Page - 713 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

713Visual Documentation contemplation of one single image often more enriches the memory than several days reading of many pages [of text].134 This passage is echoed in Strada’s admonition to Adam von Dietrichstein to continue the practice of drawing after examples, and to ensure that his young charges, the Archdukes Rudolf and Ernest, likewise continued this practice, which shows how seriously he took the didactic and scientific aspect of the image, and more in general of visual stimuli: <…>for in truth, dear Sir, by drawing one obtains knowledge of an infinite number of things, and one’s judgment becomes much more excellent in all subjects, and far surpasses that [obtained by] other studies, the more so when practiced by a learned gentleman such as you are.135 These ideas were shared or taken up by other collectors of the time, and it is surely no coincidence that the three princely collections most closely connect- ed to Fugger and Strada, those of the Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, his brother- in-law Archduke Ferdinand ii of Tirol and their nephew the Emperor Rudolf ii each included huge collections of documentary images: illustrated books and manuscripts, atlases, albums of heraldry, portraits, technical inventions, in short every conceivable subject which could profitably be illustrated by drawn or engraved images.136 13.9.2 The Material: Intended for Publication Strada’s interest in images as sources of information is one of the recurring themes in his ambitious publishing programme, which will be surveyed in the next chapter. All the books that Strada published in his lifetime were illustrat- ed, as were Ottavio Strada’s Series of Lives of the Roman Emperors, based on Strada’s own manuscript version, and Jacopo’s technical designs which were published by his grandson, Ottavio Strada the Younger, in 1617.137 Next to Ser- lio’s Settimo libro d’architettura the most striking is doubtless Strada’s edition 134 Quiccheberg/Roth 2000, p. 138: ‘Subinde ergo huius instituti fasciculi et materiae à diligen- tioribus patronis adeo augentur, ut quam plurimam disciplinarum ex his solum imagini- bus cognitio acquiri posse videatur, plus enim quandoque praestat memoriae inspectio solum alicuis picturae quam diuturna lectio multarum paginarum’. 135 Doc. 1566-03-01, quoted above, Ch. 11.6. 136 Fickler’s inventory published in Diemer/Diemer/Sauerländer 2008; Archduke Ferdinand’s 1596 inventory in Boeheim 1888, pp. cclxxxviii–ccxciii, Regest 5556, fols. 382–401; Ru- dolf’s 1607 inventory: Bauer-Haupt 1976, pp. 130–139 137 Cf. Bibliography, s.v. Strada, Jacop0; Strada, Ottavio [I] and Strada, Ottavio [ii].