278 JEROME CARDAN. 



there were on all sides publishers willing to buy what he 

 would suffer them to print. He was not idle, and his 

 love of print, rather than his love of money, caused him 

 to degenerate often into a hack writer, to drag all manner 

 of disquisitions into his books for the sole purpose of 

 filling sheets ; but even such interpolations and digressions 

 always carefully retouched and digested having on 

 them his own stamp of eccentricity and genius, very 

 likely helped to make his works more popular. The pub- 

 lications issued by Cardan between the years 1542 and 

 1545 contributed to the foundations of his fame, and 

 these, which I left out of sight in order to trace uninter- 

 ruptedly the history of his most valuable treatise, include 

 the last of his less prominent works that will need special 

 mention. 



In the first place there was that astrological book 

 which he sent in reply to the application made from Nu- 

 remberg by Osiander and Petreius. Joannes Petreius pub- 

 lished it in the year 1543, and it was entitled " Two Tracts 

 by Girolamo Cardano, Physician of Milan. One a Sup- 

 plement to the Almanac, the other on the Restitution of 

 the Celestial Times and Motions. Also Forty-seven Na- 

 tivities, remarkable for the Events they Foretcl, with an 

 Exposition 1 ." The book was dedicated gratefully to 



1 " Libelli duo: unus, de Supplemento Almanach. Alter, de Restitu- 

 tione temporum et motuurn cselestium," &c. 4to. Norimb. 1543. 



