Giuseppe Tartini - Lettere e documenti / Pisma in dokumenti / Letters and Documents - Volume / Knjiga / Volume I

69 INTRODUCTION 1968 on the biographical sources, 21 which draws on them extensively. There are then other contributions published at the turn of the millennium that refer to the epistolary material in studies of different themes linked to Tartini: the transmission of the texts, his relations with publishers, his teaching. 22 The present introduction is divided into two chapters, followed by some tools useful to the reader. In the first chapter we have tried to reflect on the features of the epistolary sources as such, tackling primarily questions concerning the loss and pres- ervation of the material. The first matter dealt with is the loss of the sources. It is firstly the texts themselves that give us an idea of the number of missing letters. We have attempted to give a reason for these losses by investigating the ways in which the material was preserved and trans- mitted. Furthermore, we have examined manuscripts and printed texts that contain information and sometimes excerpts from Tartini’s letters, such as Ms. DXVII of the Biblioteca del Seminario of Padua and Fanzago’s Orazione . 23 In addition to information about the letters that are today untraceable, what emerges is the strong propensity of 18th-century writers (Fanzago and Vandini in particular) to use the letters as a source for reconstructing the biography. To conclude, the events relating to a group of letters “ non possedute ” (not held), 24 but reported in the online catalogue of the Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica of Bologna, have been analysed. Insofar as possible, the movements of these sources, whether lost, sold or transferred, have been reconstructed. The second chapter describes, through the letters, the long relationship that linked Tartini to Giovanni Battista Martini. The sources known to date give no certain evi- dence of an encounter between Martini and Tartini, so their relationship is documented essentially by the letters. Hypotheses have therefore been advanced on the circumstances that laid the foun- dations of a friendship that lasted at least forty years. Through the comparison be- tween information given in the letters and other documental sources, new details have emerged on Tartini’s movements in the years following his appointment to the basilica of S. Antonio. Subsequently, the letters on matters concerning music theory, the main topic of their correspondence, have been examined. By comparing a Bologna letter from 1730 25 with one from the following year preserved in Vienna, 26 it has been possible to 21 Petrobelli, 1968. 22 Canale, 1992: pp. 15-24; Durante, 2007: pp. 167-208; Viverit, 2004, pp. 19-29. 23 Fanzago, 1770. 24 They are thus described in the online catalogue at the address http://www.bibliotecamusica.it/ cmbm/scripts/lettere/search.asp 25 Letter 5. 26 Letter 6.