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

423 LETTERS be increased upon the aforementioned at the discretion of any representative; as clearly expressed by the Most Illustrious Costantini in the above-mentioned meeting, it will be gradually increased both on the musicians and on the ministers serving the Venerable Ark, who for now are considered among those exempt; not through the will of the magistrate of the deputies of the tax, who on the contrary with new and increasingly urgent letters insist with the respective representatives that the tax be extended to any category of person hitherto exempt and neglected. This trustworthy information is delivered to the Presidency by the most humble servant Tartini, and it is delivered in writing, so that it is known to the whole Presidency; for unfortunately he was unsuccessful in communicating it in person to everyone individually, as he was entrusted to do, because in the repeated visits made to this effect many were out of town. With all imaginable humbleness, he entreats the Presidency to receive this information in no other aspect if not of prompt obedience to the first commissions received from it and of the very fullest concern that the Presidency should know all that has occurred in this matter, so that it can ascertain its deliberations. 137. Tartini to the Council of Ten Most Illustrious and Excellent Lords, Heads of the Excellent Council of Ten, A new emergency requires the presidency of the Venerable Ark of the glorious Saint Anthony of Padua to appeal to Your Serenity and then await the fitting deliberations from its public mercy. The musicians serving at the Ark, and salaried by it for the work that they perform every day, appeared before the presidency, stating that they had been included in the tax recently ordered by decree of the Most Excellent Senate; and as the main sources of income for the exercise of their trade are the church and theatre, thus finding that these sources are missing to them, showed as a consequence that the charge of the tax must be dropped on their respective salaries, which by force of contracts must pass into their hands and remain undiminished. As evidence, they submitted to the Presidency a document that is also submitted to this venerable tribunal, according to which they appear to be forbidden from taking part in ecclesiastical functions in the churches of nuns, which amount to the number of twenty-four, and more. And this under an episcopal prohibition, by which they are excluded, and only the musicians of the cathedral admitted. They then demonstrate (a fact that is publicly known in Padua) that they can never obtain the earnings that the public theatre can provide, because it is the ruling city that engages a large part of the