Jacopo Strada in Italy and Germany

The Italian antiquarian Jacopo Strada (c. 1515–88), is perhaps best known today due to Titian’s portrait of him, which hangs in the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna.[1] Here we are presented with a somewhat shifty figure, surrounded by artefacts: statues, books and, on the table, coins, the tools of his occupation as an antiquarian.

Jacopo Strada, Epitome du thresor des antiquitez, c’est à dire, Pourtraits des vrayes medailles des empp. tant d’Orient que d’Occident. De l’estude de Iaques de Strada … Traduit par Iean Louueau … (Lyon, 1553), title page.

Strada commissioned the portrait in 1567 but he had always been keen to emphasise his antiquarian credentials. On the title page of his 1553 publication, the Epitome Thesauri Antiquitatem … (Lyon, 1553), his readers were told that the text was based on ‘Ex musaeo Iacobi de Strada Mantuani Antiquarij’. The work was quickly translated: Edward Worth (1676–1733), acquired the French translation: Epitome du thresor des antiquitez, c’est à dire, Pourtraits des vrayes medailles des empp. tant d’Orient que d’Occident. De l’estude de Iaques de Strada Antiquaire … Traduit par Iean Louueau … (Lyon, 1553), which again emphasised that Strada was an ‘Antiquaire’. It was a title which Strada valued – and indeed in 1566 one of his many aristocratic clients, Maximilian II (1527–76), Holy Roman Emperor, gave him the official title of ‘Antiquarius Caesareus’ for antiquarian services rendered.[2]

Born of aristocratic parents in Mantua, Strada had trained as both a goldsmith and a painter but, as Heenes notes, his principal interest lay in the area of numismatics.[3] In this he was aided by the patronage of the wealthy German banker Johann Jakob Fugger (1516–75), and it was Fugger who sponsored his travels throughout France and Italy in search of numismatic treasures. From Lyon Strada moved to Rome where he met other sixteenth-century collectors such as Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520–89), whose librarian, Fulvio Orsini (1529–1600), would become famous for his works on numismatics. Alongside these luminaries, Strada had also developed links with Antonio Agustín (1517–86) and Onofrio Panvinio (1529–68).[4]

Jacopo Strada, Epitome du thresor des antiquitez, c’est à dire, Pourtraits des vrayes medailles des empp. tant d’Orient que d’’Occident. De l’estude de Iaques de Strada … Traduit par Iean Louueau … (Lyon, 1553), p. 1.

Strada’s Epitome, was his calling card into this cosmopolitan community of numismatic collectors for it was a ground-breaking work as it offered precise descriptions of coins – and not only the usual obverses but also the reverses.[5] As Stahl notes, Strada’s decision to depict the heads of Roman emperors and empresses in white against a black background harkened back to one of the most influential early publications by an antiquarian, Andrea Fulvio’s Illustrium imagines (Rome, 1517).[6] Andrea Fulvio (active 1510–43), had been responsible for producing the first printed book depicting ancient coinage, and it proved to be very influential – not least in that it combined ancient and fictious coins.

Andrea Fulvio’s concentration on primarily Roman emperors was imitated by Enea Vico’s Omnium Caesarum uerissimae imagines ex antiquis numismatis desumptae (Venice, 1553), which used Suetonius’ famous history of the first twelve Caesars as its model. As Stahl argues, Vico (1523–67), was one of the first commentators on ancient coins to emphasis numismatics as an essential part of historical research.[7] Worth did not own the first edition of 1553 but Vico’s text was incorporated into his copy of Giovanni Pietro Bellori’s Adnotationes nunc primum evulgatae in XII. priorum Caesarum numismata ab Aenea Vico Parmensi olim edita noviter additis eorumdem Caesarum imaginibus majori forma à praestatioribus calchographis aeri incises (Rome, 1730). The fact that Vico’s work was still being edited in 1730 demonstrates the important of this approach for early modern numismatists. The focus on coins of the Roman imperial court was likewise clearly on display in Strada’s Epitome du thresor des antiquitez (Lyon, 1553). However, while Strada clearly owed much in artistic arrangement to works such as that by Andrea Fulvio, he also introduced new topics, extending his treatment to include depictions of Byzantine emperors.[8]

