252 JEROME CARDAN. 



ceit which caused Tartalea to put his process into 

 rhyme. 



" Which rhyme/' having quoted it, he went on to say, 

 " speaks so clearly, that, without other example, I think 

 your excellency will be able to understand the whole. 



M. HIERONIMO. I shall no doubt understand it, and 

 have almost understood it at once ; go however, and when 

 you have returned, I will let you see whether I have 

 understood. 



NICOLO. Now your excellency will remember not to 

 fail of your promised faith, because if by ill fate you 

 should fail in it, that is to say, if you were to publish these 

 cases either in that work which you are now printing, or 

 in any other, though you published it under my name, 

 and gave it as my own discovery, I promise and swear 

 that I will cause a book to be printed immediately after- 

 wards that you shall not find very agreeable. 



M. HIERONIMO. Do not doubt that I shall perform 

 what I have promised; go, and feel secure upon that 

 point ; give this letter of mine to the lord marquis on 

 my part. 



NICOLO. Now I bid you farewell. 



Dimidio surapto censum producere debes 

 Addere que numero: cujus a radice totiens 

 Tolle semis rerum census latusque redibit." 



Luca di Borgo. Summa de Arithmetica Geometria, 

 &c. (ed. 1494) Dist. viii. Tract 5, p. 145. 



