JEROME CARDAN 255 



had written such ample commentaries on the subjects he 

 studied? Assuredly in Philosophy, in Metaphysics, in 

 History, in Politics, in Morals, as well as in the more 

 abstruse fields of learning, nothing that was worth 

 consideration escaped his notice." 



The foregoing eulogy from the pen of an adverse 

 critic gives eloquent testimony to Cardan's industry 

 and the catholicity of his knowledge. As to his in- 

 dustry, the record of his literary production, chronicled 

 incidentally in the course of the preceding pages, will 

 be evidence enough, seeing that, from the time when 

 he " commenced author," scarcely a year went by when 

 he did not print a volume of some sort or other ; to say 

 nothing of the production of those multitudinous un- 

 published MSS., of which some went to build up the 

 pile he burnt in his latter years in Rome, while others, 

 perhaps, are still mouldering in the presses of university 

 or city libraries of Italy. Frequent reference has been 

 made to the more noteworthy of his works. Books like 

 the De Vita Propria, the De Libris Propriis, the De 

 Utilitate ex Adversis Capienda> the Geniturarum Ex- 

 empla> the Theonoston, the Consilia Medica, the dialogues 

 Tetim and De Morte, have necessarily been drawn upon 

 for biographical facts. The De Subtilitate and the De 

 Varietate Rerum ; the Liber Artis Magnce, the Practica 

 Arithmetics, have been noticed as the most enduring 

 portions of his legacy to posterity; wherefore, before 

 saying the final word as to his literary achievement, it 

 may not be superfluous to give a brief glance at those 

 of his books which, although of minor importance to 

 those already cited, engaged considerable attention in 

 the lifetime of the writer. 



The work upon which Cardan founded his chief hope 

 of immortality was his Commentary on Hippocrates. In 



