JEROME CARDAN 195 



us nothing, we can let him go ; but if it be otherwise, 

 the contract may be ratified.' With regard to the salary, 

 over which a dispute had already arisen, the Legate 

 gave his consent, and the business came to an end. 



"But, disregarding this settlement, my opponents urged 

 one of their number to wait upon me as a delegate from 

 the Senate, and this man would fain have added to the 

 terms already sanctioned by the Senate, others which I 

 could not possibly accept. He offered me a smaller 

 stipend, no teaching room was assigned to me, and no 

 allowance for travelling expenses. I refused to treat 

 with him, whereupon he was forced to depart, and to 

 return to me later on with the terms of my engagement 

 duly set forth." 1 



It was in June 1562 that Cardan finally resigned his 

 position at Pavia, but it was not until some months 

 after this date that the final agreement with the 

 Bolognese Senate, lately referred to, was concluded, 

 and in the interim he was forced to suffer no slight 

 annoyance and persecution at the hands of his adver- 

 saries in Pavia, in Bologna, and in Milan as well. Just 

 before he resigned his Professorship he was warned by 

 the portentous kindling of a fire, seemingly dead, 2 that 

 fresh mischief was afoot, and he at once determined in 

 his mind that his foes had planned destruction against 

 him afresh. So impressed was he at this manifestation 

 that he swore he would not leave home on the day 

 following. "But early in the morning there came to 

 my house four or five of my pupils bidding me to a 

 feast, where all the chief Professors of the Gymnasium 

 and the Academy proposed to be present. I replied 



1 De Vita Propria, ch. xvii. p. 54. 



2 Ibid., ch. xxx. p. 88. There is also a long account of this 

 occurrence in Opera, torn. x. p. 459. 



