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

94 [Padua 11 April 1738] [...] I hope that in two weeks Your Reverence will receive a letter from Holland, and I cer- tainly hope so. I was only able to send Le Cène the things promised to him four weeks ago, and this was the reason for all delays [...] 147 The work, 148 finally printed, was received by Martini in 1743. 149 Tartini then shows his esteem for Martini’s skills as a composer in the letter dated 17 January 1737, in which he entreats him to send an oratorio (which he describes as “fa- mous”) that had been performed in S. Venanzio in Camerino. Tartini mentions having heard it together with Vandini at a service held in the Marche region in 1735, and how he wanted it so he could have it performed at the Oratorio Filippino in Padua during the period of Carnival. [...] This Oratorio is being chosen in everybody’s best interest, and Signor Don Antonio and I are the proposers of this choice. I hereby give you my word and commit my honour that it will not be copied, but exactly as you will send it, it will be sent back there to you without any expense, as is due. It was wished that I write to you and submit this entreaty to you, though I blush to ask in all haste. [...] This supplication is a little insolent, but the fault is not mine; half of it belongs to Your Reverence, who composes precious things; and the other half belongs to him who has absolutely commanded me to write to you and that I do no less than that, whether the reply be yes or no. [...] 150 This letter confirms once again the privileged relationship that linked the two. The man behind the initiative, “Padre Antonio Trevisolo in San Tomaso”, had turned to Tartini to obtain a particular favour from Martini. Many years later, after the publication of the Trattato di musica secondo la vera sci- enza dell’armonia , Tartini availed himself of his friend as a means of selling copies in the Bologna area, as can be understood from a series of letters written shortly after publication: [Padua 9 August 1754] [...] At last, here is the book in question, two copies of which shall be presented with this letter of mine to Your Reverence by Signor Lelio dalla Volpe: one for Your Reverence, the other for the Most Illustrious Signor Dottor Balbi, to whom you should 147 Letter 14. 148 Sonate d'Intavolatura per l'Organo e il Cembalo, dedicate a sua Eccellenza il Sig.r Conte Cornelio Pepoli Musotti Conte del S. R. I. di Castiglione, Sparvo, Baragazza, Senatore di Bologna, Nobile Ferrarese, Patrizio Veneto e Romano, da F. Gian Battista Martini Minore Conventuale, Amsterdam, a Speza di Michele Carlo Le Cène, 1742. 149 Martini was not entirely satisfied with the printing, as it contained “various errors” which he hoped could be corrected before publication. See his letter to Le Cène dated 12 June 1743 (I-Bc, S2678) and, on the subsequent relations between him and the publisher (and then with his successor, De La Coste), Busi, 1891: pp. 353-363. 150 Letter 11.