JEROME CARDAK 



CHAPTER I. 



HOW CARDAN, PROSPERING, DENIED HIS SERVICE TO THE POPE AND TO 

 THE KING OP DENMARK. 



D'ArALOS dying in the year 1546, Ferrante Gonzaga 

 became governor of Milan. He was a prince, according 

 to Jerome, of the harshest temper, but one who favoured 

 virtue and good men 1 . 



The governor of Milan was the one particular great 

 man whose friendship Cardan, as a Milanese, having pro- 

 perty within the province and desiring quiet, held to be 

 essential. In 1546 the money difficulty with the Bar- 

 biani family was brought to a happy issue. Jerome re- 

 ceived all that was due to him. In the same year he 

 brought also to a successful end the last of the family law- 

 suits that had followed on his father's death, that with the 

 heirs of his godfather, Domenico delle Torre 3 . His fame 



1 Dialogua Tetira. Opera, Tom. i. p. 671. 



2 De Vita Propria, cap. iy. xxv. xxx. 



VOL. II. B 



