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

75 INTRODUCTION the handwriting, the author of the biography proves to be Antonio Vandini, a cellist and a friend of Tartini’s. 41 This text bears a strong resemblance to the text of the Orazione (funeral oration) recited by Abate Francesco Fanzago during the commemoration of the violinist’s death held on 31 March 1770 and then printed in the same year, with the addition of notes, a biographical appendix and an engraved portrait of the late Tartini. 42 The similarities between the two documents, analysed by Petrobelli in the first volume he published, 43 are such as to indicate with fair certainty that Fanzago used the manu- script biography for the drafting of his oration. In support of the biographical informa- tion, various references are made in the two texts to letters by the composer or attributed to him, the letters being clearly known to the writers, but later lost. Within the biography we find two references, both added in the notes. The first in note 3: Letters are preserved to this day in the family of a father of San Francesco Grande, 44 a native of Piran to whom he had been recommended, in which one reads that Signor Giuseppe was so keen on sword sport that, seeing nobody able to compete with him, he had envisaged moving to Naples or France to establish himself as a master. Nonetheless, he did not neglect the violin, in which he was on the contrary making slow progress. The second letter was written by Tartini himself to refuse the offer made to him, through the maestro di cappella of Brescia Paris Algisi, of a position in London: 45 The letter of response started with the passage from the Gospel: Quid prodest homini si to- tum mundum lucretur, anime vero sue detrimentum patiatur. [in note] This letter is found among Tartini’s writings The letter in question appears therefore to have been kept by the violin player among his writings in the years following the event, at least until the date on which the text was written, which Petrobelli dates to the first months of 1770. 46 Vandini’s biographical manuscript ends with Tartini’s return to Padua after the years in Prague, while Fanzago, as is logical, continues the narrative until Tartini’s death. 41 For an examination of the handwriting of the document, see Petrobelli, 1968: pp. 72-79. 42 Fanzago, 1770. 43 Petrobelli, 1968: pp. 28-68. 44 The church of San Francesco d’Assisi in Padua (today in via San Francesco) was called for centuries San Francesco Grande, to distinguish it from the church of San Francesco Piccolo, which disappeared in the 16th century. The author of the letter therefore belonged to the convent of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor in Padua and must have preserved this letter until the time the manuscript was drafted. 45 As in the previous case, the information is accurately reported by Fanzago, who however omits or limits the details on the epistolary sources. See Fanzago, 1770: p. 35 46 Petrobelli, 1968: pp. 69-72.