ified him,
and instead of still further persecuting the refugee, he gave his
consent to the union of the young couple, and Tartini and his wife went
to Venice, where he intended to follow the profession of a violinist.

Here he met and heard Francesco Maria Veracini, who was some seven years
his senior, and whose style of playing made such a deep impression on
him that he at once withdrew to Ancona, to correct the errors of his own
technique, which, as he was self-taught, were not a few.

After some years of study and retirement, he reappeared at Padua, where
he was appointed solo violinist in the chapel of San Antonio, the choir
and orchestra of which already enjoyed a high reputation. It is said
that the performance of Veracini had an effect upon Tartini beyond that
of causing him to quit Venice. It made him dream, and the dream as told
by Tartini himself to M. de Lalande is as follows:

"He dreamed one night (in 1713) that he had made a compact with the
devil, who promised to be at his service on all occasions; and, during
this vision, everything succeeded according to his mind; his wishes were
anticipated, and his desires always surpassed, by the assistance of his
new servant. In short, he imagined that he presented the devil with his
violin, in order to discover what kind of a musician he was, when, to
his great astonishment, he heard him play a solo so singularly
beautiful, which he executed with such superior taste and precision,
that it surpassed all the music he had ever heard or conceived in his
life. So great was his surprise, and so exquisite his delight upon this
occasion, that it deprived him of the power of breathing. He awoke with
the violence of his sensations, and instantly seized his fiddle in hopes
of expressing what he had just heard; but in vain. He, however, directly
composed a piece, which is perhaps the best of all his works, and called
it the 'Devil's Sonata;' he knew it, however, to be so inferior to what
his sleep had produced, that he stated he would have broken his
instrument, and abandoned music for ever, if he could have subsisted by
other means."

This composition is said to have secured for him the position in the
chapel of San Antonio, where he remained until 1723, in which year he
was invited to play at the coronation festivities of Charles VI. at
Prague. On this occasion he met Count Kinsky, a rich and enthusiastic
amateur, who kept an excellent private orchestra. Tartini was enga