Seite - 549 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

549Strada’s Circle reported that the Duke had considered it the finest house in Vienna, and had persuaded the Emperor himself to pay it a visit.2 It is quite understandable that Strada was proud of such visits by ruling princes: they both strengthened his professional prestige and furthered his ambitions for himself and his family. That is why—perhaps incited by the Stammbuch of his neighbour, Christoph von Teuffenbach—he decided to make up a sort of guestbook to record the names of such illustrious visitors. He described it in a letter of June 1573 to his old acquaintance Jacopo Dani, secretary of Duke Cosimo of Florence: Some years ago I prepared a little book, as a memorial of my house, on the first page of which His Imperial Majesty [= Maximilian ii] wrote his rime or device; then follows the King [= Rudolf ii], with his brother [= Archduke Ernest]; and then the other Dukes, but not in their order [of precedence], but according to when they have been in my studio. All have written in it, the Duke of Bavaria is among the recent ones, and of Saxony, Duke Wilhelm and the Elector [= August] follow, I mean to say that there is no precedence, other than that occasioned by time [Figs. 11.3–11.4].3 Then Jacopo asked Dani to persuade Duke Cosimo and his son Francesco to write their devices on the enclosed clean sheet of paper, and send him their coats of arms, so that he could add their entries to this album. Though Fran- cesco de’ Medici [Fig. 11.2] visited Vienna in 1565, like his future brother-in- law Alfonso d’Este, and probably visited Strada’s house, Cosimo never came to Vienna. This implies that Strada’s book was not so much an exact register, as an exalted type of album amicorum, documenting Strada’s connections with his princely patrons.4 So it is probable that the entries of other princes Strada had met or visited in the course of his travels—such as Landgrave Wilhelm iv 2 Doc. 1565-08-26; Niccolò Stopio to Hans Jakob Fugger, Venice 7 sept. 1567: ‘<…>non li [= Stra- da] mancha modo di riuscirne con bon utile, et certo bisogna bene che così sia, volendo fab- ricare palazzi de 7 o 8 mila taleri, come dice che lui fa, et che dal duca di Ferrara fu giudicata il più bello di Vienna, onde Sua Maesta Cesarea l’andò anche a vederlo, havendo ciò inteso dal Duca<…>’, BHStA-LA 4852, f. 64/58; and cf. above, Ch. 7. Note the tone of this passage, which demonstrates Stopio’s envy of Strada’s success. The presence at this visit of Francesco Gonzaga da Novellara, who acted as envoy or agent of his cousin, the Duke of Mantua, is mentioned in a letter by Strada to the Duke of Mantua (Doc. 1568-12-28). 3 Doc 1573-06-17; on Teuffenbach and his possible influence in this, cf. Ch. 10.5. When Strada says that he intends the described the book ‘per una memoria di casa mia’ he can refer either to his house, the actual building, or to his ‘house’, i.e. his family or dynasty; possibly he meant to imply both. 4 Strada probably met Cosimo on an earlier occasion, and Dani had probably renewed his con- tacts with Strada in consultation with the Duke, who needed useful contacts at the Imperial