Page - 767 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

767Ambitions as a Publisher a very small letter’. In his letter to Plantin Strada concedes that it would be dif- ficult to have this actually printed, but he suggests that an edition of his Index to the entire Dictionarium might be feasible. This Index is the second item listed in the Index sive catalogus, and by itself took up sixteen folio volumes of 3,506 sheets in all, again written on both sides, in two columns, in a small letter. Referring to a book of which only a minimal part was as yet existent, this Index, on which Strada and his assistants had laboured for eleven years, probably should be considered as his plan for the Dictionarium as a whole, an inventory of the terms which were to be included and of the relevant materials available.99 Since the material, if still existent, has not as yet been identified, it is difficult to judge its character and its quality. Perhaps one should consider the Diction- arium xi linguarum as a huge illustrated encyclopaedia, giving full excerpts of source texts and editorial comments, whereas its Index would have been lim- ited to the terms, their translations, and brief source references (both to texts and images). In his letter to Plantin Strada compares it to the concordances of Plantin’s polyglot Biblia Regia. Probably it looked like—and could be used as—a ‘normal’ dictionary.100 14.7.3 Other Antiquarian Works Basis for the content of the Dictionarium xi Linguarum was the antiquarian information Strada had brought together in the course of his career, and which he had codified in two corpora which in the Index sive catalogus immediately follow the Dictionarium and its indices. Item 3 consists of seven volumes of inscriptions, carefully reproduced, including the surrounding ornament ‘ex- actly as they are in the marbles, stones and tablets themselves’. Strada precisely 99 According to Strada’s letter to Adam von Dietrichstein of March 1566 he had finished this Index already by that time; but there he mentions that it took up eighteen volumes, rather than the sixteen mentioned in the Index sive catalogus. (Doc. 1566-03-01). Perhaps this indicates that he had had prepared a fair copy for the typesetter at some point. On the other hand the letter to the Grand Duke Francesco of October 1577 also mentions eigh- teen volumes (Doc. 1577-10-04(d)). 100 Doc. 1577-10-04: ‘Li Indici del mio Dictionario qualli sonno xvi. volumi, nelli quali con- tengano tutto quelle che si truova nelli buoni authori Latini Greci et Hebrei et Caldei, con tutto quello che si truova nei marmi antichi di figura et de Inscriptioni et di Medaglie, et di hogni qualunque cosa che si puole mostrare à viva ò in dissegno; questi Indici che li stampasse di lettera minuta in tre colonne giudico saria come son le concordantia della Biblia del Plantino. Questi Indici è cosa maravigliosa à creddere che non li vede; perche tutto quello ch’ l’huomo si puote immaginare è qui anottato et cittato il luogo dove si lege ò vero si vede; da tutti gli huomini dotti che l’hanno visto è stato giudicato ch’ se mai si stampasse saria il piu util libro che si potesse desiderare’.