40 JEROME CARDAN 



Persuaded by these arguments, I went to this place, and 

 I was not altogether deceived, seeing that I recovered 

 my health, and the son who was to be reft from me 

 later on by the Senate was born to me." l 



Employment at Gallarate was, however, almost as 

 scarce as it had been at Sacco, wherefore Jerome found 

 leisure in plenty for literary work. He began a treatise 

 on Fate ; but, even had this been completed, it would 

 scarcely have filled the empty larder by the proceeds of 

 its sale. More profitable was some chance employment 

 which was given to him by Filippo Archinto, 2 a generous 

 and accomplished young nobleman of Milan, who was 

 ambitious to figure as a writer on Astronomy, and, it 

 may be remarked, Archinto's benefactions were not 

 confined to the payment for the hack work which 

 Jerome did for him at this period. Had it not been for 

 his subsequent patronage and support, it is quite possible 

 that Cardan would have gone under in the sea of 

 adversity. 



In spite of the cheapness of provisions at Gallarate, 

 and of occasional meals taken gratis from the fields, 

 complete destitution seemed to be only a matter of 

 days, and just at this crisis, to add to his embarrass- 

 ments though he longed earnestly for the event 

 Lucia was brought to bed with her first-born living 

 child on May 14, 1534. The child's birth was accom- 

 panied by divers omens, one of which the father 

 describes, finding therein some premonition of future 

 disaster. " I had great fear of his life until the fifteenth 

 day of June, on which day, being a Sunday, he was 



1 De Utilitate, p. 358. 



2 He became a priest, and died Archbishop of Milan in 1552. 

 Cardan dedicated to him his first published book, De Malo 

 Medendi. 



