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

90 are not to be “entrusted to paper”. 128 The Paduan philosophers and mathematicians, who frequented the city’s scientific academies and circles together with Tartini, were clearly against him. Between 1741 and 1751 there are no surviving letters with Martini: it is the only gap of such length to be found in their correspondence. When Tartini resumes it, he does so to announce his intention of sending a “treatise” 129 to Bologna to be jointly examined by Martini and Balbi. In the letter of 2 April 1751 130 he shows his satisfaction for the good will shown towards him by both; from the tone and content of the letter one gathers that the exchange of letters had not stopped in the previous years. It is likely that a group of letters has been lost. Tartini hopes that Balbi and Martini, combining their respective competences, will examine this text of a physical and mathematical nature; however, when the examina- tion seems to be under way, the first misunderstandings emerge. Balbi’s real involve- ment in the examination of the Trattato , considered fundamental, is questioned more than once by Tartini. Martini was to have assisted the mathematician so as to be able to “confirm those practical musical matters mentioned from time to time” 131 , thereby taking a secondary role. About a year after the manuscripts were sent, the criticisms still seem to come from the musician rather than from the mathematician, and for this reason Tartini’s tone becomes irreverent: [Padua, 14 April 1752] [...] Considering the nature of the difficulties [...] it seems impossible to me that they have been proposed by the worthiest Signor Dottor Balbi. I know him to be a profound man, who immediately goes to the main point. My treatise is not for publication, nor for practical music; it is to prove the squaring of the circle by means of the third sound [...] Either one aims at this substance, or not. If not, the examination is useless, therefore I have now written two answers to two objections which conclude nothing, neither for nor against. If so, the difficulties suggested to me (always with the exception of the first one) do not pertain in any way to the substance. [...] Even though he tries to apologise in a later letter, 132 a certain irritation remains in their communication. As the requests become progressively more insistent and the tone impatient, the replies from Bologna become rarer. Tartini once again apologises, but the 128 Letter 74. 129 The text can be identified as the unpublished manuscript Quadratura del circolo : 50 pages in which he attempts a solution to the famous problem. It is preserved in Piran, document B 232 in the Inventory of the Collezione Giuseppe Tartini 1654-1951 by Albert Pucer; cf. Pucer, 1993: p. 110 (I thank Nejc Sukljan for the identification). 130 Letter 73. 131 Letter 76. 132 Letter 94.