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

99 INTRODUCTION has there been an ordered register. Before that time there is no register whatsoever, but half a storeroom of scrolls all mixed up and with no order of any sort. Our famous antiquary, who is Signor Abate Brunazzi, 167 and is a most distinguished patron of mine, worked in that archive for six years and more. He has all the important records and has seen all those scrolls. He assures me that, with regard to this canon De Ciconijs neither does he remember having seen him in any of the aforementioned scrolls, nor is he presently in any condition to plough through the system again [...] 168 In the same letter, we also learn of Martini’s activity as collector and bibliophile. Through Tartini’s intermediation, Brunazzi proposed to send him an ancient, but otherwise un- specified, antiphonary: [...] Signor Abate Brunazzi himself has commanded me to let you know that he has in his hands an extremely ancient musical monument (it is an antiphonary) and it dates back to the beginning of the 1100s. If this can be of benefit and pleasure to Your Reverence, he will put it at your disposal. [...] The matter is then dealt with again in a subsequent letter: [Padua 14 May 1762] [...] I have had the said book in my hands for many weeks: a famous piece of antiquity in- deed; but with the requirement of having to send it there to Your Reverence in such a manner as not to endanger the book in any way, both with regard to loss and to damage; and with the necessary condition of it being returned after Your Reverence has used it. There is no point in hoping to have it at any price, however exorbitant, and there is no need to say this. May Your Reverence now consider and command the way in which I must serve you in this. [...] 169 The long friendship between Tartini and Martini, outlined by the numerous letters examined, often takes on a more mundane character and include topics such as the delivery of fine Paduan tobacco, chocolate and the already-mentioned rosolio. The fre- quent errands undertaken by the two on behalf of each other reflect a well-established, informal relationship in which “elevated issues” can blend, without any awkwardness at all, with the normality of the purchase of a pair of stockings or some garlic salami. Traduzione di Roberto Baldo e Hugh Ward-Perkins Translation by Roberto Baldo and Hugh Ward-Perkins 167 Giovanni Brunacci (1711-1772), cf. Dbi. 168 Letter 154. M. Zorzato, "Brunacci, Giovanni", in Dbi. 169 Letter 157.