Page - 844 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

Chapter 16844 Epitome thesauri antiquitatum of 1553, pointedly presented ‘Ex Musaeo Iacobi de Strada’, a phrase which he would repeat in each of the books published at his expense, and which he more or less invented.18 In view of Strada’s specific interests, a possible source of inspiration may have been the title page of an edition, printed in Venice in 1546, of Paolo Giovio’s lives of the illustrious men whose images were included in the well-known portrait collection housed in Giovio’s villa at Como.19 In view of its function, the term ‘Museion’ as used in Erasmus’ Colloquia familiaria for a library annex small but refined collection is an even more likely source. As Renate von Busch has shown, the term was already used in this sense by Johannes Cuspinianus in 1515. In the brief biog- raphy of Melanchton published shortly after his death the term ‘Musaeum’ is used in the same sense.20 Strada’s colleague, the Paduan antiquary Alessandro Maggi (1503–1587) used the term to indicate the library and collection of an- tiquities in the Paduan residence of Cardinal Pietro Bembo.21 Strada doubtless was aware of the status such illustrious examples conferred, but he may also have been inspired by the far more practical indication ‘Ex officina’—‘out of the workshop’—used on their title pages by many printers: Strada’s ‘Ex mu- saeo’ could then be read as ‘out of the study’, distinguishing his intellectual effort from the printer’s manual craft. Certainly, for Strada his ‘Musaeum’ functioned as both storehouse, library, scholar’s study and artist’s studio. It was here he collected and organized his materials. It was here he elaborated these in new products: the libri di dis- egni he prepared for his patrons, the designs for costumes and apparel he provided for their festivities, and the verbal advice, sketches and designs and iconographical suggestions he contributed to the architecture, decoration and 18 The French edition of Strada’s Epitome has ‘de l’estude de Iaques de Strada’. The only two earlier examples I readily found were both German, a set of sermons: Friedrich Nausea, De reformanda ecclesia<…>oratio, Mainz [Schoeffer], 1527 (unnumbered pages, epigraph to the fifth item included: ‘ex Musaeo nostro’); and a one-page academic pamphlet: Chris- tophorus Ostvaldus Foropaganus, Bene hunc disputandi morem, qui multas hodie possidet Academias.: ‘Ex Musaeo nostro Ingolstadij die 5. Idus Augusti Anno<…>1542’. These two examples come from a quick search in Google Books, which resulted in 22 hits, the other 20 of which were references to various editions of Strada’s works. This was not complete (Strada’s 1575 editions of Caesar and of Serlio’s Settimo Libro did not appear, though both carry the phrase on their title page as well). After 1553 the phrase becomes slightly more common. 19 Paolo Giovio, Elogia veris clarorum virorum imaginibus apposita: quae in Museo Ioviano<… >spectantur, Venice [Tramezzini] 1546. 20 Quoted in Liebenwein 1977, p. 231, n. 14; Von Busch 1973, pp. 66 ff.; Brevis narratio expo- nens, quo fine vitam in terris suam lauserit reverendus vir D. Philipus Melanthon, Witten- berg 1560, passim (unnumbered pages). 21 Liebenwein 1977, p. 145 and 238, n. 140–141.