Seite - 708 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

Chapter 13708 interrupted by his precipitate flight from the Inquisition. Once he had found colleagues he could trust, such as Bertani and Andreasi, his personal presence was not necessary, and commissions could be transmitted by correspondence or the mediation of travellers between Mantua and Vienna. But when a de- cade later Strada again took up his collecting of documentation, both Scultori and Bertani had died and he had lost contact with Andreasi, which is the rea- son why he wrote directly to Duke Guglielmo, asking him to help him arrange the commission of the desired material: in the first place similarly detailed drawings of the architecture and decorations of the Ducal palace at Mantua and of the important Gonzaga residence at Marmirolo, likewise designed by Giulio Romano and his pupils. It seems hardly credible, but it appears that the Duke indeed took the trouble to help Strada have his commissions execut- ed, because Andreasi’s drawings of several rooms in the Palazzo Ducale have been preserved intact together with his earlier drawings of the Palazzo del Te [Figs.  13.114–13.117]. 13.8.3 Illustrations for Leandro Alberti’s Description of Italy The letter cited here, dated 4 October 1577, gives some additional information on what type of material Strada had collected, and also mentions an explicit purpose: the publication of a very amply enriched, profusely illustrated edition of La Descrittione di tutta Italia by the Dominican historian Leandro Alberti.125 This popular first complete survey of the historical geography of Italy had first 125 Doc. 1577-10-04(a). On the same date Strada wrote a similar request to Duke Alfonso ii of Ferrara, and another letter to Grand Duke Francesco of Tuscany, asking him to arrange for the book to be printed in Florence, cf. Docs. 1577-10-04(b), (c) and (d). His project is also described in the Index sive catalogus (Appendix D), nr. 44, and in his letter to Christophe Plantin Doc. 1578-08-13). Figures 13.115–13.117 Ippolito Andreasi, documentation of the Palazzo Ducale, Mantua: various elements of the Camerino dei Cesari; Düsseldorf, Museum Kunstpalast.