CHAPTER VIII 



CARDAN travelled southward by way of the Low 

 Countries. He stayed some days at Antwerp, and 

 during his visit he was pressed urgently to remain in 

 the city and practise his art. A less pleasant experience 

 was a fall into a ditch when he was coming out of a 

 goldsmith's shop. He was cut and bruised about the 

 left ear, but the damage was only skin-deep. He went 

 on by Brussels and Cologne to Basel, where he once 

 more tarried several days. He had a narrow escape 

 here of falling into danger, for, had he not been fore- 

 warned by Guglielmo Gratarolo, a friend, he would have 

 taken up his quarters in a house infected by the plague. 

 He was received as a guest by Carlo Affaidato, a learned 

 astronomer and physicist, who, on the day of departure, 

 made him accept a valuable mule, worth a hundred 

 crowns. Another generous offer of a similar kind was 

 made to him shortly afterwards by a Genoese gentle- 

 man of the family of Ezzolino, who fell in with him 

 accidentally on the road. This was the gift of a very 

 fine horse (of the sort which the English call Obinum), 

 but, greatly as Cardan desired to have the horse, his 

 sense of propriety kept him back from accepting this 

 gift. 1 



He went next to Besan^on, where he was received by 

 Franciscus Bonvalutus, a scholar of some note, and then 



1 De Vita Propria, ch. xxxii. p. 100. 

 143 



