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

330 please take two precautions. The first is to go slowly and take as much time as you wish. The second is that (if you wish) you should not take any trouble whatsoever over the experiments, and only once you have supposed these to be true, express your opinion and judgement on the proposition. You shall see that the explanation of many things has been necessary to me, as I am persuaded (or better said, I am convinced by trials done here with illustrious men) that the aforementioned do not fall within common knowledge. Therefore, the treatise was lengthened; but I have thought it helpful to extract from it the enclosed geometric compendium, so that the examination is easier for you. In that which is needed with regard to music, make use of our most benevolent Padre Maestro Martini, to whom I am writing again to this effect. If I have explained something confusedly and you cannot understand it, please take the trouble to write to me of the difficulty so that I, likewise by means of letter, can explain it better. If you find any mistakes in the copy of the treatise I am sending you, please be patient. I have corrected many of them, but among the many that there were, some may easily have escaped my eye. It is then superfluous that I warn you and beg you not to be shaken by such a proposition of mine, proven with such means. I am so persuaded and convinced of its truth that it is impossible for me to doubt it. And my only doubt is that I have not been able to lead the matter to its conclusion with the right geometric method and that there may be some gaps therein. But in such cases I shall strive to make up for any deficiency and I shall strive with good reason. I simply entreat you, in the difficulties which may occur, to explain yourself to me in such a way that I can understand. But certainly not with algebra, as I know nothing at all about it; rather, with common geometry, so that I can get there all the same. In brief, it is necessary that you understand well that I cannot ascend, but you are the one who must descend. You may well be curious to know for what reason I have not wanted to have this proposition examined here in Padua, nor do I want it examined by Padre Riccati there. I shall tell you that here in Padua I have no one whom I can reasonably trust, and I shall tell you in due time and in person the reason (which is unfortunately serious) why it is not to be entrusted to paper. I do not want it (at least for now) to be examined by Padre Riccati, because the entire physical harmonic science will have to reach his hands in due time for examination, of which the present proposition is such a separable part that this could be false without any prejudice to the truth of the entire science. The substantial, intrinsic and constitutive parts of the science have already been examined here, and nothing false has been found in them. The examination carried out is not enough for me, as I have artfully hidden the consequences and corollaries of the science from the examiner, and I prudently had to do so. When it is sent to Padre Riccati, there will be all the deductions, and it will be sent in its entirety. But meanwhile I do not wish to compromise the truth of the same by anticipating a proposition which, on the one hand, one cannot deny, which does not depend entirely upon the above-mentioned science, but on the other hand,