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

76 In Fanzago’s Orazione and in the notes added for the printed edition in 1770, there are further references to letters. In the notes, we find references to the famous letter to Maddalena Lombardini-Sirmen, 47 printed in June of the same year, and to a letter from Count Algarotti. The latter, dated 12 February 1754, was entirely transcribed and print- ed already in 1757. 48 The Miscellanea musicale  49 by Gaetano Gaspari contains a copy of the complete text of the letter written by Tartini to Marquis Ferdinando degli Obizzi, 50 to whom Fanzago refers in note no. 27, 51 in which he wishes to emphasise the size of the salary offered to him by Edward Walpole: 52 Many years ago I received from Sir Edward Walpole the courteous and advantageous invi- tation to go to London with him. Having decided not to go, I remember that a confidant of the said cavaliere deemed me to be a solemn fool. He once again refers to the same letter to demonstrate Tartini’s great humility in wish- ing to submit his discoveries to the learned English philosophers: 53 [...] Your Excellency must know that it is extremely difficult, at the present point, to find another man who has more need than me to be in London now, not for the music nor for my paltry violin, but for another truly important matter concerning the Royal Academy. It is so difficult for any other man to be superior to me in the esteem, veneration, and respect towards English Gentlemen, which I in fact rank above any other nation for judgement, that to them alone I shall submit a finding of mine. The same source is used for the writing of the Compendio della vita di Giuseppe Tartini , printed together with the text of the oration, where the passage which follows is transcribed: I have a wife who shares my feelings, and I have no children. We are most content in our state, and if there is any desire in us, it is not for anything more. Furthermore, the idea of 47 Fanzago, 1770: p. 34. 48 Algarotti, 1757: pp. 421-425. For a concise and chronologically organised bio-bibliography of Francesco Algarotti, see Unfer-Lukoschik - Miatto, pp. 31-50. 49 Gaspari, Miscellanea musicale : pp. 409. 50 Ferdinando degli Obizzi (1701-1768), Paduan man of letters. For some time during his adoles- cence he lived in Ferrara and then spent his life between Padua, Venice and the Castello del Catajo near Padua. From 1721 he was a member of the Accademia degli Intrepidi of Ferrara, and from 27 May 1732 he joined the Accademia dei Ricovrati of Padua, of which he was prince in the two-year period 1741-43. 51 Fanzago, 1770: p. 35. 52 Edward Walpole (1706-1784), British politician and member of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and the Privy Council of Ireland. Son of Robert Walpole, prime minister from 1721 to 1742. 53 Fanzago, 1770: p. 37.