Seite - 741 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

741Ambitions as a Publisher his other projects he likewise must have employed learned men to provide and correct the content for each book, and professional scribes to provide the fair copy for the typesetters. Strada’s request to the Reichsvizekanzler, Johann Baptist Weber, for Imperial letters of recommendation for his print- ing projects includes an offer to have the book titles in each letter inserted by his own servant, which confirms his employment of at least one profes- sional scribe.43 It is further corroborated by a request to Hans Jakob Fugger from Carolus Stephanus, one of his librarians, for a rise or, failing that, for some help or a recommendation to find a better job. Fugger was quite prepared to help him, and asked his other librarian, Wolfgang Prommer, for his comment and suggestions. Prommer explained that Stephanus hoped that Fugger would recommend him for a place as a clerk in the chancery of the Augsburg City Council; but if that was no option, at least ‘to be recommended to Jacobo de Strada, where he intends to maintain himself with his wife and child by assidu- ous writing’.44 Stephanus should not be confused with the well-known French physician Charles Estienne, though he may likewise have been a relative of the famous French printers Henri and Robert Estienne, who maintained contacts with the Fuggers. Certainly he was a learned man, who wrote good Latin. It is not known whether he did any work for Strada, but his request again con- firms that Strada did indeed employ professional scribes and scholars such as Stephanus, and that these were sufficiently well paid to make such employ- ment desirable.45 14.5.2 The Polyglot Dictionary Strada himself explicitly speaks of the people he employed in at least one of his projects, the polyglot dictionary, in his letter of 28 December 1568 thank- ing Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga of Mantua for the patronage extended to his son Paolo. From this it appears that from a simple polyglot dictionary in the three classical languages it had developed into something much bigger: 43 Doc. 1573-06-00 (shortly before 6 June 1573): ‘Se’l paresse alla Signoria Vostra che a cadauna lettera vi si metesse dentro questi titoli di questi libri, io li faria coppiare dal mio huomo, per non dar tanta fattica a quello che scrivera le lettere’. 44 ‘Mit einer Condition, vermaint er durch E.G. furbitt bey dem Herrn Stattpfleger Relingen zu promovirt werden, ob er mitterzeit In der Herren von Augspurg Canntzelley mechte gebraucht werden. Wa er dort nit vnder mechte Khumen, begert er auf das wenigist durch E.G. hülff bey dem Jacobo de Strada zu Commendirt werden, daselbs vermaint er sich mit stetigem schreiben kinde mit sampt seim weib vnd Kindt aufenthallten’. Hartig 1917(a), pp. 317–318 (Stephanus’ request to Fugger, in Latin, undated, 1566); 318–319: Fugger’s re- quest for more information to Prommer); 319–320 (Prommer’s point by point reply). 45 Ibid., pp. 229–230; doubtless thanks to Fugger’s support Stephanus later was appointed an official notary, who was occasionally employed by the Fugger: thus he drafted the inven- tory of the library and collection of Raymund Fugger the Younger in 1576; ibid. p. 38, n. 1.