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

337 LETTERS 81. G.B. Martini a Tartini I do not know if in our most recent reflections we have pointed out to your Most Illustrious Lordship that the birth of the third sound when two consonant strings are perfectly played may in part have been known not only to Monsieur Sauveur and Father Mersenne, but even to Monsieur Rameau. So that you may see the foundation of this preliminary report, I will here add to you an article of the judgement given by the Academy of Sciences on 10 December 1749. On its demonstration of the principle of harmony, the respective article translated faithfully is as follows. “The whole of this system is founded on the two following experiments. If one plays a sounding body, which we shall call Ut, to identify it more easily, as well as the principal sound, two other very high sounds are heard, one of which is the 12th above the principal sound, that is the octave of its ascending fifth, and the other the major 17th above the same sound, that is the double octave of its ascending major third.” This experiment is different from that of Your Most Illustrious Lordship in this respect, that in that of Monsieur Rameau, of Father Mersenne, etc. just one string is played, from which two other sounds are produced in the air, whereas in yours two strings are played, from which just one sound is produced, but since the production of other sounds is found in both experiments, hence it was also known to others. Sincerity and friendship has prompted me to inform you of this experiment so that you may see to what extent and what place it can have in your dissertation. Signor Dottor Balbi who is with me here distinctly reveres you, while I submit myself to you with all esteem for Your Lordship Bologna, 5 October 1751 82. Tartini to G.B. Martini After having sent my letter by post to Your Reverence, I received from Signor Don Antonio the rosolio gifted to me. I thank you profusely, but Your Reverence must be convinced of two truths. One is that I do not wish for you to take this sort of trouble for me. The second, is that my precise need (actually not mine, but that of my wife, for whom it is a true medicine) is for rosolio by Sabadin Fioresi, and not by any other maker. The reason is clear, as it is the lightest of all. If then Your Reverence wishes to favour me, please send me a jar, big rather than small, of Polachina [torn paper] Sabadin Fioresi, and tell me the debt of the expense,