Page - 783 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

783Ambitions as a Publisher and approval on the woodcuts for a series of ‘Mummereij Stuckh’, costumes designs for masques, tournaments and other court festivities, and for similar woodcuts for an illustrated Bible, which he planned to sell for his own profit, he is less than straightforward, for both these projects were in fact discussed in Ottavio’s letter to his father of December 1574, and in terms which clearly demonstrate that Strada at least initially did not disapprove of them.127 From this letter to his father it is clear that Ottavio was very much aware of the commercial side of the enterprise, probably much more than Jacopo himself. Ottavio’s antagonism may to some extent be the effect of growing ir- ritation at the unrealistic ambitions and ideals of his father, which threatened to absorb a huge part of the patrimony of his family without much prospect of any immediate profit, and of Strada perhaps not sufficiently acknowledging his son’s serious efforts and initiatives to make their business prosper. We shall never know the real causes of the clash between father and son— but we can easily deduce at least two of its effects on the success of Strada’s projects. The first is that Strada now lacked a trusted, competent and energetic assistant and agent to help organize, manage and supervise the production of the books, to negotiate with printers, draughtsmen, engravers and booksellers and to represent him with sponsors and business partners. Strada’s faithful el- der son, Paolo Strada, who had been ordained a priest, lacked the interest in his father’s projects as well as the necessary energy and business acumen, whereas Strada’s habitual business partners in Nuremberg and Frankfurt, such as the Nieri, would lack the necessary expertise. The second effect, probably of equal importance, is that Ottavio’s shady deal- ings—in particular his forging of his father’s signature to letters of exchange and his spreading the rumour that his father had died—must have damaged Strada’s credit with all but his closest associates. So Strada’s failure to bring out any other books after 1575 was due at least in part to Ottavio’s defection. 14.10 Strada’s Testamentary Disposition Strada’s several attempts to raise money must be considered in the light of his increasing despair of realizing his ambition to realize even only part of his pub- lishing programme. We have already seen how his plan to make a lottery of his 127 Ibidem, point 15; compare this with Ottavio’s report to his father, Doc. 1574-12-05 (in Ap- pendix A), passim, containing many references to his expenditure on behalf of the il- lustarted Bible, the ‘libro delle mascare’ and a German translation of the Serlio volume. With his will Strada enclosed and referred to the receipt given by Jost Amman for the advance Ottavio had paid him for the woodcuts of these ‘mascare’; cf. above, Ch.4.3.5.; O’Dell 1990.