Seite - 116 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 3116 Already in the 1540s he had amply practiced the noble virtue of liberalitas, not only by acquiring on an unprecedented scale the works of contemporary scholars and scientists, but also by enabling many of them to compose and to publish their works. He did this either by employing them in some capacity in the firm or, more often, his household—the best example is his librarian, the famous Greek scholar Hieronymus Wolf—but also by awarding them stipends to study and to travel. This had already been a practice in his family, who often maintained promising young students without means for years; though not always without expecting some concrete return for their benevolence.12 Hans Jakob’s father, Raymund, had set the example of a more disinterested patron- age: he had enabled Petrus Apianus [Fig. 3.14] and Bartholomäus Amantius to compose and to publish in 1534 their splendid Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis <…> totius fere orbis, which was in part based on Raymund’s own col- lection [Figs. 3.15–3.17]. The extent of Hans Jakob’s patronage, however, greatly surpassed those of his relatives. It is best demonstrated by the extensive list of books that his protégées presented or dedicated to him. This list gives over forty names, and opens with Syrianus’ comments on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, in a translation by Girolamo Bagolino, which was published in 1558 by the Accademia Veneta with a very flattering dedication to Fugger. The Accademia della Fama, as it was also called, had been founded in that year by the Venetian nobleman Federico Ba- doer, after consultations with intellectuals and princes from all over Europe, among which Fugger was the most important German representative. Among the other Italians we find Anton Francesco Doni—not surprisingly the copy of the first book of his Le Ville which he presented to Hans Jakob includes an addi- tional manuscript text ‘La Villa Fucchara’—the antiquary Ortensio Landi, the ecclesiastical historian Onofrio Panvinio, and Jacopo Strada himself. Among the learned Germans we find Sigmund Gelenius, the bibliographer and naturalist Conrad Gesner, Johann Ludwig Brassicanus, Nikolaus Mameranus, Abraham Loescher, Johann Heinrich Münzinger, Johannes Pedioneus, the printer Jo- hannes Oporinus, and Hieronymus Wolf, to mention only a few.13 12 Hartig 1917, pp. 201–223. The Augsburg student Hieronymus Fröschl was, for instance, maintained by Anton and Hans Jakob Fugger for over twelve years in his studies, which culminated in his doctorate at Ferrara in 1556. He had obliged himself to serve the firm in his capacity as a lawyer for a few years, yet this hardly detracts from the merit of such patronage: doubtlessly the Fugger could easily have found competent lawyers without financing their entire education! Hans Jakob also financed the travels (1548–1550) and gave detailed instructions about the curriculum of the young medical student Lorenz Grill, who was appointed professor at Ingolstadt immediately upon his return (ibidem, pp. 203–204). 13 This is an arbitrary selection! see Maasen 1922, pp. 81–91; Hartig 1917, pp. 193–223; in his dedication to Fugger of his Epitome du thrésor <…> (Strada 1553<a> and <b>), Strada