JEROME NEGOTIATES FOR PEACE. 241 



On Tartalea's own showing, nothing could be more 

 natural and gradual than the succession of steps by which 

 the marquis rose into importance during the correspond- 

 ence between the two mathematicians. I very much 

 doubt, also, whether we ought not to attribute the tone 

 of Jerome's next answer to Tartalea, not only to a pru- 

 dent desire to maintain friendly negotiations, but in an 

 equal degree to the fact that his anger, always shortlived, 

 being at an end, he desired to heal the wounds that he 

 had made, and behave with the courtesy due from one 

 scholar to another. The reply, dated the 19th of March, 

 1539, now follows 1 : 



"My very dear Messer Nicolo, I have received a very 

 long letter of yours, and the longer it was the more it 

 pleased me; I could have wished it doubled, if only you 

 would not think that my biting words proceeded either 

 from hate, for which there was no cause, or from ma- 

 lignity of nature, since I do good, when I can, much 

 more readily than harm: it is my business to heal: let 

 me do that; not bitten with envy at the question whether 

 you are my equal or my inferior; I should have no cause 

 to be so if you were my master in this art ; I should struggle 

 to soar with you, not speak you ill. Besides, the envious 

 malign in absence not in presence ; but I wrote that abuse 



1 Quesiti et Invention! (ed. cit.), Lib. ix. p. 122. The letter begins, 

 " Messer Nicolo mio carissimo." 







