JEROME CARDAN 259 



nor in that of Edward VI., king of England, nor in any 

 other of the schemes that he drew, did he rightly foresee 

 any of the events which followed. He did not divine 

 that he himself was doomed to imprisonment, his son to 

 the halter, Ranconet to a violent death, and Edward to 

 a brief term of life, but predicted for each one of these 

 some future directly contrary." l 



The treatise De Consolatione^ probably the best known 

 of Cardan's ethical works, was first published at Venice 

 in 1 542 by Girolamo Scoto, but it failed at first to please 

 the public taste. It was not until 1544, when it was 

 re-issued bound up with the De Sapientia and the first 

 version of the De Libris Propriis from the press of 

 Petreius at Nuremberg, that it met with any success. 

 Perhaps the sober tone and didactic method of this 

 treatise appealed more readily to the mood of the 

 German than of the Italian reader. From internal 

 evidence it is obvious that Cardan was urged to write it 

 by the desire of making known to the world the bitter 

 experience of his early literary and professional struggles. 

 In the opening paragraph he lets it be seen that he 



intends to follow a Ciceronian model, and records his 



^r 



regret that the lament of Cicero over his daughter's 

 death should have perished in the barbarian wars. The 

 original title of the book was The Accuser , to wit, some- 

 thing which might censure the vain passions and erring 

 tendencies of mankind, " at post mutato nomine, et in tres 

 libellos diviso, de Consolatione eum inscripsimus, quod 

 longe magis infelices consolatione, quam fortunati repre- 

 hensione, indigere viderentur." The subsequent success 

 of the book was probably due to this change of name, 

 though the author himself preferred to have discovered 



1 Judicium de Cardano. 



