NICOLO TARTAGLIA. 215 



some. Antonio Maria Fior, who was a Venetian, at last, 

 in 1535, provoked into a wager a hard-headed man of 

 Brescia, Nicolo Tartaglia, then resident in Venice. Each 

 algebrist was to ask of the other thirty questions ; and he 

 who had first answered the questions put to him should 

 win from the other as many entertainments for himself 

 and friends; it was a bet, in fact, of thirty suppers. 

 Plenty of time was given for the concoction of the pro- 

 blems, and a distant day fixed upon which the match was 

 to come off. 



Tartaglia (Latinised, Tartalea) was a hard-headed man. 

 He was born of a very poor and humble family. His 

 father, Michele, was known only by his Christian name, 

 or rather by its diminutive ; for being a very little fellow 

 (the son, Nicolo, was little too) he was called Micheletto; 

 Micheletto the Rider, since he was a postman. He 

 kept a horse, and his business was to carry letters from the 

 noblemen and gentlemen of Brescia the town in which 

 he lived to Verona, Bergamo, and other towns. Mi- 

 cheletto was an honest little being, who contrived to find 

 rude schooling for his children; Nicolo, therefore, when 

 four or five years old, had some instruction. But it was 

 only in his early childhood that he had it, for when he 

 was but six years old his father died, leaving him with a 

 brother older than himself, a younger sister, and a widowed 

 mother in the extremest poverty. When afterwards the 