Strada certainly amply repaid Fugger’s investment in him for he produced a huge multi-volume manuscript, his Magnum ac Novum Opus, unfortunately never printed, but which is now the focus of a major project at Forschungszentrum Gotha. The extent of the Magnum ac Novum Opus is amazing – its title pointing to Strada’s aim to compile descriptions ‘of all Coins of the Western as well as the Eastern Emperors and of the Tyrants with their Colleagues, Wives and Children up to the Emperor Charles V’.[9] The decision to bring his numismatic work up to the Habsburgs simply reflected that his principal clients, apart from Fugger, were Charles V’s brother and son respectively: the Holy Roman emperors, Ferdinand I (1503–64), Holy Roman Emperor, and his son, Emperor Maximilian II.

They were by no means his only clients and his connections to another client, Albrecht V (1528–79), Duke of Bavaria, may explain how the Gotha volumes he created for Fugger initially ended up in Bavaria: when Fugger went bankrupt his library and the manuscripts were acquired by Albrecht V (1528–79), Duke of Bavaria, and they subsequently became part of the Munich Kunstkammer. There they might have remained but for the actions of William (1598–1662), Duke of Saxe-Weimar, during the Thirty Years War. His descendants subsequently sold the collection to William’s brother Ernst I (1601–75), Duke of Saxe-Gotha.

Added to the Magnum ac Novum Opus was Strada’s Diaskeué, another extensive project which Strada may have begun in the 1550s.[10] As its title makes clear, this too was envisioned as a massive project: Description of Ancient Coins in Gold, Silver and Bronze, that is the Explanation of the Coin Images of the Chaldaeans, Arabs, Libyans, Greeks, Etruscans and Macedonians, Egyptians, Sicilians, of the Latin as well as Roman Kings from the Foundation of the City of the Gods, of the Consuls during the Period of the Roman Republic to this Day under the Latin Emperors in the West as well as under the Greek Imperators in the East and finally when the Empire of the Roman People Fell, of the Exarchs and of the Princes and Dukes of the Barbarians …. In Part Chronological, which comprise the Names of Kings, Caesars, Imperators and of Rulers, Male and Female.[11] As Heenes notes, the emphasis was more on description and perhaps less on analysis.[12]

As the above image demonstrates, Strada did not limit himself to depictions of Roman emperors – he also included depictions of their wives and female relatives. Here we see various wives and relatives of Caligula (12–41), Emperor of Rome. On the left page are coins of Junia Claudilla, Livia Orestilla, Lollia Paulina, and Cesonia, while on the right are depictions of Julia Drusilla and ‘Livia’, the daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, with brief biographies. Junia Claudilla had the double misfortune of being the first wife of Caligula and dying in childbirth; her successor in that unenviable position was Livia Orestilla but the marriage was short-lived as Caligula divorced her the next day. Lollia Paulina lasted a little longer – she was divorced after six months. Cesonia (Milonia Caesonia), lasted longer still until she was killed following the assassination of her husband. On the right hand side we see depictions of two relatives: Julia Drusilla (also known as Drusilla the younger), was the only child of Caligula and Milonia Caesonia. The depiction is fictious because Julia Drusilla died aged one but she was named for her aunt, Drusilla the elder, a favourite sister of Caligula. The ‘Livia’, who Strada states was a daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder, must refer to Julia Livilla, who was subsequently executed by Claudius (10 B.C.–54 A.D.), Emperor of Rome.

