Seite - 80 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 280 actual tower, the Schenkenschloß was destroyed in the peasant uprising of 1525, and the Schenks lacking means to rebuild it, the fief had reverted to its su- zerain, the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg.27 [Figs. 2.6–2.8] It is not known in how far Ottilie’s father may have redressed his fortunes before his death in 1559, and Ottilie appears to have had sisters, one of whom was married, and one of whom was a nun.28 The chances are that Ottilie’s impeccable lineage was the most substantial part of her dowry and later her heritage. There can be no doubt that Strada, as an antiquary and genealogist, will have esteemed it high- ly, as he will have appreciated the prestige he gained by this aristocratic con- nection. At a later date, Strada’s second son and eventual successor, Ottavio, 27 Kessler 1851; though it happened in the Bauernkrieg, it were actually townsmen from the Pleichachviertel, a neighbourhood of nearby Würzburg, who plundered and burnt down the castle. Ottilie’s grandfather Georg obtained a meagre compensation of about 1.000 Gulden, insufficient to repair the damages. Instead, they rented part of the Antonitenk- loster in Würzburg as a residence. 28 Georg Schenk ceded the Rossberg in 1537 to Konrad ii von Thüngen, Prince-Bishop of Würzburg, in return for a pension of 100 Gulden each for himself, his wife Margarethe von Thünfeld, and his son Christoph [Dittrich 2006, s.v. Burg Schenkenschloss, cited on the site Burgenwelt.de, http://www.burgenwelt.de/schenkenschloss/ ge.htm, cons. 2014- 01-13]. Ottilie appears to have had two sisters, Juliana, married to Georg von Leuzenbrunn zu Baldersheim, but who appears to have died by 1551, and Katharina, a nun who moved in 1542 with Magdalene von Berlichingen from the monastery of the poor Clares in Würz- burg to the monastery of noble Benedictine nuns in Kitzingen [Denzinger 1855, p. 57]. In all, it seems unlikely that Ottilie, though an heiress, was a rich heiress. Figures 2.6–2.7 The remains of the Schenkenschloß on the Roßberg near Würzburg in a nineteenth-century lithograph, accompanied by reproductions of seals of the Schenk von Rossberg family, including that of Ottilie’s father, Chris- toph (detail) and the signature of her grandfather, Georg. Figure 2.8 The Schenkenturm on the Roßberg in a recent photograph.