JEROME CARDAN 99 



Libris Propriis there is a passage which indicates that 

 he himself was not unconscious of the renown he had 

 won, or disposed to underrate the value of his contribu- 

 tion to mathematical science. "And even if I were to 

 claim this art (Algebra) as my own invention, I should 

 perhaps be speaking only the truth, though Nicomachus, 

 Ptolemaeus, Paciolus, Boetius, have written much 

 thereon. For men like these never came near to dis- 

 cover one-hundredth part of the things discovered by me. 

 But with regard to this matter as with divers others 

 I leave judgment to be given by those who shall come 

 after me. Nevertheless I am constrained to call this 

 work of mine a perfect one, seeing that it well-nigh 

 transcends the bounds of human perception." 1 



1 Opera, torn. i. p. 66. 



