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

95 INTRODUCTION convey my most cordial respects. In the hands of the same Signor Lelio dalla Volpe there will be twelve copies to be sold there. I strongly urge Your Reverence that you and your friends and correspondents contribute as much as possible to the timely sale of the aforementioned copies, even though the price is a little high, due to the great quantity of musical notes. [...] 151 [Padua, 16 February 1755] [...] What I beg you is to give me some news of the distribution of the copies, for which I must account not in my own interest, but in the interest of the printer. My greatest concern has been to contribute to the sale of the books, so that they are spread everywhere, to learn the judgement of the really learned on many propositions contained therein. [...] 152 There are many particularly interesting references to students and to the practical ques- tions related to the organisation of teaching; often these include the sometimes complex relationships with the nobles, the students’ patrons who finance their studies. In the previously quoted letter of 14 November 1737, Tartini plays for time with regard to the request to admit a young man to his school; the request was proposed by Martini on behalf of Count Cornelio Pepoli. In the same letter we find, in addition to Tartini’s justifications, interesting information about the violin school: [...] I shall have to teach nine students this year: this absolutely confuses me, because when I had four or five of them, I was the busiest man in the world. They come, or better said, they have come for the most part, insalutato hospite , and from quite far away, so that they cannot be sent back home, and they are servants of princes. [...] 153 Further information on the life of the students in Padua is given in a subsequent letter: [Padua 18 September 1739] [...] The expense for his board (not in my house, as I have never wished to have students in my house) will be in a house in my district, and the least one can spend here, even taking care of one’s own expenses, is fifty paoli a month, as life in Padua is dearer than in Venice. That, which is my lowest fee, is two zechini a month and this is for the violin alone, as those who also wish to learn counterpoint pay me three zechini . There are other students who pay me more, but the sum I have mentioned is my usual one, so two zechini alone shall be for the violin. If the young man is somewhat advanced, within a year, God willing, his studies will be complete, while I observe that no matter how weak the students are when they come here, in two years they are accomplished. [...] In this way, we learn of the fees charged by Tartini for teaching the violin and counter- point, a subject which was not necessarily combined with the study of the instrument. We also understand that he had a fairly precise idea of the duration of the course of 151 Letter 112. 152 Letter 114. 153 Letter 13.