PREFACE. IX 



writing Cardan's forms of speech. In support of those 

 parts of the book which discuss accessory matters, I have 

 thought it enough to indicate in the notes generally from 

 what sources information has been got, and, in particular 

 cases, to give the exact authority when for any reason it 

 has seemed desirable to do so. Citations from the works 

 of Cardan have been made, as far as possible, from editions 

 published in his lifetime. Of each work, the edition 

 used is stated when it is first named; and the paging 

 quoted afterwards always belongs to the same issue, if 

 no other is mentioned. Where no early copy was to be 

 had, reference has been made to the collected works 

 issued in 1663 at Paris, by Charles Spon, in ten volumes 

 folio. 



London, March, 1854. 



When the first sheets of this work were printed, I had not 

 seen Cardan's third horoscope of himself in the " Genitu- 

 rarum Exemplar." I therefore was obliged to conjecture his 

 mother's age, and the paternity of three children, whose 

 deaths are recorded in vol. i. p. 7. It was, at the same time 

 said in a note, that my opinion was insufficiently supported, 

 and that it might be wrong. From the horoscope just men- 

 tioned, it appears that Cardan's mother was not quite so 

 young as I had inferred, though there was still great dis- 



