Page - 871 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Volume 2

871Agent of Change: Imperial Antiquary and Architect They also confirm Strada’s wilful attitude to others: Strada is not suitable to negotiate here [in Venice], because he is too presumptuous and choleric, he immediately wants to pronounce a judg- ment in his own way, and will sustain it [against all others] and then de- parts in a huff.53 When Fugger asks Stopio what he knows about Strada’s flight for the Inquisi- tion from Mantua, Stopio replies that out of respect for the Emperor the Signo- ria would not let Strada be molested by the Holy Office in Venice, <…>even though from his talk I have not understood that he is an enemy of Rome, except that he is very free in his reasoning, and that when he gets excited he has no respect for anyone whomsoever<…>.54 Reading these notes, some of which seem to be true to nature, Strada’s later conflict with his son Ottavio becomes more comprehensible. All the same, in his letters to Fugger Stopio was sometimes rather economical with the truth: in fact he does everything he can to discredit his rival. The tone of his letters—the content of which he begs Fugger to keep hidden from Strada—indicates that his criticism was motivated not just by mercantile competition. Stopio is chok- ing in his envy of Strada—whom he had known in less august circumstances fifteen years earlier—because of his position as a nobleman and courtier, and as the wealthy agent of the Emperor as well as of a major prince and of Sto- pio’s own principal patron. And he did not want to believe Fugger’s assertion that Strada was reputed to be ‘one of the first and most learned antiquaries of Europe’: 53 Stopio to Fugger, Venice 7 March 1568, BHStA-LA 4852, f. 157/149: ‘<…>in effetto la sua ar- rogantia è insupportabile, che quando parla dell’Imperatore o delli principi, par che loro stanno con lui, et non lui con loro’; idem, Venice, 16 januari 1568: ‘<…>et certo in general sento da tutti ch’il procedere del Strada non serve per negociare qui con costoro, perchè è troppo presontuoso et colerico, subito vuol fare il giudicio a suo modo, et sustenarlo, et con colera se ne parte<…> Andava qui per la terra<…>con le calze di scarlato, col figliuolo per paggio et 3. o 4 di questi suoi sanzali appresso che pareva un conte et cavalliere, ma prometto a V.S. che questa terra non vuol tal procedere<…>’. 54 Stopio to Fugger, Venice 5 Octobre 1567, BHStA-LA 4852, ff. 75/69: ‘[Strada] venne poi di longo a Ven<eti>a, over per rispetto de l’Imp<erato>re non li haveriano lasciato dare mo- lestia; benche non ho inteso al suo parlare ch’l sia contrario alle cose Romane, se non ch’l è molto libero di ragionare, et intrando in colera non ha respetto alcuna sia di chi essere si voglia<…>‘.