An account of religious moderation at the Habsburg court in late sixteenth-century Vienna.The Quest for Compromise is an interdisciplinary study of an imperial court in late sixteenth-century Vienna, and a detailed examination of a fascinating moment of religious moderation. It investigates the rise and fall of an irenic movement through four individuals: an Italian artist (Jacopo Strada), a Silesian physician (Johannis Crato), a Dutch librarian (Hugo Blotius) and a German soldier (Lazarus von Schwendi), who sought peace and accommodation through a wide range of cultural, intellectual and political activity.The Quest for Compromise is an interdisciplinary study of an imperial court in late sixteenth-century Vienna, and a detailed examination of a fascinating moment of religious moderation. It investigates the rise and fall of an irenic movement through four individuals: an Italian artist (Jacopo Strada), a Silesian physician (Johannis Crato), a Dutch librarian (Hugo Blotius) and a German soldier (Lazarus von Schwendi), who sought peace and accommodation through a wide range of cultural, intellectual and political activity.The Quest for Compromise is an interdisciplinary study of an imperial court in late-sixteenth-century Vienna, and a detailed examination of a fascinating moment of religious moderation. It investigates the rise and fall of an irenic movement through four individuals: an Italian artist (Jacopo Strada), a Silesian physician (Johannis Crato), a Dutch librarian (Hugo Blotius) and a German soldier (Lazarus von Schwendi), who sought peace and accommodation through a wide range of cultural, intellectual and political activity.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; A political and cultural chronology; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Emergence of an Irenic Court: 1. From confrontation to conciliation: the conversion of Lazarus von Schwendi; 2. Jacopo Strada and the transformation of the imperial court; Part II. Maximilian II and the High l“p