132 JEROME CARDAN. 



on her own means of subsistence, it is probable that she 

 was able to contribute a small fund towards the house-ex- 

 penses. If she paid nothing, Jerome had indeed very 

 great need to increase his income, or to make the most of 

 fennel and nasturtium in his diet, for the household that de- 

 pended on him for support consisted of himself, his wife, 

 and infant son, his mother, a female friend, a nurse, a pupil 

 (Ambrose Bizozoro, an ingenious, bold fellow, who became 

 afterwards a sea captain), a maid-servant, and a she mule 1 . 

 Upon the mule he rode abroad, and it is probable that in 

 so doing he consulted less the received prejudice in favour 

 of a doctor who can leave a horse or carriage waiting at the 

 door, than the necessities of a body at all times infirm. 



For the next five years Jerome was distressed, not only 

 with bodily infirmities, but with poverty at home and un- 

 relenting rivalry abroad. The very patients who had 

 profited by his attentions often joined the cry against the 

 poor physician-lecturer, whose eccentricities were more 

 apparent to the vulgar than 'his genius. After Cardan 

 had healed Bartholomaea Cribella, a noble matron, and 

 her brother, the perverse brother was loud in ridicule 

 against him 2 . But the physician-lecturer solaced himself 

 at home with music and with dice, indulged as he could 

 his taste for expensive writing materials and for rare 

 books, read Aristotle and Plotinus for his pleasure, or his 



1 De Ut. ex Adv. Cap. p. 431. 



2 De Lib. Propr. Lib. ult. 



