Page - 684 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 13684 13.7.3 ‘Magnifica colonna coclida istoriata’ Thanks to Strada’s acquisitions of Serlio’s, Giulio’s and Perino’s materials and his acquisitions and commissions in Rome, Strada’s documentation must have included drawings and prints of most or all of the principal ancient remains of the Urbs, including famous monuments such as the Colosseum, the Pan- theon, the Basilica of Maxentius, the Arches of Titus, Septimius Severus and Constantine, the Septizonium, the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian, the Cas- tra Pretoria and the Mausolea of Augustus and Hadrian. But the only antique monuments of Rome which are individually mentioned in Strada’s papers are three monumental columns the shafts of which were decorated with figura- tive spiral friezes in low relief, dedicated in honour of the Emperors Trajan and Antoninus (Marcus Aurelius), both in Rome, and Theodosius (Arcadius) in Constantinople. According to his descriptions in the Index sive catalogus and his letter to Christophe Plantin Strada possessed series of drawings of the spi- ral relief friezes of these three columns, each set of which was, as he phrased it, ‘ridotta in un libro’, ‘bound as a book’.93 The reception of Trajan’s Column in the Renaissance has been the subject of detailed research.94 The production of a survey of a ‘colonna coclide isto- riata’ such as the Trajanic column, in particular of its upper part, obviously was no easy task; yet this is what was done some time before 1506 by Jacopo Ripanda, who slowly descended along its shaft in a basket suspended from its top.95 There are some indications that this feat was repeated by Giulio Romano gelegt, thails wie die gewesen, und thails noch sein, in Regal, und weiß Copert’ and (less likely) nr. 106 (103): ‘Architectur buech etlicher Gebew, Triumphpögen, Portiken, und an- derer Römischer gebew in kupffer gestochen, thails von freyer handt gerißen’. München, bsb-hs, Cgm 2133 fol. 8v–9r / 2134 f. 8r; transcribed in Diemer 2004, p. 47; Diemer/Diemer 2008, pp. 34–36. 93 Index sive catalogus (Appendix D), nrs 37, 40 and 41; paraphrased in Strada’s letter to Plantin, Doc. 1578-08-13): [37] ‘Un libro dove sta ritratta tutta la colonna Trajana ch’è in Roma p[er] tutta la forma della colonna di fuori et di dentro et poi le historie in un libro, sonno foli. 150. In questo libro sonno tutte li vestimenti Civili et milittari si de Romani corne anche di altre natione Barbari dove Traiano Imperadore combatette. ...; [40] La col- onna di Theodosio Imperadore che sta in Constantinopoli ridotta in un libro passa 100 fol. Reali aperti; questa l’o fatta dessignare à spesa mia in Constantinopoli]’; [41] ‘La Colonna Antonina di Roma ridotta in un libro simile alla Traiana sunominata; questa fu dessignata ad instanzia mia in Roma’. 94 Becatti 1960; Agosti/ Farinella 1984, in particular part 1, ‘Un monumento: La Colonna Trajana, per esempio’, pp. 390–427; Arasse 1984; Agosti/ Farinella 1985; Settis/ La Regina/ Agosti/ Farinella 1988; Heenes 2017. 95 As told by Raffello Maffei (Volterrano), Rerum urbanorum commentarii, 1506: ‘Floruit item nunc Romae, Jacobus Bononiensis, qui Trajani Columnae picturas omnes ordine delinea- vit, magna omnium admiratione, magnoque periculo circum machinis scandendo’; cited in Arasse 1984, p. 15 and note; quoted in Agosti/Farinelli 1984, p. 400.