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

438 153. Tartini to G.B. Martini I cannot and must not deny anything to Your Reverence, who shall be entirely obeyed by me in your two orders. I sincerely confess my greatest reluctance in obeying you with regard to the second, whereas with regard to the first, I shall make it my debt and honour to contribute to your distinguished work. But the portrait and the news of what you ask, for me to be exposed to the public, O God, that is indeed a bitter pill to swallow! I must say that God has saved for my old age the bitter dregs of a cup that I cannot avoid drinking, for among all men and all human circumstances I have found that man and that circumstance which obliges me to say yes to what I have always said no throughout my life. I repeat: you shall be obeyed in everything, and your command will soon be executed. In the meantime, may God bless you and preserve you in perfect health until the completion of your grave endeavour. My most cordial regards to the Most Illustrious Signor Dottor Balbi and to Your Reverence, and as ever I confirm and remain Your Reverence’s most devoted obliged and humble servant Giuseppe Tartini Padua, 30 October 1761 154. Tartini to G.B. Martini If ever, to my disgrace, a copper portrait of mine with emblems and a couplet has arrived there in Bologna, Your Reverence must learn that this is an abuse carried out against me by the person to whom I had turned for the pencil sketch commanded of me by Your Reverence. It was carried out in the house of a lady, Signora Marchesa Gabrielli, mother of Signor Marchese Angelo Gabrielli of Rome. She keeps with her a priest who is an amateur musician and painter, and it is a certain Signor Dottor Vincenzo Rota, a patron of mine, and an old friend. Precisely to keep the matter hidden from view and to do it secretly, I resorted to him for my sketch; but as it turned out I resorted to him for my own ruin because he set to work and contributed to what I consider a tragedy by voluntarily placing my sketch in the hands of a young Paduan citizen, who clearly intended to have it engraved in copper and framed by those damned frivolities. The outcome, as regards my resentment both towards the lady and the authors, is superfluous for me to relate: it is already all too