Page - 583 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

583The Musaeum: Its Contents Though not in the first place considered as a man of letters, as was Stopio, Strada was a nobleman, was quite wealthy, held an officially recognized posi- tion in the first secular court of Christianity, and was reputedly considered to be among the finest antiquaries of Europe.15 He was, moreover, charged with a very lucrative commission which Stopio had had some illusions of securing for himself. As Strada appears also to have been rather overbearing, if not at times outright arrogant in manner, it is not really surprising that Stopio did not greatly take to him. But his dislike soon developed into a vicious envy of Strada’s accomplishments and successes, and in his almost weekly reports to Fugger he left nothing unsaid which he thought might discredit Strada in the eyes of their common patron, and thus indirectly in those of Albrecht V. He accused Strada of paying exorbitant prices for the antiquities he acquired on behalf of the Duke; of a tactless highhandedness with the Venetian noblemen from whom he often made his purchases; and of a lack of professional judg- ment and general erudition. He even went to the childish extreme of reproving Strada for a supposed spelling mistake in one of his letters, and rubbed that in even in successive reports to Fugger.16 Finally he dwelt on the low esteem which, he claimed, was accorded to Strada by the Venetians, and he contrasted this with Strada’s high reputation on the other side of the Alps: being more re- liable and more honourable—‘reali di natura’ is Stopio’s term—than the Ital- ians, he explained, the Germans were more easily taken in.17 Stopio’s negative judgment of Strada’s character is known only from the few published excerpts from his correspondence, chiefly relating to Strada’s deal- ings with Titian which have already been cited in my introduction. This may well be the reason why it has so often been taken at face value. This confidence 15 BHStA-LA 4852, f.15; ibid., f. 32: ‘<…>et tutto questo dico solo perchè Vostra Signoria [= Hans Jakob Fugger] mi scrisse già, chel è tenuto per uno de’ primi antiquari intelligenti di Europa<…>’. 16 BHStA-LA 4852, ff. 32, 62, 231, 280. That it was properly the word with which Strada de- clared himself Stopio’s affectionate friend says something about the latter’s character: ‘<…>et certo mi stupisco come un simil grossolone [= Strada] ha acquistato tanto credito in Alemagna, fra tali huomini dotti e giudiciosi; Vostra Signoria [= Hans Jakob Fugger] puo considerare la sua scientia in questa lettera ch’l m’a scritto di Mantua, dove in loco di affett.mo scrive efitionatiss.mo; chi vide mai simil ignorantia in persona chi fa professione di sapere, a non haver fin in questa sua età mai misso a mente il significato ne ortografia di tanto comune vocabolo<…>’. It is true that Strada’s usage is very unusual—it cannot be found in the Vocabolario della Crusca—yet in general Strada’s Italian, including his spelling, is polished, clear, elegant and self-assured: certainly not that of a ‘grossolone’. Of course Fugger, a consummate speaker of Italian himself, was very well aware of that, and paid no attention to Stopio’s ravings. 17 BHStA-LA 4852, ff. 114, 125, 136.