JEROME CARDAN 177 



nor did the hair and nails show any signs of falling, 

 nor were the tissues eaten away. In the opening 

 of his defence Cardan attempted to discredit the 

 character of Brandonia. He showed how great were 

 the injuries and provocations which Gian Battista had 

 received from her, and that she was a dissolute wanton ; 

 her father himself, when under examination, having 

 refused to say that she was a virgin when she left hjs 

 house to be married. He claimed justification for the 

 husband who should slay his wife convicted of adultery ; 

 and here, in this case, Brandonia was convicted by her 

 own confession. He maintained that, if homicide is to 

 be committed at all, poison is preferable to the knife, 

 and then he went on to weave a web of ineffectual 

 casuistry in support of his view, which moved the Court 

 to pity and contempt. He cited the Lex Cornelia, which 

 doomed the common people to the arena, and the 

 patricians to exile, and claimed the penalty last-named 

 as the one fitting to the present case. 1 Then he 

 proceeded to show that the woman had really died from 

 natural causes; for, even granting that she had swallowed 

 arsenic in the cake, she had vomited at once, and the 

 poison would have no time to do its work ; moreover 

 there was no proof that Gian Battista had given specific 

 directions to anybody to mix poison with the ingredients 

 of the cake. The most he had done was to utter some 

 vague words thereanent to his servant, who forthwith 

 took the matter into his own hands. 2 If Gian Battista 



1 Laudabatur ejus benignitas ac simul factum lo. Petri Solarii 

 tabellionis, qui cum filium spurium convictum haberet de veneficio, 

 in duas sorores legitimas, solum haereditatis consequendae causa, satis 

 habuit damnasse ilium ad triremes." De Vita Propria^ ch. x. p. 33. 



2 " Evasit nuper ob constantiam in tormentis famulus filii mei, 

 qui pretio venenum dederat dominae sine causa : periit filius meus, 

 qui nee jusserat dari." De UtiUtate^ p. 339. 



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