Seite - 164 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 1

Chapter 3164 Such collections often were the setting, or at least the subject of learned con- versations among the humanists, conversations of which one can get some idea from Antonio Agustín’s Dialoghi intorno alle medaglie. An even better impression is provided in Stephanus Vinandus Pighius’ Themis Dea printed in Antwerp in 1578 [Figs. 3.86–3.87]. This short dialogue pretends to report a dis- cussion that had taken place in about 1550 in the garden of Cardinal Carpi on the Monte Cavallo. Apart from the author himself, a Dutch antiquary who was at the time a member of the household of Marcello Cervini, the participants included Antonio Agustín, Jean Matal or Metellus, Agustín’s secretary and assistant, and Antoine Morillon, who was in the service of Cardinal Granvelle. Subject of the discussion is a female herm that Cardinal Carpi had recently added to his collection, which is interpreted in detail with the help of classical literary sources.99 99 Themis Dea seu de lege divina, printed by Plantin in Antwerp in 1568, with a dedication to Cardinal Granvelle; reprinted in J. Gronovius, Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum, ix, Figures 3.86–3.87 Stephanus Vinandus Pighius, Themis Dea, seu de lege divina, Antwerp 1567, reporting a learned discussion in 1550 about a Roman herm in the collection of Rodolfo Cardinal Pio da Carpi.