TARTAGLIA'S RULES. 221 



small tract at his own expense on the New Science of 

 Artillery (its preface is dated December 20, 1537) 1 . He 

 was indeed one of the first men who perceived that there 

 was any science to be taught at all to men having the 

 care of cannon. Another and larger original work was 

 published, also at his own expense, in the year 1546, at 

 Venice, where he lectured publicly on mathematics. It 

 is entitled Divers Questions and Inventions 2 , is dedicated 

 to our Henry VIII. , and contains nine books, which are, 

 in fact, the diary and commonplace-book of his life as a 

 mathematician. In it are set down, year after year as 

 they came, the questions proposed to him at different 

 times by friends and rivals on mechanics, statics, hydro- 

 statics, &c. 9 during twenty years ending in 1541. It con- 



1 " Nova Scientia inventa da Nicolo Tartalea B." The title-page is 

 chiefly occupied by a large plate, which represents the courts of Phi- 

 losophy, to which Euclid is doorkeeper, Aristotle and Plato being 

 masters of an inmost court, in which Philosophy sits throned, Plato 

 declaring by a label that he will let nobody in who does not understand 

 Geometry. In the great court there is a cannon being fired, all the 

 sciences looking on in a crowd such as Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, 

 Astronomy, Cheiromancy, Cosmography, Necromancy, Astrology, Per- 

 spective, and Prestidigitation! A wonderfully modest-looking gentle- 

 man, with his hand upon his heart, stands among the number, with a 

 you-do-me-too-much-honour look upon his countenance; Arithmetic 

 and Geometry are pointing to him, and under his feet his name is 

 written NICOLO TABTALEA. 



2 " Quesiti et Invention! Diverse de Nicolo Tartalea Brisciano." 

 " Stampata in Venetia per Venturino Ruffinelli ad instantia et requi- 

 sitione, et a propria spese de Nicolo Tartalea Brisciano Autore, Nel 

 mese di Luio L'anno di nostra salute. M.D.XLVI." 



