IN THE LONG LANE A TURNING. 173 



country. As this portrait was submitted by Cardan 

 himself to his own townspeople in a book carefully pro- 

 duced, and upon the success of which he felt that much 

 depended, we may accept it fairly as a likeness. It is at 

 any rate quite clear that the artist has not been required 

 to mend the truth in representing the outside appearance 

 of the poor philosopher, and I am not disposed to think 

 that he has marred it 1 . 



The publication of this book in 1539 formed, as will 

 presently be seen, the turning-point in the life of Cardan 

 as an author. In the same year, also, the dam suddenly 

 gave way by which his course as a physician had been 

 checked. The energetic friendship of Sfondrato had 

 obtained for Cardan the good-will and good offices of 

 another native of Cremona, Giovanni Baptista Speciario, 

 a magistrate in Milan. Speciario was in a position to- 

 commend him to the less distant friendship of a patron 

 before mentioned, Alphonso D'Avalos, in 1539 governor 

 of the province. By the influence of all these friends, but 

 by the protests of Sfondrato himself more especially, and 

 of another friend, Francisco della Croce, jurisconsult, an 

 honest man and good mathematician, the physicians of 

 Milan were compelled to sully their respectability by 

 welcoming into their company an ill-born scholar. Thus, 



* A fac-simile of the old woodcut, reduced in size, has been placed 

 as a vignette upon the title-page belonging to this volume. 