As Heenes notes, Strada usually named the owner of the coin – no doubt in an attempt to emphasize the veracity of his information and certainly in the title of his Epitome he had emphasized the importance of authenticity – the coins and medals were ‘vrayes medailles’.[13] However, in reality he continued the tendency in Andrea Fulvio’s Illustrium imagines (Rome, 1517) to include fictious as well as real coinage. These early modern imitations were called ‘Paduans’ and one of the most famous examples of this kind of coin was Strada’s coin which he asserted depicted the murder of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator and stateman who was murdered in 43 B.C. In his Epitome Strada only depicted the obverse (see above), which showed the members of the Second Triumvirate: Marcus Antonius (83 B.C?–30 B.C.), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (d. 13 B.C.) and Octavian, later Augustus (63 B.C.–14 A.D.), Emperor of Rome, and omitted an image of Cicero’s murder, which he claimed was on the reverse. As Heenes has noted, a depiction of this reverse was present in his magnum opus which was never published, wherein Strada stated that he had seen the coin in Mantua at the house of Giulio Romano – a statement which he contradicts in his Epitome, where he says that the saw it at Rome. As Heenes argues, since none of his contemporaries mention this coin it is more than likely that it was simply concocted by Strada himself. Unfortunately Strada’s own collections are no longer extant.[14]

Strada acknowledged the inclusion of such coins in his text on the series of imperial coinage: ‘Nevertheless, in any case it is true that not all coins match all inscriptions, as I would prefer: the reason is that not all of them were discovered, although all of them were minted’.[15] Such ‘Paduans’ were not unusual – indeed Strada drew attention to their makers, ‘engravers who are as brilliant as they are excellent, [so] that they are comparable to the ancients, and who are too well-known to be named here. Therefore one must take the greatest care to select the coins which have just been made in bas-relief by the [masters] who are particularly experienced, for their beauty and elegance’.[16] The inclusion of such coins was looked on askance by both contemporaries and later writers on numismatics. Adolf Occo (1524–1606) and Vico, speaking respectively about the depiction of coins in the Magnum ac Novum Opus and the Epitome, drew attention to their doubts about some of Strada’s descriptions.[17] Antoine Le Pois, in his Discours sur les medalles et graueures antiques, principalement Romaines (Paris, 1579), a text likewise collected by Worth, credited Strada with being ‘a very diligent and studious man, [who] has laboured much on this subject, according to the account he gives us in his Epitome du thresor des antiquitez’ but quickly added a few careful caveats: ‘But I have seen only this epitome of the grand work which he promises; in it are the effigies and portraits of the Roman emperors and Caesars, and below these a description of their lives and principle deeds. I greatly fear that some of these coins are suppositions, their reverses being rather strange, and some of their inscriptions are far from the style of writing of the ancients’.[18]

Louis Jobert (1637–1719), writing in his The knowledge of medals: or, Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of medals both ancient and modern from the French (London, 1697), which Worth likewise owned, was especially damning in his criticism:

‘Strada has given us a Model, having brought his work from Julius Caesar down to the Emperor Matthias, who Reigned at the finishing of his Book: But that Author must not be much relied upon, since the Medals he gives us are almost all false; that is, either invented by himself to compleat his Series, or taken from those which Maximilian made, to augment the Idea of the House of Austria’s Grandeur’.[19]

Jobert was perhaps being a little unfair to Strada – as Heenes’ analysis of Strada’s descriptions suggests, around 50% of Strada’s coins can be traced to ancient specimens.[20]

Text: Dr Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian of the Edward Worth Library, Dublin.

Sources

Cunnally, John, Images of the Illustrious: The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1999).

Freedman, Luba, ‘Titian’s Jacopo de Strada: a portrait of an ‘antiquario’, Renaissance Studies, 13, no. 1 (1999), 15–39.

Heenes, Volker, ‘The Numismatic Works of Jacopo Strada II: Strada’s Numismatic Research’, 63^rd Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, 30 March – 1 April 2017 [Transcript of presentation].

