215

[…]

Of course this [Stradas Bestreben, die Münzen in einem Idealzustand abzubilden] is an approach which Strada shared with many other antiquaries, though a more critical attitude, insisting on showing only those parts of a monument, inscription, coin or sculpture that were regarded as authentic, certainly did already exist in the sixteenth century [und zwar – könnte man anfügen – gerade in jenen Kreisen der Accademia, zu denen Strada über Cervini, Agustín u.a. zweifellos Kontakt hatte, von denen er also gewusst haben muss]. Strada's choice to restore was a conscious, methodological choice, and represents an approach that was the outcome of a set of values typical for his period.

[…]

Insufficient account has been taken from the fact that Strada's numismatic corpus, as represented in the drawings preserved at Gotha, was intended to be complemented by a body of texts describing and explaining the individual coin-types; this is also the reason why the drawings themselves bear no comments at all. The duke of Bavaria clearly was not interested in these comments, since he stopped paying for them after having received only two volumes of the commentary. A complete set, however, has been preserved almost unnoticed in the Library of Vienna University, and another in that of the Charles

[S. 216]

University at Prague.