JEROME CARDAN 171 



teacher in Philosophy, interrupted me one day when I 

 was disputing with Camutio 1 on some matter of Philo- 

 sophy, for, as I have said before, my colleagues were 

 wont to lead me on to argue in philosophy because they 

 were well assured that it would be vain to try to get the 

 better of me in Medicine. Now Branda began by 

 advancing Aristotle as an authority, whereupon I, when 

 he brought out his citation, said, ' Take care, you have 

 left out the " non " which should stand after " album" ' 

 Then Branda contradicted me, and I, spitting out the 

 phlegm with which I am often troubled, told him quietly 

 that he was in the wrong. He sent for the Codex in great 

 rage, and when it was brought I asked that it might be 

 given to me. I then read out the words just as they 

 stood ; but he, as if he suspected that I was reading 

 falsely, snatched the volume out of my hands, and de- 

 clared that I was puting a cheat upon my hearers. When 

 he came to the word in dispute he held his tongue forth- 

 with, and all the others looked at me in amazement." 2 



It is certain that Cardan was still vexed in mind by 

 the trouble he had left behind him at Milan. If he had 

 not forgiven Gian Battista, he was full of kindly thought 



1 " Triduana ilia disceptatio Papiae cum Camutio instituta, pub- 

 licata apud Senatum : ipse primo argumento primse diei siluit." 

 De Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 37. This does not exactly tally with 

 Camutio's version. With regard to Cardan's assertion that his 

 colleagues hesitated to meet him in medical discussion it may be 

 noted that Camutio printed a book at Paviain 1563, with the follow- 

 ing title : " Andraese Camutii disputationes quibus Hieronymi Car- 

 dani magni nominis viri conclusiones infirmantur, Galenus ab 

 ejusdem injuria vindicatur, Hippocratis praeterea aliquot loca dili- 

 gentius multo quam unquam alias explicantur." In his version (De 

 Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 37) Cardan inquires sarcastically : " Habentur 

 ejusdem imagines quaedam typis excusae in Camutii monumentis." 



2 De Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 39. The Third Book of the 

 Theonoston (Opera, torn. ii. p. 403) is in the form of a disputation, 

 " De animi immortalite," with this same Branda. 



