SORROW AND SHAME. 243 



always found that there was a great contrast between his 

 position at the two towns of Milan and-Pavia. In his 

 own town he always was beset by petty scandal and un- 

 kindness, but in Pavia he had been generously used and 

 treated with respect 1 , until the events lately detailed 

 shattered his reputation. He then found that a man with 

 an ill name was spared no more in the one town than in 

 the other. He had in his house successively three pupils 

 during the last two years spent by him in Pavia. One 

 was Ercole Visconti, an only son, entrusted to Cardan 

 by his father Galeazzo 2 . The youth belonged to a great 

 family, that had in a former century filled an important 

 chapter in the history of Pavia. The Galeazzo Visconti, 

 by whom the existing castle of Pavia was built, probably 

 was the grandfather to Jerome's pupil. Ercole was young, 

 handsome, affectionate, and a good musician. He often 

 shared the night-watches of the afflicted father, and with 

 him also Cardan sought to kill care by playing with the 

 dice. The other two pupils were Benedetto Cataneo, of 

 Pavia, who became a lawyer, and Gianpaolo Eufomia, a 

 musician, who acquired considerable erudition 3 . The 

 pupils, we shall find presently, were made a theme for 

 scandal. 



1 De Vita Propria, cap. xxxiii. 



2 The father's name is incidentally stated in Cardan's Defens. pro 

 19. 



3 De Vita Propria, cap. xxxv. 



R2 



