Seite - 761 - in Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court - The Antique as Innovation, Band 2

761Ambitions as a Publisher has been preserved, the one sent to Dresden doubtless was a copy of the same list, the heading of which clearly states its character and function: Index or catalogue of the books that I, Jacopo Strada, in part composed myself at my own initiative, in part had composed and written [by others] at my commission and expense, and finally in part acquired and pur- chased by other means. This Index exists in several copies, of which the versions sent to Florence and Dresden are the earliest that can be dated by their context [see Appendix D]. But it was drafted much earlier, perhaps already as early as 1576, when Strada discussed his projects with Maximilian ii, certainly before August 1578, when Strada paraphrased a substantial part of its contents in his proposal to the Ant- werp printer Christophe Plantin. It has been preserved in several, almost iden- tical copies. After the first forty-nine items listed in all of these, what appears to be the earliest copy continues with a list of hundred and fifty-one miscel- laneous volumes of manuscripts, including over five hundred individual titles. For that reason the Index sive catalogus has been often interpreted as a ‘cata- logue’ of Strada’s library. Considering that it is a list of books in his collection, that view is not completely without foundation. But if so, it would only rep- resent a fraction of Strada’s library, which, according to himself, counted over three thousand printed books in addition to his manuscripts. It seems more likely that this second part of the Index represents manuscripts that Strada of- fered for sale to potential patrons. The first part of the document, listing forty-nine items, certainly was offered to Strada’s patrons: apart from the Elector of Saxony and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Elector Palatine was probably one of its recipients.92 But Strada offered the titles listed in it not for purchase, but explicitly as works which he intended to have printed, soliciting financial support from his patrons in ex- change for the dedication of the relevant item. This may seem odd in the case of one or two of the treasures described, such as the huge bird’s eye view of Rome—‘a thing, by Hercules! worth contemplating’—which Strada had com- missioned from ‘that excellent Netherlandish painter’ (item 16) or a similar image of Cairo, which Strada had copied from an old painting preserved in the vedere questo mio Indice (o Catalogo) di sudetti libri, li quali M[ae]s[tr]o Elias Hutter, su nominato, a visti in buona parte, et egli ne potra dare a V. Alt. piena informat[ion]e<…>’. 92 The full text given in Appendix D. Complete copies preserved in Vienna, önb, cv 10101; ibid., cv. 10117; sla, Magistratstestamente nr. 104; Firenze, ASF, Carte e spoglie Strozziane, I, f. 308, c. 64–69 (the copy sent to Jacopo Dani in 1581); Rome/Città del Vaticano, Vatican Library, Cod. pal. 1919 (copy probably sent to the Elector Palatine Friedrich III or Ludwig VI).