CARDAN AND THE SENATE OF BOLOGNA. 265 



the terms attached to the offer shut out all debate; and 

 though he had almost no income at all, because he had 

 already resigned his post at Pavia, he summarily re- 

 jected the proposals from Bologna. " Go," he said to the 

 messenger; " for I account nothing baser than to be ho- 

 noured on such terms, even with the best of pay." 



In the year 1562, on the llth of June, Cardan had 

 resigned his professorship 1 , and had already received the 

 reply to his requests appointing him, on terms that he 

 thought not honourable, to Bologna. The prince was 

 expected whose presence he says that he " looked forward 

 to with horror, not as an ungrateful man, but as a man 

 not grateful." All his affairs were in confusion, his 

 position was unsettled. On the next day there was to 

 come to him Paolo Andrea Capitaneo, a boy of fourteen, 

 from Vilanterio. On the forefinger of his right hand 

 he had a ring, of which the stone was a selenite, and 

 on the left hand a large, hexagonal jacinth, that he 

 never laid aside. Retiring for the night, he took off 

 the selenite and put it under his pillow, being of opinion 

 that it hindered sleep, he often was in the habit of so 

 doing; the jacinth he retained, for one reason, among 

 others, because it promoted somnolence. Towards midnight 



1 Paralipomenon, Lib. iii. cap. vi. Opera, Tom. x. p. 459, from which 

 the succeeding narrative is taken, with scarcely any other alteration 

 in the wording than a change from the first to the third person. 



