Page - 851 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

851Agent of Change: Imperial Antiquary and Architect 16.5.3 Connecting Concepts: The ‘imperial theme’ and the Encyclopaedic Mentality These themes are closely connected: they can be considered as a coherent complex or, as Rogers calls it, a ‘cluster’ of related ideas or ‘innovations’. The first two both relate to the fascination Strada felt for the history and more in general for the accomplishments of the Roman Empire, as evident in his nu- mismatic researches and his Epitome thesauri antiquitatum. This included an adherence to the version of the idea of the Translatio imperii that held that the Holy Roman Empire and its current ruler were the natural successors of the Roman Empire and its Emperors. As a vassal of the Gonzaga Duke of Mantua—a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire who was closely tied to its rul- ing dynasty—this would have come natural to Strada, and it would have been stimulated by his contacts with Hans Jakob Fugger, whose fascination with the Roman as well as the Holy Roman Empire did not preclude a very lively inter- est and active role in the politics of the Empire of his own day. Needless to say, this idea was shared by the Emperor and his court. The Imperial theme can be considered the Leitmotiv of Strada’s career, as it is the basso continuo of much of the intellectual and political endeavour in the Empire.31 All these themes are interconnected by Strada’s efforts to document and to collect and organise information—especially the information from Antiquity, which was accorded authoritative status. Such encyclopaedic ambition is typi- cal of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and was expressed in the editions of Opera Omnia of classical authors, the publication of voluminous, often polyglot dictionaries, universal atlases and natural histories, the compil- ing of bibliographies, and the creation of collections or Kunstkammern with an erudite and scientific purpose. The activities of Hans Jakob Fugger, both be- fore and after he moved to Duke Albrecht V’s court at Munich, and of Fugger’s circle, provide an important example of this encyclopaedic mentality, to many elements of which Strada, an early and active member of this circle, amply contributed.32 16.5.4 Innovators, External Agents and Early Adopters: Key Roles in the Diffusion of Innovation Note that Strada was by no means the first, let alone the only innovator or agent of change in any of the several developments listed above. Their introduction 31 Cf. above, Ch. 9.8. 32 Somewhat later Francis Bacon would include such activities among the opera basilica, ‘acts of merit truly fit for a king’, he considered conducive to the advancement of learning (Bacon/ Johnston 1974, pp. 70–67); cf. Jansen 1993, pp. 74–75.