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

478 From ducats 26,970 subtract 17,144, and 9,826 ducats of capital remain. There is a difference between 9,826 and 7,850 of 1,976 ducats. Let it be known that those not found in the capital will have gone in alms: this is known to the glory of God, and in it must be reflected that discrepancy which can be found of a few hundred, impossible to account for. What has been explained here is in any case sufficient, even beyond the need, as infallible evidence of the false accusation of the opponent, because they are all facts that can be found by anybody who wishes to satisfy their curiosity, because Tartini’s way of living is known to the whole of Padua. Known to the whole of Padua is the smaller and greater number of the students he has had, the pay of two zecchini per month, the charity which he has always granted to some, and the damage received for his [rip] of 1,200 ducats, the year that his school began and the [tear in the page] etc. etc. are all known to thousands of [tear in the page] The savings of his wife of about 1,200 ducats remain to be clarified. This is due to her economy and industry. As the husband was not skilled in running the house, from the same year as the pledge of the 20 ongari coin he handed over the management to his wife, granting her the benefit of these assets, which he would have squandered. 187. Material concerning the accusation of Catina Bufelli and her son In around 1720 Giuseppe Tartini, through lodgings, entered into friendship and familiarity with Catina Bufelli, unmarried but not a virgin, innkeeper in Contrada Lunga di San Moise, in 1722 discovered to be pregnant at a time of equal dealings with Tartini and with an officer of rank then living there. Since the officer had departed from Venice, and Tartini had remained, she tried to connect the newborn child to the latter, proposing the intention to keep it with her. This being constantly denied by Tartini, who indeed, having detected the guile, from that time promised six zecchini to pay the midwife, so that she, in any case, would take the child to the usual orphanage when the time of birth came; when Tartini, because of his musical commitments, was to be a long way from Venice, the woman thwarted the midwife and kept the child with her. When Tartini, who had returned to Venice, had been informed of the case and confronted the woman most gravely and vigorously, she defended herself and backed the action taken by saying that she was satisfied as was: she was ready to accept any fate regarding herself and her son, independently of anyone! On this point there was no further disagreement; and as Tartini contributed money towards the woman before the birth for the carnal dealings, so by the same effect did he continue after the birth to contribute for the few further months he remained in Venice. Then, after Tartini had