200 JEROME CARDAN. 



care lest, by leading a hog's life, he came to a hog's end. 

 And yet except a love of dice and of good eating he was 

 an excellent young man, and of unblemished life." 



The father went to Pavia. The son remained in Milan, 

 and by him unhappily this narrative must for a time abide. 

 Before proceeding further, however, two or three political 

 changes in the Milanese world, that will have an important 

 influence upon the future course of Cardan's life, must now , 

 be chronicled. In the year 1557, on the 15th of Novem- 

 ber, Ferrante Gonzaga, Prince of Molfetta, and Signor di 

 Guastalla, governor of Milan, died in Brussels. He had 

 been no bad friend to Jerome, though he was but a hard 

 soldier, who believed that the simplest elements of know- 

 ledge were as much as a prince needed, and had been 

 persuaded with some difficulty to permit the education of 

 his children. As often happens in such cases, the igno- 

 rant parent left a daughter Ippolita, who became noted 

 for her genius and her learning, and a son who was a lover 

 of letters, and of whom it may be said incidentally that 

 he was friendly enough towards Cardan to be made the 

 object of a dedication. Don Ferrante being dead, one or 

 two great Spaniards had brief and temporary sway in 

 Milan until King Philip, in March of the succeeding year, 

 sent a new governor in the person of Gonsalvo Ferrante 

 di Cordova, Duke of Sessa. He was another military 

 chief, a bold man, able to hold the town against all comers. 



