Page - 765 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

765Ambitions as a Publisher immediately reflected the practice of the humanist scholars with whom Strada rubbed shoulders at least since his intimacy with Hans Jakob Fugger and his circle, and some of whom he employed in the actual writing of these entries. The continuous labour on this huge project is directly reflected by item nr. 27 in the Index sive catalogus: a set of Arabic, Turkish and Persian dictionaries in manuscript.95 The encyclopaedic, comprehensive character of the Dictionarium xi lin- guarum and of several other works mentioned in the Index reflects the ideas of Fugger and his circle, as does the one bibliographical work included. This is a planned edition in two volumes of the Bibliotheca or Myrobiblion of the Byzantine scholar St. Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople (ca 810–893 ad), a compilation of summaries and critical reviews of Greek Classical and Patristic texts that is of the greatest importance, because many of the works treated in it have since been irrevocably lost. Strada’s project (item 21) antedates the editio princeps [Fig. 14.31] of this important text by about a quarter of a century.96 The complicated history of this edition (Augsburg 1601) and of the manuscripts on which it was based, is exhaustively treated in a five hundred-page study by Luciano Canfora. It was the fruit of a subversive collaboration between David Hoeschel, a Protestant humanist from Augsburg, and Andreas Schott, a highly learned Flemish Jesuit, who a few years later also published the first Latin edi- tion.97 Though Canfora does refer to the transcript of the Venetian manuscript in Fugger’s possession—possibly provided by Strada—he makes no reference to Strada’s project. This was at least partly based on Fugger’s transcript, which Strada borrowed shortly before Fugger’s library was transferred to Munich. Strada’s project may have been a collaboration with his Vienna colleague, 95 Since these are of different sizes, Strada describes the objects as he had acquired them, rather than a hypothetical manuscript readily edited for the printer, and they will not have been among his priorities. 96 Strada’s letter to Grand Duke Francesco I of Tuscany shows that he was well aware of the importance of this text: ‘Poi mi truovo una Bibliotheca Greca scritta anticha, che sonno dui gran volumi, dove qui vi si trovano infiniti nomi di authori che da noi son mai stati uditi né nominati, et a libro per libro parla molto distinto quello che cadaunno di loro anno scritto’ (Doc. 1577-10-04(d)). 97 Βιβλιοθήκη τοῦ Φωτίου: Librorum quos legit Photius Patriarcha excerpta et censurae, ed. David Hoeschel (Augs-burg: 1601); Photii Bibliotheca. Sive Lectorum à Photio librorum Re- censio, Censura atque Excerpta, Philologorum, Oratorum, Historicorum, Philosophorum, Medicorum, Theologorum / è Graeco Latine reddita, Scholiisque illustrata, ed. Andreas Schott (Augsburg: 1606); both books were printed at the same press, and dedicated to the same patron, Marcus Welser; cf. Reynolds/Wilson 1991 p. 321; Canfora 2001; Dickey 2007, pp. 103–104; Völkel 2010, pp. 298–299; Ferber 2010, pp. 412–416.