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

476 ago. It is more than evident that if he had had money, he would not have been so mad as to find it at those conditions through legal means. Here, then, the falsity and foolishness of the supposition is demonstrated by facts. But given this occasion, whether it be for curiosity or necessity, here follows the dissection of his current assets analysed from the very beginning. He will call his income credit, his expense debt, and he will differentiate the two items. Income, that is to say credit. This began after his return from Prague to Padua in 1726, at which time his salary at S. Antonio was one of 150 current ducats per annum, and he had not started to teach. Therefore in the following year of 1727 he needed to pledge the above-mentioned coin to live, since in the course of his return from Prague he no longer had any money left over from there, having given it to his family in Piran, as can be testified by Dottor Pietro (who is still living), who received it. In the same year of 1721 his school began, and it is still functioning, which was his main income. The greatest number of annual students amounted to ten: the smallest to two from 1727 to the present 1767, which means for forty years. Among these students there were always one or two taken in out of charity, as in fact there are two of them at present. Therefore, if one takes a middle number between the two and the ten of those who paid the monthly salary, and excludes the charitable cases, one cannot but assign a number of 5 for two zecchini a month for ten months a year, due to the autumn holidays. That therefore makes a hundred zecchini a year for 40 years: a total of 4,000 zecchini : which is roughly 14,600 current ducats. Extra gains from music outside the church (always ruling out the theatres) cannot be guaranteed; but from one year to the next no more than 30 zecchini a year can be assigned, for he refused many outside engagements in order to fulfil his duty with his students. Furthermore, this gain is for about 14 years, that is to say from 1727 until 1741, because after injuring his arm (that was in 1740) he no longer accepted outside music. So 30 zecchini a year for 14 years comes to 420 zecchini , hence about 1,540 in current ducats. The extra income from Padua is quite minimal, and this is known publicly. 120 ducats per year has been assigned; this is in excess, but let us say so. In 40 years this amounts to 800 current ducats. Much extra income came from noble travellers, and especially the English gave him earnings here in Padua, but they can only be assigned at discretion, and just from year 1727 to about 1750, due to the increased disability of his arm. Therefore, if one assigns for 23 years the annual profit of about 16 zecchini , it amounts to 368 zecchini , which is roughly 1,349 current ducats. From the editions of two musical works, and from specially commissioned private compositions he may have earned approximately: from the prints 300 ducats; from private compositions 200 ducats; in total, 500 current ducats.