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Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus

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When the Kunstkammer of the Dukes of Bavaria in Munich was plundered by the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, one of its most prestigious items, Jacopo Strada’s corpus of numismatic drawings, was split up. Martin Mulsow and his collaborators aim at studying and reuniting this voluminous corpus.
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
When the Kunstkammer of the Dukes of Bavaria in Munich was plundered by the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, one of its most prestigious items, Jacopo Strada’s corpus of numismatic drawings, was split up. Martin Mulsow and his collaborators aim at studying and reuniting this voluminous corpus.


Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus
Jacopo Strada’s Magnum ac Novum Opus: A Sixteenth-Century Numismatic Corpus

The volumes in Gotha and London

When the Kunstkammer of the Dukes of Bavaria in Munich was plundered by the Swedes in the Thirty Years War, one of its most prestigious items, Jacopo Strada’s corpus of numismatic drawings, his Magnum ac Novum Opus continens descriptionem vitae, imaginum, numismatum omnium tam Orientalium quam Occidentalium Imperatorum ac Tyrannorum, cum collegis ac coniugibus liberisque suis, usque ad Carolum V. Imperatorem, was split up. Four volumes on Republican coins were acquired by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and are now in the British Library, twenty-nine volumes of Imperial coins ended up in the library of Duke Ernst the Pious of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Though these volumes never reached Munich, two further volumes of very similar drawings in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna may likewise have been intended for this corpus. Originally commissioned by Strada’s early patron, Hans Jakob Fugger, the volumes had been acquired by Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, together with Fugger’s entire library and collection.

The volumes in Vienna and Prague

Despite being extremely prestigious, this veritable corpus of coins of the Roman Empire has never been studied. A possible explanation for this may be that, towards the end of the seventeenth century with the advent of more scientific methods, the reliability of the drawings as sources for genuine ancient coins began to be doubted. Another reason may be that Duke Albrecht did not acquire Strada’s own coin descriptions that are preserved in the two manuscript copies of his A<ureorum> A<rgenteorum> A<ereorum> NumismatΩn Antiquorum ΔΙΑΣΚΕΥΕ kept in Vienna and Prague. This was an equally voluminous, separate but complementary work, which contained structured and methodical descriptions and notes on the provenance of each coin Strada had studied. The existence of both Strada’s coin-drawings and his coin-descriptions allow a detailed analysis of Strada’s interpretation of the coins he had seen, and thus provides a rare opportunity to study the methods of a Renaissance antiquary in great detail.

Analysis

Indispensable condition for such a comparative study is that images and text be brought together virtually. Therefore the first aim of the project is to digitize both the images and the texts and to link the images with the relevant texts. The database of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, partner in the project, makes this possible, and in future will allow other researchers and the general public direct access to its results. Moreover, a detailed comparison of the textual volumes with the drawings allows some attempt to reconstitute Strada’s original intention for the Magnum Opus, the order of which was confused when Duke Albrecht, apparently without consulting Strada, ordered the drawings to be bound.

The second aim is to link Strada’s drawings and descriptions to existing ancient Roman coins, where possible. This allows an analysis of the way in which Strada handled his sources, both in his textual interpretation and in his visual rendering. This linkage together with Strada’s printed numismatic essay, the Epitome Thesauri Antiquitatum (Lyon 1553), the prefaces to his numismatic manuscripts and passages from his correspondence with his patrons will shed light upon his methods. These methods will be placed in the context of precept and practice of earlier and contemporary antiquaries.

Period
2015-2018
Project leadership
Prof. Dr. Martin Mulsow
Project partners
Forschungsbibliothek Gotha
Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance
Research fellows
Dr. Volker Heenes
Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt
Schloss Friedenstein, 99867 Gotha
+49 361 737-1732  
volker.heenes@uni-erfurt.de
Dr. Dirk Jacob Jansen
Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt
Schloss Friedenstein, 99867 Gotha
+49 361 737-1731  
dirk_jacob.jansen@uni-erfurt.de
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