230 JEROME CARDAN. 



some reply you have made to one Zuan Antonio da Bas- 

 sano, bookseller, who on my part prayed that you would 

 give him answers to the six or eight questions that I 

 sent you, and the copy of the propositions exchanged 

 between you and Master Antonio Maria Fior, with their 

 solutions, to which it was not enough for you to return 

 nothing but the questions of Master Antonio Maria, 

 which are thirty in number but one only in substance, 

 that is to say, treating of cube and cosa equal to the 

 number, but it grieves me much that among other dis- 

 comforts of this science those who engage in it are so 

 discourteous, and presume so much on their own worth, 

 that it is not without reasons they are called fools by the 

 surrounding vulgar. I would pluck you out of this con- 

 ceit, as I plucked out lately Messer Zuanne da Coi, that 

 is to say, the conceit of being the first man in the world, 

 wherefore he left Milan in despair ; I would write to 

 you lovingly" [he writes in a rage] " and drag you out of 

 the conceit of thinking that you are so great would 

 cause you to understand from kindly admonition, out of 

 your own words, that you are nearer to the valley than the 

 mountain-top. In other things you may be more skilled 

 and clever than you have shown yourself to be in your 

 reply ; and so I must in the first place state that I have 

 held you in good esteem, and as soon as your book upon 

 Artillery appeared, I bought two copies, the only ones 

 that Zuan Antonio brought, of which I gave one to 



