Page - 782 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 14782 by the intervention of his sister and brother-in-law; Strada even felt that, had Ottavio had had a dagger at hand, he would have been attacked in person. For these reasons Strada even suspected his son of a plot to have him assassinated together with his mistress and his elder son Paolo. Obviously something had gone very, very wrong between father and son. On the one hand Ottavio may have reacted unkindly to the low-born servant who replaced his late mother in his father’s affections.124 On his part the elder Strada may not have easily brooked the fact that Ottavio appeared to have taken over his position with Rudolf ii, who largely ignored the elder Strada. What at most can be said is that Strada very likely exaggerated Ottavio’s crimes, and that his own authoritarian and uncompromising behaviour may have contributed to his son’s rebellion. Yet there can be no doubt that Ottavio’s behaviour towards his father, if not criminal, at least was reprehensible and possibly inexcusable. Some of Ottavio’s transgressions were in fact criminal in nature, such as when, on two occasions, he forged his father’s signature in order to obtain money from his business associates. Even worse, when he pocketed the pro- ceeds of the two books he had had printed in Frankfurt at his father’s expense, he not only made out a false document stating that his father had made over these proceeds to him, but also spread the report that his father had died, which caused Strada endless trouble with the local magistrate to have himself acknowledged when arriving in Frankfurt in person. Or such as when Ottavio stole directly from his father’s Musaeum: not only hundred ducats’ worth of high quality Venetian paper, which he sold at his own profit to a local book- binder, but also a beautiful clock, the masterpiece of the famous engineer Hans Gasteiger which had been a gift from Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria, and even part of Strada’s famous collection of Roman Imperial coins and some of his best drawings, which Ottavio likewise sold for his own benefit.125 Some of Ottavio’s ‘crimes’ were directly related to his acting as his father’s agent, and may have been his business decisions with which his father did not agree—perhaps even only in hindsight. When he claims that Ottavio had col- lected the subventions accorded by Elector August of Saxony and had kept these for himself, we cannot be certain that Ottavio did not invest them at least in part in the projects he was managing for his father.126 Moreover, when Strada reproached him to have spent money without his father’s knowledge 124 Ibidem, points 3 and 5: Ottavio’s stole thirteen golden rings with precious stones from his mother’s chest after her death; cut off the pearls and the golden buttons and other orna- ments from his mother’s clothes and hats and took some ready money. He had opened the chest by means of a key he had previously stolen from his father’s safety box, of which he had obtained a forged key. 125 Ibidem, points 2 and 9, point 4, points 6, 7 and 8. 126 Ibidem, point 1.