208 JEROME CARDAN 



by a trick, managed to deprive me of the use of a class- 

 room, that is to say they allotted to me an hour just 

 about the time of dinner, or they gave the class-room at 

 the very same hour, or a little earlier, to another teacher. 

 When I perceived that the authorities were unwilling to 

 accede to three distinct propositions which I made to 

 them, namely, that this other teacher should begin his 

 lecture sooner and leave off sooner : or that he should 

 teach alternately with me : I so far got my own way at 

 the next election that the other lecturer had to do his 

 teaching elsewhere." 1 



It would appear that the intrigues, of which Cardan 

 gives so many instances, must have been the work of 

 certain individuals, jealous of his fame and perhaps 

 smarting under some caustic speech or downright insult, 

 rather than of the authorities ; the Senate of Bologna 

 showed no hostility to him, but on the other hand pro- 

 cured for him the privileges of citizenship. While the 

 negotiations were going on at Bologna for the further 

 regulation of his position as a teacher, he tells a strange 

 story how, on three or four different occasions, certain 

 men came to him by night, in the name of the Senate 

 and of the Judicial officers, and tried to induce him to 

 recommend that a certain woman, who had been con- 

 demned for blasphemy, and for poisoning or witchcraft 

 as well, should be pardoned, both by the temporal and 

 spiritual authorities, bringing forward specially the argu- 

 ment that, in the sight of philosophers, such things as 

 demons and spirits did not exist. They likewise urged 

 him to procure the release from prison of another woman, 

 who had not yet been condemned, because a certain sick 

 man had died under the hands of some other doctors. 

 They brought also a lot of nativities for him to read, as 

 1 De Vita Propria, ch. xvii. p. 56. 



