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

276 20. Tartini to G.B. Martini Since the closure of the passes has prevented me from coming there, as I had decided to do, it is time to fulfil my obligation by letter. I therefore tell Your Reverence that the said youth helped by His Excellency Signor Conte Cornelio Pepoli may come here after the holidays, that is to say in the month of November, whenever he sees fit. 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. As for my lowest fee, it is two zecchini a month and this is for the violin alone, as those who also wish to learn counterpoint pay me three zecchini . There are other students who pay me more, but the sum I have mentioned is my usual one, so two zecchini 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. This is, in substance, what I must say to Your Reverence so that you can relate it to His Excellency Pepoli together with the conveyance of my most humble respects and the sincere statement of the infinite care which I shall have in serving him well, while to Your Reverence, humbly kissing your hands, I profess myself as ever Your Reverence’s most humble and devoted servant Giuseppe Tartini Padua, 18 September 1739 21. Tartini to G.B. Martini I begged Your Reverence in another letter to deliver to Signor Don Antonio hats and cocoa coming from Livorno, if they should ever come in time before his return. I now pray you to no longer do this, but to deliver everything to the young man who is to be my future student, if the stuff were to arrive before his departure for Padua though. If this were not the case, may Your Reverence take the trouble to notify me, so that I can give you other directions. In the meantime I beg you to tell Signor Don Antonio that I have received his letter written from Venice, that his truly sudden departure saddened me deeply with regard to the said thread ordered by him for Signora Francesca, which, remaining here and useless for such a purpose, will be used by my wife; and that it will