176 JEROME CARDAN 



come to pass. He felt that his heart was broken, and, 

 springing up, he rushed out into the court, where he met 

 certain of the Palavicini, the friends with whom he was 

 staying, and cried out, " Alas, alas, he was indeed privy 

 to the death of his wife, and now he has confessed it all, 

 therefore he will be condemned to death and beheaded." 

 Then having caught up a garment he went out to the 

 piazza, and, before he had gone half-way he met his son- 

 in-law, who asked him in sorrowful tones whither he was 

 going. Cardan answered that he was troubled with 

 apprehensions lest Gian Battista should have confessed 

 his crime, whereupon Bartolomeo Sacco told him that 

 what he feared had indeed come to pass. Gian Battista 

 had admitted the truth of the charge against him : he 

 was ultimately put on his trial before the Senate of 

 Milan, 1 the President of the Court being one Rigone, a 

 man whom Cardan afterwards accused of partiality and 

 of a hostile bias towards the prisoner. Cardan himself 

 stood up to defend his son ; but with a full confession 

 staring him in the face, he was sorely puzzled to fix 

 upon a line of defence. This he perceived must of 

 necessity be largely rhetorical ; and, after he had grasped 

 the entire situation, he set to work to convince the Court 

 on two main points, first, that Gian Battista was a youth 

 of simple guileless character ; and, second, there was no 

 proof that Brandonia had died of poison. A physician 

 of good repute, Vincenzo Dinaldo, swore that she had 

 died of fever (lipyria), and not from the effect of poison ; 

 and five others, men of the highest character, declared 

 that she bore no signs of poison, either externally 

 or internally. Her tongue and extremities and her 

 body were not blackened, nor was the stomach swollen, 



1 There is a full account of the trial in an appendix to the De 

 Utilitate ex Adversis Capienda (Basel, 1561). It is not included in 

 the edition hitherto cited. 



