6 JEROME CARDAN 



the nose; and when these disappeared, swellings came. 

 Before the boy was two months old his godfather, Isidore 

 di Resta of Ticino, gave him into the care of another 

 nurse who lived at Moirago, a town about seven miles 

 from Milan, but here again ill fortune attended him. 

 His body began to waste and his stomach to swell because 

 the nurse who gave him suck was herself pregnant. 1 A 

 third foster-mother was found for him, and he remained 

 with her till he was weaned in his third year. 



When he was four years of age he was taken to Milan 

 to be under the care of his mother, who, with her sister, 

 Margarita, was living in Fazio's house ; but whether she 

 was at this time legally married to him or not there is no 

 evidence to show. In recording this change he remarks 

 that he now came under a gentler discipline from the 

 hands of his mother and his aunt, but immediately after- 

 wards proclaims his belief that the last-named must have 

 been born without a gall bladder, a remark somewhat 

 difficult to apply, seeing he frequently complains after- 

 wards of her harshness. It must be remembered, how- 

 ever, that these details are taken from a record of the 

 writer's fifth year set down when he was past seventy. 2 

 He quotes certain lapses from kindly usage, as for 

 instance when it happened that he was beaten by his 

 father or his mother without a cause. After much 

 chastisement he always fell sick, and lay some time 

 in mortal danger. "When I was seven years old my 

 father and my mother were then living apart my 

 kinsfolk determined, for some reason or other, to give 

 over beating me, though perchance a touch of the whip 



1 " Inde lac praegnantis hausi per varias nutrices lactatus ac 

 jactatus." De Utilitate, p. 348. 



2 The De Vita Propria, the chief authority for these remarks, was 

 written by Cardan in Rome shortly before his death. 



