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

433 LETTERS another book, which His Eminence wishes to purchase with his money and not in any other way. Your Reverence must make sure of this, because if you risk sending it on a different understanding, you may be sure it will be sent back to you. Therefore, either send it directly with a notification of its cost or let me know if in Venice your worthiest book is sold by some bookseller, as in this case His Eminence will easily obtain it there. Meanwhile, I have been starved of it until now and am becoming delirious with my impatience to read it. Go easy, then, with your very humble declaration that you await my opinion as if it were an oracle. No, my dearest patron, I intend to read and study it to learn more; and it may be that my head shall not be able to understand it all well. But in this case I shall turn to Your Reverence for help, and this has been and is what I intend to do; and in this sense, I pray you again to put up with me if this happens. Indeed I know nothing about history or erudition, but I shall learn from your book what is fitting to know. His Eminence tells me that there are three dissertations added to the history, and that one of these involves the whole of our practical system: this is something which touches my heart, as I have hitherto certainly failed to be persuaded either by what the physicists and mathematicians have claimed to have discovered and presented or by what I have read written by our new music professors. Your Reverence, aware of how much veneration I have for you, may then imagine how impatient I am to have your book in my hands. Be kind enough to make haste in sending one with the above-mentioned condition, or in informing me if there are any in Venice, and where, while conveying to you my most cordial and most respectful regards, as I beg you to do on my behalf to the Most Illustrious Signor Dottor Balbi, as ever I remain Your Reverence’s most humble, devoted and obliged servant Giuseppe Tartini Padua, 23 January 1761 146. Tartini to G.B. Martini I have sent Padre Paolucci a box containing two pounds of excellent Paduan tobacco, well stored, so that he can forward it in some way to Your Reverence, as I did not have any other way or means, despite having endeavoured to find one. These two pounds must serve Your Reverence as a sample and a taste. When you have received them, you must tell me sincerely if this sort of tobacco pleases you, and then it shall be my concern to keep you supplied. By now there should be no ceremony between Your Reverence and I, and you should allow me to do as I please with your eyes closed. I am