282 JEROME CARDAN". 



tive qualities of the Greek, Latin, Italian, and Spanish lan- 

 guages. Spanish armies were so much at home in Italy, 

 and the Spanish language is. so easily to be acquired by 

 an Italian, that Jerome's busy mind could not have failed 

 to fasten on it, and to add it to all other acquisitions. 

 Still in the same year, 1543, another of Cardan's domestic 

 occupations was the collection into one manuscript volume 

 of his epigrams and poems. His fervid temperament had 

 often, of course, found relief in verse, but Cardan's poems 

 were not in any set form given to the world. One or 

 two are included in his works, and are so directly illus- 

 trative of his life, that in their proper place they will 

 become a part of this biography. 



In the succeeding year Jerome issued his Five 

 Books on Wisdom 1 , from the press of Petreius at Nu- 

 remberg, and added in the same volume a revised re- 

 issue of the three books on Consolation, and one book on 

 his own written works. In issuing an account of his 

 own works, he professed only to follow the example set 

 by Galen of old, and in his own time by Erasmus. This 

 volume, containing works on three distinct topics, was 

 supplied with an ample index, and dedicated to that 



1 " De Sapientia Libri V. quibus omnis humanae ritoe cursus viven* 

 digue ratio explicatur : item de Consolatione Libri tres et Ephemerus 

 sive libellus de Libellis Propriis." Norimb. 1544. This contains the 

 first book De Libris Propriis to which reference has been made in 

 preceding notes, under the title of " De Sapientia," &c. 



