254 JEROME CARDAN. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



THE BEST OF THE DISPUTE BETWEEN THE TWO MATHEMATICIANS IN 

 THIS CHAPTER IS CONTAINED AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND POR- 

 TUNES OF LODOVICO FERRARI, CARDAN'S FOREMOST PUPIL. 



NiCOLO went off by no means easy in his mind. The 

 secret was no longer his own, and Cardan was a busy- 

 headed fellow. Jerome at once went to work upon 

 Tartalea's rules, but being misled by the badness of the 

 verses, into the reading of (4- b) 3 as -J b 3 , he could not 

 work with them ; he therefore wrote the following note 

 to Venice on the 9th of April 1 . 



" My very dear Messer Nicolo, I am much surprised 

 at your having left so suddenly, without speaking to the 

 lord marquis, who came on Easter Sunday, and could 

 not have your instruments until the Tuesday afterwards, 



1 Ques. et Inv. p. 124. The letter begins, " Messer Nicolo mio 

 carissimo." All these letters end, it may be observed, with "Non 

 altro," the " So no more," not yet extinct among our humble letter- 

 writers. It is followed as regularly by the phrase " God " [or Christ] 

 " keep you from harm," " Iddio da mal ui guardi." Thus the ending 

 of this letter, for example, was " Non altro Christo da mal ui guardi. 

 In Millano alii 9 Aprile 1539. Hieronimo Cardano medico, tutto vostro." 



