The unfinished state of the Magnum ac Novum Opus can be explained by the financial difficulties encountered by the patron, Hans Jakob Fugger, in the mid-1560s, which led to his personal bankruptcy. By that time, Fugger had become a councillor and intimate friend of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, who extricated him from his difficulties, paying his debts in exchange for Fugger’s collections, which included his enormous library and the Magnum Opus.^[1] In the autumn 1566, during the course of the implementation of this arrangement, Wolfgang Prommer, Fugger’s librarian, made an inventory of the volumes as then present in Fugger’s Augsburg house, Antiquorum numismatum in magnis Voluminibus calculation; see here for a transcription.The term “calculatio” indicates that its primary function was to help establish the corpus’s monetary value in the context of the sale of Fugger’s collection to Duke Albrecht, and perhaps to calculate any outstanding compensation still due to Strada.

Prommer’s inventory listed nineteen volumes or albums of drawings. These were probably portfolios, the contents of which were as yet unbound but were already organized in chronological order. The first sixteen volumes contained drawings of Roman imperial coins from Julius Caesar to Licinius, and must have been considered sufficiently complete, since they were sent to Munich on 25 October 1566. Three further volumes are listed: volumes 17 and 18 were empty of content; they were probably intended to include the coin drawings of the later emperors, at least up to the Fall of the Roman Empire, which appear not yet to have been selected or produced at the time. Volume 19 was an additional volume presenting drawings of coins of empresses and other female dependents of diverse emperors.

In addition, Prommer listed a further eight Appendices, again unbound portfolios, in which a number of additional drawings were collected: these were intended still to be inserted into the existing portfolios. Finally, he lists a folder (“fasciculus”) of 137 loose, “redundant” sheets, which may have been duplicates. His total calculation comes to 7659 sheets, 6171 of which were “paginae pictae”, i.e. drawings, and 1488 “scriptae”, i.e. sheets where the coin was represented solely by the legend, omitting the image.

Since vol. 15, including Hadrian’s coins, is missing in Gotha, we do not know the exact total of drawings included in the thirty volumes splendidly bound in 1571, with Duke Albrecht’s portrait and arms impressed on their covers. At present, their number is close to 7,900; Prommer’s survey suggests that the Hadrianic coins numbered almost 600, in which case the grand total of drawings bound in the thirty volumes of the Magnum ac Novum Opus proper—the Gotha volumes—would have amounted to at least 8,500. This number implies that, between October 1566, when Prommer composed his Calculatio, and the actual binding in 1571, over eight hundred drawings were still added to the corpus. See here for a comparison of Prommer’s Calculatio with the volumes preserved.

Ernst Salomon Cyprian (1673–1745) was librarian of the Gotha Hofbibliothek. In 1714 he published a catalogue of its manuscripts, which included a description of the Magnum ac Novum Opus with some additional material, such as Veit Ludwig von Seckendorf’s earlier comments.

Cyprian gave a very brief description, and did not examine each individual volume; he moreover failed to spot that volume 15, including Hadrian’s coins, was already missing: though he mentions thirty volumes, only 29 catalogue numbers are in fact assigned to the Magnum ac Novum Opus. Cyprian describes Strada’s  separate Series Imperatorum (Gotha, Forschungsbibliothek, Ms. Chart. A 1243a) as nr 31; he realizes that it is a separate work, and prints Strada’s preface in its entirety.

Ernst Salomon Cyprian, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Gothanae, Leipzig 1714

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 CCXXXIX.— CCLXIII.

Magnum ac novum opus continens descriptionem vitae, imaginum, numismatum omnium tam orientalium, quam occidentalium imp. ac tyrannorum, cum collegis, coniugibus liberisque suis, usque ad Carolum V. imperatorem, a IACOBO DE STRADA, Mantuano elaboratum. Anno Domini MDL. Volumina XXX I. dedicata hoc ipso anno clariss. & ampliss. Domino Ioanni IacoboFuggero in Kirchberg & Wissenhorn comiti.

De nostris codicibus in Licinio delinentibus iudicium tulit Struvius introductionis ad notitiam rei literariae cap. I. §. IX.

Inter cimelia rariora ( bibliothecae Gothanae ) adservantur aliquot Tomi Iacobi de Strada, in quibus rarissimi nummi Romani consulares & imperatorii stupendo labore & arte mirabili delineati sunt. Horum picturas singulas, singulis coronatis constitisse auctor est Occo in epistola Msta ad Amarbachium apud Patinum, in introdudione ad historiam numismatum cap.XXIV. p. 188. Similia in Caesaris Vindobonensi extare testatur Lambecius Bibliotheca Caes.Tom. I. p. 77.

Quid Seckendorffius de hoc opere, aut potius partibus eius prioribus, iudicarit, docebit lectores eius ad Bosium epistola, quam ex autographo adscribemus. 

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Tomus XXXI. non pertinet ad ceteros codices, sed peculiare opus est primis XII. imperatoribus ex numis cognoscendis destinatum, cuius nos titulum & praefationem hoc loco exhibebimus. 

