Seite - 128 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 3128 Figures 3.22–3.23 Jacopo Strada and workshop, title page and dedication of his Magnum ac novum opus, begun for Hans Jakob Fugger in 1550 and continued for Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria; now in Gotha, Forschungsbibliothek. The drawings were very highly valued: a fellow antiquary and collector, Adolf Occo, wrote that Fugger had paid a ducat for each of them, and this price is confirmed by the compensation Strada asked for similar drawings he offered to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1574.37 Strada continued to work on this project for over twenty years: the last volumes were sent in 1571 to Duke Albrecht v of Bavaria, who had acquired the series together with Fugger’s library and collection. Since the thirty-odd volumes of this Magnum opus—they are now split up between the Forschun- gsbibliothek at Gotha in Thuringia and the British Museum—contain in to- tal over nine thousand drawings, their manufacture must have contributed greatly to his prosperity.38 37 Adolf Occo in a letter to Bonifazius Amerbach, quoted in Patin 1683, p. 187; Doc. 1574-09- 09, Strada to Jacopo Dani: ‘<…> da Sua Altezza non voglio altro che un tallero del pezzo sotto sopra, cioè un tallero la testa et un tallero il roverso, et similmente del suo ellogio. Venne sonno poi dell’altre, con molto più manifatura, che non le faria per un par di ducati il pezzo <…’. 38 Gotha, Forschungsbibliothek, mss. A 2175, 1–14 and 16–30; cf. Cyprian 1714, nrs. 239–268; the four volumes that were given as lost by Hartig 1917, pp. 214–215, and Von Busch 1973,