12 JEROME CARDAN. 



Clara Micheria was not at that time resident under the 

 roof of Fazio Cardan 1 . The laudatory verses sung in 

 honour of the literary offspring of the grave jurisconsult, 

 had ended with a distich in his praise, of which the literal 

 translation is, that " in this man the house of Cardan re- 

 joices. One man has acquired a knowledge of everything. 

 Our age has not his equal 3 ." Probably this man, who had 

 learned everything, was not, in the year 1505, acquainted 

 with the voice of his own child, that had been four years 

 in the world and never sat upon his knee. The rejoicing 

 of the house of Cardan was not great in the person of the 

 little fellow who, after his removal to. Milan, was perpetu- 

 ally beaten by his mother and her sister, Margherita, who 

 dwelt with her: "A woman," he says afterwards, "who 

 I believe must have been herself without a skin," so little 

 was her mercy for the skin of Clara's child 3 . 



The hands of three persons at Milan were against the 

 child, for Fazio Cardan, though not residing in one house 

 with Clara, now came into habitual communication with 



1 De Propr. Vit. p. 13. Statements in this and the next page to 

 which no note is attached are dependent on the same authority. 



2 " Magna ratis magno curanda est remige. Deerat 



Navita. Nunc Facius talia damna levet. 

 Hoc Cardana viro gaudet Domus. Omnia novit 

 Unus. Habent nullum secula nostra parem." 



Prospectiva Comm. d. Joh. Archiep. Cant, per 

 Fac. Cardan. Milan. 1480. Last page. 



3 " Mulier cui fel defuisse existimo." De Propr. Vit. p. 13. 



