1 72 JEROME CARDAN 



of him. He sent him from Pavia a new silk cloak, such 

 as physicians wear, so that he might make a better 

 show in his calling, and doubtless continued his supplies 

 of money. Just a week before the quarrel last recorded, 

 Aldo, against his father's wish, left Pavia and returned 

 to Milan. Cardan used every argument he could bring 

 forward to keep his younger son with him, but in vain ; 

 and, as he was unwilling to put constraint upon him, 

 Aldo departed. Cardan says that he was within an 

 ace of going with him, for the University was then in 

 vacation : then the crowning catastrophe might have 

 been averted, but the same fate which was driving on 

 the son to destruction, kept the father at Pavia. Thus 

 it happened that Aldo was an inmate of his brother's 

 house when the poisoned cake was made. Cardan has 

 written down a detailed account of the perpetration of 

 this squalid tragedy, and no clearer presentation can be 

 given than the one which his own words supply. 



He writes : " Thus my son and the servant went 

 together to make the cake, and the servant put therein 

 secretly some of the poison which had been given him. 

 After the cake had been made, a small piece was given 

 to my son's wife, who was very ill at the time, but her 

 stomach rejected it at once. Her mother ate some of 

 it, and likewise vomited after taking it. Though Gian 

 Battista saw what happened he did not believe that the 

 cake was really poisoned, for two reasons. First, because 

 he had not, in truth, ordered that the poison should be 

 mixed therewith ; and second, because his brother-in-law 

 (Bartolomeo Sacco) had said to him, before the cake 

 was finished, ' See that you make it big enough, for I 

 also am minded to taste it.' Next he gave some to his 

 father-in-law, who straightway vomited, and complained 

 of a pricking of the tongue. He warned my son ; but 



