/'////. ( iso I'll 1C SCIENCES. 



than the doctrine of Aristotle; James Zabarella of Padua, who was fully 

 versed in all the great philosophers 'of the thirteenth century, and who sought 

 to make them harmonize with Aristotle. 



These in their turn were succeeded by the old Arab commentators of the 

 books of Aristotle, Averroes in particular; Aehillini of Bologna, and 

 Xabarella merely reproduced the opinions of the last named. But the most 

 illustrious of the new Averroists was Jerome Cardan of Pavia, that great 

 genius who, by the elevation to which he raised all the sciences, became the 





Fig. 51. Dame Philosophy. Miniature of the " Treasure," hy Brunetto Latini. 

 Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century. The Arsenal Library. 



wonder of his century. M. Haureau says of him, " This man, whose mind, 

 enthusiastic, restless, and incapable of repose, welcomed all doctrines of every 

 kind, was the slave of every system in turn ; first worshipping, then insulting 

 all the gods, even the god of conscience ; he was not an individual, he was a 

 whole generation of philosophers." He had more play of mind than of 

 judgment, and his inconsiderate ardour, regulated neither by good sense nor 

 by a sincere faith, led him into the most monstrous anomalies. Like 

 Averroes and all the pantheists, he upheld the double principle of the 



