PREFACE 



No attempt is made in the following pages to submit 

 to historical treatment the vast and varied mass of printed 

 matter which Cardan left as his contribution to letters 

 and science, except in the case of those works which 

 are, in purpose or incidentally, autobiographical, or of 

 those which furnish in themselves effective contributions 

 towards the framing of an estimate of the genius and 

 character of the writer. Neither has it seemed worth 

 while to offer to the public another biography constructed 

 on the lines of the one brought out by Professor Henry 

 Morley in 1854, for the reason that the circumstances 

 of Cardan's life, the character of his work, and of the 

 times in which he lived, all appeared to be susceptible of 

 more succinct and homogeneous treatment than is possible 

 in a chronicle of the passing years, and of the work 

 that each one saw accomplished. At certain junctures 

 the narrative form is inevitable, but an attempt has 

 been made to treat the more noteworthy episodes of 

 Cardan's life and work, and the contemporary aspect of 

 the republic of letters, in relation to existing tendencies 

 and conditions, whenever such a course has seemed 

 possible. 



Professor Morley's book, The Life of Girolamo 

 Cardano, of Milan, physician, has been for some time 

 out of print. This industrious writer gathered together 

 a large quantity of material, dealing almost as fully with 



