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UNIVERSITY 



JEROME CARDAN. 



CHAPTER I. 



BORN TO SORROW. 



IN the year 1501 1 , a woman, flying from the plague, 

 passed under the gate of Milan which leads out upon the 

 road to Pavia 2 . She was a young widow 3 , the daughter 

 of a studious man, Giacomo Micheria 4 , and she turned 

 her back not only on the plague, but also on a grave 



1 De Consolatione, Lib. iii. (ed. Yen. 1542) p. 74. In the De Pro- 

 pria Vita Liber (ed. ex Bibl. Gab. Naudsei, Paris. 1643), cap. ii. p. 7, 

 he writes the date 1500 by misprint. The misprint has been some- 

 times followed, though facts stated in the same book (as is shown by 

 Bayle, who had read no other) correct it, and in every other place in 

 his works Cardan writes 1501. See especially the date and hour of 

 his birth given by him in his horoscope (Libelli V. De Supplemento 

 Almanach. &c. ed. Norimberg. 1547, p. 121), where they are stated to 

 be the 24th Sept/ 1501, at forty minutes past six in the afternoon. 

 Except the misprint, this coincides with his other statements on the 

 subject. See also De Utilitate ex Adversis Capienda (ed, Basil. , 1561), 

 Lib. iii. p. 427. 



2 De Libris Propriis eorumque Usu. Liber ultimus. Opera cura 

 Spon. Vol. i. p. 96. 



3 Compare notes 1, p. 2, and 1, p. 6. 



4 De Propr. Vit. Lib. (ed. cit.) cap. i. p. 6. 



VOL. I. B 



