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

91 INTRODUCTION misunderstandings remain and the discussion thus ends without a true convergence of opinions between the two parties. 133 The following year, Count Decio Agostino Trento, a student of the violinist’s, offered to sponsor the printing of the Trattato di musica secondo la vera scienza dell'armonia , in which the subjects covered in the correspondence in question were to be included (not without revisions and modifications). However, these differences do not seem to damage the relationship between Martini and the violinist. Tartini makes sure of this before sending some copies of the work to Bologna: [Padua, 1 February 1754] [...] Your most kind letter has lifted me from the greatest affliction of the soul that could ever take place in a man. I confess that I have wronged you by suspecting that due to my negligence, consisting in not writing to you for a long time, both Your Reverence and Signor Dottor Balbi had taken offence, and, for a few moments, I ascribed the delay in your reply to this reason. This suspicion [...] was more than sufficient to trouble me a lot. Now, may God be thanked; both one and the other shall continue to be good patrons of mine, and to favour me. [...] The Trattato , promptly distributed to the main European cultural centres, did not fail to give rise to criticisms and disagreements: Serre proved it to be “false” and “impractical”. The publication of the second theoretical work, the “ De’ principî dell’armonia mu- sicale contenuta ne diatonico genere ”, is announced with few overtures. Martini had re- cently sent a previously unknown dissertation 134 of his to Padua, which Tartini received through Vallotti. It is not clear which dissertation was sent from Bologna nor what its content was. Vallotti’s words shed some light, for in a letter to Martini he talks about a dissertation by Martini he had just received, which deals with “platonic numbers” and “the use […] of geometrical proportion”. 135 As the two letters in question have the same date, the dissertation must be the same: [Padua, 9 March 1766] [...] Through our Padre Maestro Vallotti I have received the favours of Your Reverence con- sisting in your most virtuous dissertation. I thank you all the more, as it is a sure sign of the memory which you kindly cherish of me. [...] I shall publish, as soon as possible, a disserta- tion on the true first principles of the diatonic genre. It has been complete for two years and more; but before publishing it I have wanted it to be examined quite rigorously in almost the whole of Italy, and it has withstood all scrutiny. [...] 133 For a thorough analysis of the correspondence between Martini and Tartini on this topic, see Barbieri, 1990: pp. 173-189. 134 Vallotti refers to the dissertation in a slightly earlier letter to Martini: I-Bc, S5498: [Padua, 9 March 1766] “I give you much distinguished thanks for your most erudite dissertation […] years ago I too took into consideration the platonic numbers […] of the use then of the geometrical proportion”” 135 I-Bc, S5498.