Seite - 34 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Introduction34 Kunstkammer are carefully described and put in context.81 Finally, the origin of the Munich Staatsbibliothek was described by its former director, Franz Georg Kaltwasser, in his overview of its history focusing on the display of its hold- ings, and more in general on its scholarly, scientific and cultural function. He does not, however, define Strada’s role in this any more precisely than Hartig had done. In 2008, finally, the 450th anniversary of the founding of the Staats- bibliothek was celebrated with an exhibition and an accompanying catalogue in which a number of the materials provided by Strada are discussed and il- lustrated, often for the first time.82 Two years later Christien Melzer showed that materials from Strada’s workshop were also included in the Dresden Kun- stkammer, and briefly discussed and illustrated a number of libri di disegni still preserved in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett.83 Interest in collecting has always been a Viennese speciality, witness not only the exemplary source publications in the Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen, but also Julius von Schlosser’s influential, more theoretical es- say, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätenaissance 0f 1908. The origins of the imperial collections in Vienna were studied by Alphons Lhotsky on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Kunsthistorisches Mu- seum. Rotraud Bauer and Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann were the first to suggest that the Kunstkammer of Emperor Rudolf ii was influenced by the ideas of Samuel Quiccheberg which were transmitted by Strada. Elizabeth Scheicher pays some attention to Strada in her survey of Habsburg collecting of 1979, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammer der Habsburger, but in view of the inadequate concrete evidence available wisely refuses to speculate about his precise role. A letter by Strada to the Czech magnate Vilém z Rožmberka published by Fritz Eheim in 1963 provided evidence that Strada also worked for others than mem- bers of the dynasty.84 Most literature on patronage and collecting of the sixteenth-century Austri- an Habsburgs focuses on Archduke Ferdinand ii of Tirol and Emperor Rudolf 81 Seelig 1983; Meadow 2002; Diemer 2004; Diemer/Diemer/Sauerländer 2008. 82 Kaltwasser 1999, pp. 10, pp. 15–16 and passim; Kulturkosmos der Renaissance 2008, pp. 24–25; 28; cat. nrs. 93–95; and passim. Many codices from the Staatsbibliothek, including some of the Strada material, have now been made accessible on-line in full or in part on the website of the library: http://codicon.digitale-sammlungen.de. 83 Melzer 2010. My attention was drawn to these materials by Gudula Metze and Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann when I had already finsihed the first draught of this book. I have not yet been able to study them in detail, but they are briefly discussed in Chs. 13.7.1 84 Schlosser 1908 pays no particular attention to Strada; Lhotsky 1945, pp. 160–163; Bauer / Haupt 1976, p. xxxvii; Kaufmann 1978(b), p. 25 and p. 28, n. 16; Scheicher 1979, pp. 139–140. Eheim 1963.