Heenes, Volker, ‘Strada’s Coin Drawings and Coin Descriptions and their Source in the Census’, Project Presentation: Jacopo Strada’s “Magnum ac Novum Opus”. A Renaissance Corpus of Ancient Numismatics, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Florence, 15 October 2019 [Transcript of presentation; Video].

Heenes, Volker, ‘Copies of ancient coins and inventions all’antica in the works of Jacopo Strada’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 2 (2020), 53–83.

Heenes, Volker, ‘[Die Combinations of] Unrelated Obverses and Reverse of Ancient Coins in Jacopo Strada’s Numismatic Works’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 3 (2021), 55–76.

Jansen, Dirk Jacob, Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court: Antiquity as Innovation, 2 vols (Leiden, 2019).

Jobert, Louis, The knowledge of medals, or, Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of medals both ancient and modern from the French (London, 1697).

Stahl, Alan M., ‘Numismatics in the Renaissance’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 69, no. 2 (2008), 217–40.

See also Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus, the wonderful project of the Forschungszentrum Gotha.

[1] On this see Jansen, Dirk Jacob, ‘The Image–Or from Whom (Not?) to Buy a Second-Hand Car’, in Jansen, Dirk Jacob, Jacopo Strada and Cultural Patronage at the Imperial Court: Antiquity as Innovation, 2 vols (Leiden, 2019), pp 1–41; Freedman, Luba, ‘Titian’s Jacopo de Strada: a portrait of an ‘antiquario’, Renaissance Studies, 13, no. 1 (1999), 15–39; and Cunnally, John, Images of the Illustrious: The Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1999), pp 26–33.

[2] Freedman, ‘Titian’s Jacopo de Strada: a portrait of an ‘antiquario’, 17.

[3] Heenes, Volker, ‘Copies of ancient coins and inventions all’antica in the works of Jacopo Strada’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 2 (2020), 53.

[4] On Strada’s contacts at Rome see Heenes, Volker, ‘The Numismatic Works of Jacopo Strada II: Strada’s Numismatic Research’, 63^rd Annual Meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Chicago, 30 March – 1 April 2017 [Transcript of presentation], p. 7.

[5] Heenes, Volker, ‘Copies of ancient coins and inventions all’antica in the works of Jacopo Strada’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 2 (2020), 57. In including reverses (or at least descriptions of them), Strada was following in the footsteps of Enea Vico’s Le imagini con tvtti i riversi trovati et le vite de gli imperatori : tratte dalle medaglie et dalle historie de gli antichi (Venice, 1548), a text not acquired by Worth.

[6] Stahl, Alan M., ‘Numismatics in the Renaissance’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, 69, no. 2 (2008), 223. Worth did not acquire this work.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious, p. 208.

[9] Title translated in Heenes, ‘The Numismatic Works of Jacopo Strada II: Strada’s Numismatic Research’, p. 1.

[10] Ibid., p. 7.

[11] Ibid., pp 7–8. Unfortunately the work was never published but two manuscript copies survived: one in Vienna and the other in Prague.

[12] Ibid., p. 14.

[13] Ibid., p. 10.

[14] Heenes, Volker, ‘[Die Combinations of] Unrelated Obverses and Reverse of Ancient Coins in Jacopo Strada’s Numismatic Works’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 3 (2021), 71.

[15] Heenes, Volker, ‘Copies of ancient coins and inventions all’antica in the works of Jacopo Strada’, Online Zeitschrift zur Antiken Numismatik, 2 (2020), 77.

[16] Quoted in ibid., 58.

[17] On Occo and Vico’s criticism see Heenes, Volker, ‘The Numismatic Works of Jacopo Strada II: Strada’s Numismatic Research’, p. 4.

[18] Quoted in Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious, p. 92.

[19] Jobert, Louis, The knowledge of medals, or, Instructions for those who apply themselves to the study of medals both ancient and modern from the French (London, 1697), p. 11.

[20] Heenes, Volker, ‘The Numismatic Works of Jacopo Strada II: Strada’s Numismatic Research’, p. 4.