James Boswell visits Gotha and inspects the Magnum ac Novum Opus

During his Grand Tour the Scottish nobleman, lawyer, men of letters James Boswell (1740–1795), later to became famous for his  biography of Dr Johnson, visited Gotha, arriving at 16 October 1764, and leaving for Langensalza and Kassel on the 21st. He visited the Münzkabinett on Thursday 18th, and Ducal library on Fridat 19th October. For its charm, and to get a good impression of Boswell’s personality, and therefore the relative value of his very succinct description, we have included the full account of his visits to the Münzkabinett and the Hofbibliothek. It is cited from the reading or “trade” edition of the Yale edition of the Private Papers of James Boswell, vol. 4, omitting the notes: Frederick A. Pottle (ed.), Boswell on the Grand Tour: Germany and Switzerland 1764, New York / London 1953 [for the updated research edition, see: Marlies K. Danziger (ed.), James Boswell: The Journal of His German and Swiss Travels, 1764 [= The Yale Edition of the Private Papers of James Boswell / Research edition: Journal, Vol. I], New Haven 2008.

 <p. 142–143> Boswell’s visit to the Münzkabinett

THURSDAY 18 OCTOBER. At twelve I went and saw the Duke’s cabinet of Medals. It is nobly arranged in cases with drawers in which are divisions for each medal. The heads of the emperors in plaster bronzed make a very suitable ornament to the cabinet. It contains about fifteen thousand pieces. It is very rich in Greek and Latin medals, and contains some very curious ones. There is here an Alexander the Great with his own head, and five pieces of Tiberius. The gentleman who has the care of the cabinet was very intelligent. Het told me that he could discover counterfeit antiques because the veritable antiques were round in the the edges, as anciently they coined in a different manner from what they do now. I found here also several English coins, and a few old Scots ones.

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<p. 144–146> Boswell’s visit to the Gotha Hofbibliothek

FRIDAY 19 OCTOBER. I went and saw the Duke's Library, which is very large, in excellent order, and contains some curious pieces. There is a French book entitled La Truandise (i.e., in old French, pauvrete) de I'ame, where there is an allegorical picture of a poor soul which comes to receive from the Holy Church the alms of grace. The Soul is painted as a woman, stark naked, who presents herself before five or six sturdy priests and holds a bag to put their alms in. The book is in manuscript. There is also a German Bible which formerly belonged to the Elector of Bavaria. It is a manuscript written an age before the Reformation. It is in two volumes. The first contains the historical books of the Old Testament. It is probable that there has been another volume in which the rest of the Old Testament has been written. This first volume is decorated with paintings in an odd taste, but finely illuminated and richly gilded in the manner of that ancient art, which is now <p. 145> totally lost. Some of the designs are truly ludicrous. When Adam and Eve perceive that they are naked, God comes in the figure of an old man with a pair of breeches for Adam and a petticoat for Eve. One would almost imagine that the painter intended to laugh at the Scriptures. But in those days it was not the mode to mock at the religion of their country. The genius which is now employed to support infidelity was then employed to support piety. The imagination which now furnishes licentious sallies was then fertile in sacred emblems. Sometimes superstition rendered them extravagant, and sometimes weakness made them ridiculous, as I have now given an example. The second volume contains the New Testament complete. It is illuminated by the same hand as the first volume, as far as the history of Our Saviour's passion in the fourteenth chapter of St. Mark. It has been reckoned that the gold employed in illuminating the two volumes may amount to the value of a thousand ducats. It is probable that the ancient painter has died when he had got as far as the fourteenth of Mark. The Duke of Bavaria has however taken care that the work should not be left imperfect. At the end of this volume the arms of Bavaria are painted, and there is an inscription bearing that Otto Henry, Duke of Bavaria, caused the remaining part of the Sacred Oracles to be adorned by a more modern painter, anno 1530-1532 for it took two years to finish it. The work of the last painter has not the advantage to be illuminated with gold in the ancient manner, as was the work of the former painter. But the modern has been a much superior genius. His designs are remarkably well conceived, and executed with accuracy and taste. His colours are fresh and lively.

            He has however now and then fallen into little absurdities. The Evangelist tells us that when Mary Magdalene found Our Saviour after his resurrection, she supposed him to be the gardener, for which reason the painter has drawn Christ holding a spade. Now Mary supposed him to be the gardener because he was in a garden. Had he had a spade in his hand, it was impossible to doubt of it. But how suppose that Jesus had a spade? Upon the whole, this Bible is one of the noblest books that I have ever seen.

<p. 146>          There is here another remarkable book, Magnum opus continens numismata imperatorum Romanorum, a Jacobo de Strada Mantuano elaboratum, anno 150-.* This work was executed by order of the Count de Fugger, whose family was in Germany what the family of the Medici was in Italy. The work consists of thirty-one volumes, in each of which is from 300 to 500 leaves. For each leaf the Count de Fugger paid a ducat, so that at the least it must have cost 9,300 ducats. It would seem that there have been more copies of this work, for some of the first volumes are to be found in the Libraries of Vienna and Dresden. The library-keeper at Gotha is a very learned man, simple, quiet, and obliging.

            I was this day dressed in a suit of flowered velvet of five colours. I had designed to put on this suit first at Saxe-Gotha. I did so. It is curious, but I had here the very train of ideas which I expected to have. At night the Princess made me come to the table where she sat at cards, and said, "Mr. Boswell! Why, how fine you are!"** She is a good, lively girl. I am already treated here with much ease. My time passes pleasantly on. Between dinner and evening court I read the Nouvelle Heloise; write; I think.

* "An extended study of the medals of the Roman Emperors, made by Jacopo de Strada of Mantua, in the year 150-."

** The memoranda, however, show that the Princess [= Friederike Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg] advised Boswell to put on a black ribbon and to wear a different sword-knot.