo- ria, sovente vi veneva, et vi stava dal doppo dessinare per insino all’hora della cena; et lo chiamavo Sua Maestà Cesarea le dellitie et museo del Strada, perchè Sua Maestà vedeva tante cose rare et varie che mai si straccava l’hocchio’. 54 Strada’s attendance upon the Emperor is documented in his letter thanking the Duke of Mantua for the benefice accorded to his son Paolo (Doc. 1568-12-28): ‘E la prima volta ch’io mi truovo con Sua Maestà me ne voglio rallegrare di questa cortesia di Vostra Excellenza Illustrissima’; and in his answer to Jacopo Dani’s letter reporting the gossip about Strada’s alleged heresy (Doc. 1576-09-28): ‘Et io un giorno con commodità la monstrai la lettera a Sua Maestà Cesarea in Camera, et Sua Maestà si misse a ridere, et poi mi disse alcune parole di lui, ch’io non vorebbe già, che Sua Maestà dicesse di me.’ The latter passage makes it clear that such attendance was sufficiently relaxed to allow Strada to obtrude his own affairs on Maximilian. The willingness to favour Strada on the part of princes such as the Dukes of Florence and Mantua likewise indicates that he was perceived to have some influence with the Emperor.