JEROME CARDAN 65 



not paid ; and the new professor lectured for a time to 

 empty benches ; but, as he was at this time engaged in 

 the final stage of his great work on Algebra, the leisure 

 granted to him by the neglect of the students must 

 have been most acceptable. He published at this time 

 a treatise called Contradicentium Medicorum, and in 

 1545 his Algebra or Liber Artis Magnce was issued 

 from the press by Petreius of Nuremberg. The issue 

 of this book, by which alone the name of Cardan holds 

 a place in contemporary learning, is connected with an 

 episode of his life important enough to demand special 

 and detailed consideration in a separate place. 



His practice in medicine was now a fairly lucrative 

 one, but his extravagant tastes and the many vices with 

 which he charges himself would have made short work 

 of the largest income he could possibly have earned, 

 consequently poverty was never far removed from the 

 household. Hitherto his reputation as a man of letters 

 and a mathematician had exceeded his fame as a doctor; 

 for, even after he had taken up his residence as Professor 

 of Medicine at Padua, many applications were made to 

 him for his services in other branches of learning. It 

 was fortunate indeed that he had let his reading take 

 a somewhat eclectic course, for medicine at this time 

 seemed fated to play him false. At the end of 1 544 no 

 salary was forthcoming at Pavia, so he abandoned his 

 class-room, and returned to Milan. 



During his residence there, in the summer of 1546, 

 Cardinal Moroni, acting on behalf of Pope Paul III., 

 made an offer for his services as a teacher of mathe- 

 matics, accompanied by terms which, as he himself 

 admits, were not to be despised; but, as was his wont, 

 he found some reason for demur, and ultimately refused 

 the offer. In his Harpocratic vein he argued, "This 



