Seite - 679 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

679Visual Documentation inventory of 1587.81 The draughtsmanship of this seems of somewhat higher quality as that of the other item, K.-K. Ca 75–77, which consists of three vol- umes in red satin bindings. It appears to have been presented to Elector Chris- tian i by Ottavio Strada, shortly after his father’s death.82 [Figs. 13.79–13.81] This presents a complete series, similar to Strada’s numismatic albums, of Roman imperial portraits from Julius Caesar up to the last Byzantine Emperor, here derived—or pretending to be derived—from Roman portrait busts. Each bust is placed on a pedestal on which an ‘elogio’ or brief life is inscribed in the guise of an antique inscription. These volumes, especially the three-volume series, allow us to form an im- pression for a planned publication Strada described in his Index sive catalogus and in his letter outlining his programme to the Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin: this likewise is a series of portraits of Roman Emperors and Empresses, showing their portrait busts engraved in a copper plate, above a standard ped- estal which could be a woodcut, in which a space would be left open for an ‘Ellogio’ or brief summary of their lives composed in Roman capitals in lead type. Ottavio Strada’s manuscript volume in Florence gives some idea of what the finished product was intended to look like.83 The Index sive catalogus makes clear that Strada had not limited his acquisi- tion of drawings of classical sculpture to those documenting full-length statues and portrait busts. It also mentions a ‘book in which are drawn all sort of fig- ures [statues in the round], tables [reliefs] and old, well-wrought and sculpted 81 I am grateful to Gudula Metze and Thomas daCosta Kaufmann to have drawn my atten- tion to the material in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. The material has been first pub- lished in Melzer 2010, pp. 130–138; a concise survey in Jansen/ Metze 2018. skd-kk, inv. nr. Ca 74: Imperatorum Romanorum ac eorum coniugum, liberorum et affinium, tum etiam virorum illustrium, poetarum et philosophorum, praecipue qui in Graecia universa floru- erunt, Imagines ad vivam expressae, quae Romae ac diversis in locis Europae inveniuntur, è marmoribus desumptae una cum eorum Elogiis expressis. Tomus Primus. Though Strada’s name is not mentioned in the volume, in view of its make-up and its draughtsmanship there can be no doubt of its provenance from Strada’s workshop. The copy is preserved in Dresden, Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek, Handschriftensammlung, Mscr. Dresd. App.187 [= ka 210] (formerly Kupferstich-Kabinett Ca 73). 82 skd-kk, inv. nr. Ca 76 (vol. i), Ca 77 (vol. ii) and Ca 75 (vol. iii): Series continuata omnium Imperatorum, tam Latinorum, quam Graecorum sive Constantinopolitanorum, ex antiquis marmoribus et numismatibus fidelissime et exactissime ad vivum expressorum, et manu de- lineatorum; incipiens a C. Iulio Caesare primo Imperatore, et finiens in ultimo Graecorum Caesare Constantino xv Palaeologo. Addita sunt singulis Imperatoribus elogia in subiectis stilobatis sive basibus succincte et breviter descripta. Ex Musaeo Iacobi Stradae Mantuani, tribus Imperatoribus, D.D. Ferdinando et Maximiliano ii, item Rodulpho ii. ab antiquitati- bus. Cf. Melzer 2010, pp. 133–136. 83 Index sive catalogus (Appendix D), nr. 6; Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence, Med. Palat. 235a–b; illustrated, but not discussed, in Marx 2007, pp. 213–214, figs. 52–53.