Page - 775 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

775Ambitions as a Publisher 14.8 Strada’s Approach of Christophe Plantin Summarizing, one must conclude that, though Strada may have ultimately in- tended to publish all of the works listed in the Index sive catalogus, some of them were nevertheless closer to his heart than others. Moreover Strada was not completely destitute of a sense of reality, and in his less sanguine moments he realized that not all his projects were feasible. Thus in his letter to Grand Duke Francesco of Tuscany he showed that he knew that the printing even of the letter A only of his Dictionary really was a practical impossibility—though he continued to hope to have at least its indices printed. As we have seen, Stra- da had hoped the Grand Duke would himself undertake to have this and other items from his programme printed at Florence.113 At the Grand Duke’s polite refusal, Strada decided to approach a professional publisher. Characteristically he opted for the biggest professional publisher in Europe: the Antwerp ‘Arch- printer’ Christophe Plantin [Fig. 14.41]. Through his connection with the book trade Strada was well aware of Plan- tin’s productions: thus when in 1573 he had requested Maximilian ii to recom- mend his fundraising to print the letter A of his Dictionary, he had explicitly compared it with the concordances of Plantin’s famous Polyglot Bible, which was just coming out at that time.114 When Rembertus Dodonaeus, the well- known Flemish botanist, came to Vienna in 1574 to serve as Maximilian’s phy- sician [Fig. 14.42], he appears to have been sufficiently impressed by Strada’s 113 Doc. 1577-10-04/d: ‘Il mio Dictionario delle undeci lingue, ci è latina, grecha, hebrea, tur- cha, araba, persiana, spagnola, francese, tedescha et italiana. Questa si è fattica et spesa incredibile a chi non lo vede. Tutte queste lingue si parlano secondo le frases di Cicerone et altri huomini dotti; alli suoi lochi è posto le medaglie antiche, li marmi scritti, le statue, edifitii, et altre cose che sariano troppo longa matteria a volergli tutti nominare. La let- tera A è scritta et sonno volumi 14; gli indici sonno volumi 18. Questi indici si potriano stampare, che secondo il calculo che sopra ne ò fatto sariano dui gran tomi simili a quelli del Thesaurus Linguae Latinae di Roberto Stefano di Paris; in questi indici vi sonno nomi- nate tutte le cose che sonno al mondo di hogni genere. Ma la lettera A su nominata, ques- to saria impossibile a stamparla, ma si potria scrivere con dessignarvi le figure, et fargli ben legare in varii volumi, et porgli nella Sua libraria de Medici tanto famosa al mondo’. 114 Doc. 1573-00-00: ‘Questo Dictionario si trova adessa la lettera A al fine, e perchè, egli volendola far stampare, ci va grandissima spesa negl’intagli delle figure, le quali sonno medaglie antiche di hogni genere, et statue, inscriptioni, sepulture et altre cose, le quali sonno tutte ritratte da le vere antiquità, fedelmente et benissimo immitate, egli non si truova il modo del danaro di metterlo alla stampa. Et questa lettera A come sia stampata saranno parecchi tomi, o volumi, et sarra poco manco della Biblia Complutensi che in questo anno il Plantino à stampata in Anversa, la quale la Maestà del Serenissimo Re Ca- tholico a sue spese et liberalità à fatto stampare’. In 1577 Strada proposed a selection from his programme to Francesco i (Docs. 1577-10-04/a and 1577-10-04/b).