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

319 LETTERS 66. Tartini to F. Algarotti As far as I can see, I have become the object and subject of your beneficence. I shall tell you just one thing; and it is that I admire and shall admire the benefactor infinitely more than any great benefit he may bestow upon me. This is the truth, which you can be forever certain of. Now let’s come to the music. My little violin sonatas sent there have the bass as a formality: a detail which I did not mention to you. I play them without the bassetto , and this is my true intention. His Highness the Lord Prince of Lobkowicz 41 will be served as soon as possible and as best as I can over the six concertos commissioned; and if he comes to Italy, so that I can have the fortune of personally submitting myself to him, I shall renew with him my former servitude contracted in Prague with his parents and uncle. My ears can still hear the lute of His Highness’s mother, who played in such a manner that I was not able to distinguish her from Monsieur Vais, 42 her teacher. You explained to me the opportunity to accommodate my student Pasqual Bini with His Highness. Considering the circumstances, I fully see the great advantage of my student in such a case. He is full of qualities in his profession, and of kindness in his manner; but his poor spirit is not one for great courts. Therefore, convinced that this is the right opening for him, I wrote to him immediately; not so that he can ask for a salary etc., but so that he can give his consent to the service of such a patron. Moreover, please have the kindness to bring this matter to a good conclusion for every party; and be assured that neither I nor the student shall ask for any sum. The only consideration that His Highness must have in this case is that, if he has this man in his service, and His Highness is in a position to see his value and merit, he shall in fact find that in all Germany, as long and as wide as it may be, there surely shall not be another man to compare with him and to measure him against. I then entreat you again on this detail, while submitting to you my most cordial and deferential respects, I remain ever more My Lord Count Patron and Lord’s most devoted humble and obliged servant Giuseppe Tartini Padua, 24 February 1750. 41 The Lobkowicz family is one of the most ancient noble families of Bohemia. Ferdinand Philipp von Lobkowicz (1724-1784), the 6th prince, was Prince of Lobkowicz from 1739 to 1784. 42 Johann Jacob Weiss (1662-1774) was a lutenist and teacher of the instrument. He was the lute teacher for Prince Philipp Hyacinth Lobkowitz and for his wife, Princess Anna Maria Lobkowicz, a skilled player.