25 



of books, universal fame in his own lifetime, influence 

 with every prince in Europe, troops of attendants on his 

 lectures, large salaries, great wealth, and an eloquence so 

 singular, that men when he spoke might believe they 

 were hearing a new Cicero. 



Alciat cultivated friendships ; he was smooth, cheerful, 

 even gay in his manners perhaps that is one reason why 

 he passed through life unenvied and unopposed he often 

 laughed while he spoke : a practice which, says Cardan, 

 is detestable in most men, but in him had a certain grace. 

 He was of middle stature and broad-chested, with large 

 features, great eyes, nose, lips, and ears, so that, adds 

 Jerome, he was, as one might say, bull-faced, but in such 

 a way that even all those who did not know who he was, 

 when they saw him freely gave him their respect. 



Jerome was engaged at Pavia not only in the writing 

 of books, the delivery of lectures, the cultivation of 

 friendships, and the practice of his profession in 1547 

 he cured, among others, the wife of his friend Annibale 

 della Croce 1 , who had long suffered from a diseased hip 

 but he had the education of his eldest son and of his 

 young relative Gaspardo Cardan 2 to superintend. A pupil 

 who had lately attended him at Milan, Giovanni Battista 

 Boscano 3 , does not seem to have followed him to Pavia. 



1 De Ut. ex Adv. Cap. Lib. iii. cap. 2. 



2 De Vita Propria, cap. xxxv. p. 156. 

 Ibid. p. 157. 



