JEROME CARDAN 79 



beneficence of a gentleman named Balbisono, 1 who 

 took him to Padua to study. From the passage quoted 

 below he seems to have failed to win the goodwill of 

 the Brescians, and to have found Venice a city more to 

 his taste. It is probable that the contest with Fiore 

 took place after his final withdrawal from his birthplace 

 to Venice. 



In 1537 Tartaglia published a treatise on Artillery, 

 but he gave no sign of making public to the world his 

 discoveries in Algebra. Cardan waited on, but the 

 morose Brescian would not speak, and at last he 

 determined to make a request through a certain Messer 

 Juan Antonio, a bookseller, that, in the interests of 

 learning, he might be made a sharer of Tartaglia's 

 secret. Tartaglia has given a version of this part of 

 the transaction ; and, according to what is there set 

 down, Cardan's request, even when recorded in Tartaglia's 

 own words, does not appear an unreasonable one, for up 



1 " Balbisonem post relatam jurisprudentiae lauream redeuntem 

 Brixiam Nicolaus secutus est, caepitque ex Mathematicis gloriam 

 sibi ac divitias parare, asque paupertatis impatiens, ac fortunae 

 melioris cupidus, quam dum Brixise tuetur, homo morosae, et 

 inurbanaa rusticitatis prope omnium civium odia sibi conciliavit. 

 Quamobrem alibi vivere coactus, varias Italian urbes incoluit, ac 

 Ferraris, Parmae, Mediolani, Romas, Genuse, arithmeticam, 

 geometricam, ceteraque quaa ad Mathesim pertinent, docuit ; de- 

 pugnavitque scriptis accerrimis cum Cardano ac sibi ex illis quae- 

 sivit nomen et gloriam. Tandem domicilium posuit Venetiis, ubi non 

 a Senatoribus modo, ut mos Venetus habet ernditorum hominum 

 studiosissimus, maximi habitus est, at etiam a variis Magnatum ac 

 Principum legatis praemiis ac muneribus auctus sortem, quam 

 tamdiu expetierat visus sibi est conciliasse. Ergo ratus se 

 majorem, quam ut a civibus suis contemneretur, Brixiam rediit, 

 ubi spe privati stipendii Euclidis elementa explanare coepit ; sed 

 quae ilium olim a civitate sua austeritas, rustica, acerba, morosa, 

 depulerat, eadem ilium in eum apud omnes contemptum, et odium 

 iterum dejicit, ut exinde horrendus ac detestabilis omnibus fugere, 

 atque iterum Venetias confugere compulsus fuerit. Ibi persenex 

 decessit." Papadopoli, Hist. Gymn. Pa/a., ii. p. 210. 



