Page - 577 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

577The Musaeum: Its Contents of the individual patron more or less incisively and changed the fashion gener- ally current at court. Moreover they stimulated the artists working at or in the orbit of the Imperial court by providing authoritative examples of up-to-date styles and artistic techniques and a storehouse of compositional ‘inventions’. 12.2 Strada’s Own Descriptions of His Musaeum In Strada’s letter to Jacopo Dani describing the entertainment he had planned to offer Riccardo Riccardi, had he come to visit Strada’s house, he not only men- tioned the company, but also briefly enumerates the many objects of interest that Riccardi had missed seeing: I also wished to show him my house, which can stand comparison with any of those beautiful houses of Italy, and which cost me over twelve thousand Thaler. I also wanted to show him my medals, which, though they are not many, they are nevertheless most exquisite; and then with these also my collection [‘studio’] of most excellent antiquities and paintings; then my most ample and complete library, full of books in all the sciences and in all languages. So you will see that he would not have ill spent that day.2 Much earlier Strada had advertised his collection in a letter thanking Duke Guglielmo of Mantua for having conferred a benefice in Mantua Cathedral on his eldest son, Paolo Strada.3 Almost as a counter present he offered the Duke the use of his house in exchange, ‘at any occasion that you might have need of it, which, once finished, is suitable to lodge a prince’. He then continues with a slightly more detailed description of part of its contents: There is also something in [my house] to pass the time: I have a library that exceeds three thousand volumes, among which there are a great number in Hebrew (I can say all the principal ones that have been printed). In manuscript there are a good number in several languages. I don’t want to pass over that there are more than fifty written in Arabic, which I prize most highly for having unearthed them from Turkey with great difficulty and at great expense; and every day I continue to enrich my library with all sorts of books. 2 Doc. 1581-11-02. 3 Doc. 1568-12-28.