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

448 maligned and envied in the pious institution, as you have seen with your own eyes, asks for nothing but to get out of it in order not to die there of rage or something worse; so it is certain that she will embrace the first chance that presents itself to her. It is perfectly true that both she and I are in agreement that it would be better to obtain the service of Her Royal Electoral Highness with half the income rather than the service in any other court with half more; but where it is a matter of saving a life, one grasps (as the proverb goes) even at straws. I moreover confess to you that if the clemency of our lady Sovereign Patroness assents to the proposed solution and my pupil has the good fortune of being received into her service, this is for me the greatest consolation of my old age, since I am sure both that Her Electoral Highness will have no regrets at having acquired her and that the young lady could not wish for a better fortune in all Europe than such a Sovereign Patroness. May God in His mercy allow this to happen; and meanwhile, while entreating you to give me some precise news about the day of your departure for Naples, so that I can send you what I have promised you in time, and giving you one thousand most cordial embraces, I remain as ever Your Most Illustrious Lordship’s most cordial and devoted servant Giuseppe Tartini Padua, 3 October 1766 164. Tartini to a Giovanni, probably J.G. Naumann Padua, 6 October 1766 In order for you and I to reach our purpose over the deal of the harpsichord, with the here enclosed letter you should introduce yourself to the Most Illustrious Signor Lodovico Terzi, who is staying at Corte di Ca’ Barbaro in Santa Fosca. The monochord which you have seen here is presently in his hands, along with all the necessary instructions for its use. As he is a noble and amateur who wants to know things for reasons and principles of his own, and as he is a most benign patron of mine, so in the present case I intend to benefit both my patron and yourself, so that both of you together can carry out the trial on the matter and mutually guide one another: he with his scientific knowledge, and you with the greater experience you have of the harpsichord. After carrying out the trial you should copy the plan of the monochord on a strip of paper (with measurements used by tailors); and when you are in Naples, without the burden of taking it with you, you should have it made in Naples, given that it is something quite plain and simple, as you have seen and will see. Then, with