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CARDAN [Ital. CARDANOI, GIROLAMO [GER...

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 316 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CARDAN [Ital. CARDANOI, See also:GIROLAMO [GERONYMO or HIERONIMO] (1501-1576) , See also:Italian mathematician, physician and astrologer, See also:born at See also:Pavia on the 24th of See also:September 1501, was the illegitimate son of Facio Cardano (1444-1524), a learned jurist of See also:Milan, himself distinguished by a See also:taste for See also:mathematics. He was educated at the university of Pavia, and subsequently at that of See also:Padua, where he graduated in See also:medicine. He was, however, excluded from the See also:College of Physicians at Milan on See also:account of his illegitimate See also:birth, and it is not surprising that his first See also:book should have been an exposure of the fallacies of the See also:faculty. A fortunate cure of the See also:child of the Milanese senator Sfondrato now brought him into See also:notice, and the See also:interest of his See also:patron procured him See also:admission into the medical See also:body. About this See also:time (1539) he obtained additional celebrity by the publication of his Practica arithmeticae generalis, a See also:work of See also:great merit for the time, and he became engaged in a See also:correspondence with Niccolo See also:Tartaglia, who had discovered a See also:solution of cubic equations. This See also:discovery Tartaglia had kept to himself, but he was ultimately induced to communicate it to Cardan under a See also:solemn promise that it should never be divulged. Cardan, however, published it in his comprehensive See also:treatise on See also:algebra (Artis magnae sive de regulis Algebrae See also:litter onus) which appeared at See also:Nuremberg in 1545 (see ALGEBRA: See also:History). Two years previously he had published a work even more highly regarded by his contemporaries, his celebrated treatise on See also:astrology. As a believer in astrology Cardan was on a level with the best minds of his See also:age; the distinction consisted in the comparatively cautious spirit of his inquiries and his disposition to confirm his assertions by an See also:appeal to facts, or what he believed to be such. A very considerable See also:part of his treatise is based upon observations carefully collected by himself, and seemingly well calculated to support his theories so far as they extend. Numerous instances of his belief in dreams and omens may be collected from his writings, and he especially valued himself on being one of the five or six celebrated men to whom, as to See also:Socrates, had been vouchsafed the assistance of a See also:guardian daemon.

In 1547 he was appointed See also:

professor of medicine at Pavia. The publication of his See also:works on algebra and astrology at this juncture had gained for him a See also:European renown, and procured him flattering offers from See also:Pope See also:Paul III. and the See also:king of See also:Denmark, both of which he declined. In 1551 his reputation was crowned by the publication of his great work, De Subtilitate Rerum, which embodied the soundest See also:physical learning of his time and simultaneously represented its most advanced spirit of See also:speculation. It was followed some years later by a similar treatise, De Varietate Rerum (1559), the two making in effect but one book. A great portion of this is occupied by endeavours, commonly futile, to explain See also:ordinary natural phenomena, but its See also:chief interest for us consists in the hints and glimpses it affords of principles beyond the full comprehension of the writer himself, and which the See also:world was then by no means ready to entertain. The inorganic See also:realm of Nature he asserts to be animated no less than the organic; all creation is progressive development; all animals were origin-ally See also:worms; the inferior metals must be regarded as conatus naturae towards the See also:production of See also:gold. The indefinite variability of See also:species is implied in the remark that Nature is seldom content with a single variation from a customary type. The oviparous habits of birds are explained by their tendency to favour the perpetuation of the species, precisely in the manner of See also:modern naturalists. Animals were not created for the use of See also:man, but exist for their own sakes. The origin of See also:life depends upon See also:cosmic See also:laws, which Cardan naturally connects with his favourite study of astrology. The physical divergencies of man-See also:kind arise from the effects of See also:climate and the variety of human circumstances in See also:general. Cardan's views on the dissimilarity of See also:languages are much more philosophical than usual at his time; and his treatise altogether, though weak in particular details, is strong in its pervading sense of the unity and omnipotence of natural See also:law, which renders it in some degree an adumbration of the course of See also:science since the author's See also:day.

It was attacked by J. C. See also:

Scaliger, whom Cardan refuted without difficulty. The celebrity which Cardan had acquired led in the same See also:year (1551) to his See also:journey to See also:Scotland as the medical adviser of See also:Archbishop See also:Hamilton of St See also:Andrews. The archbishop was supposed to be suffering from See also:consumption, a complaint which Cardan, under a false impression, as he frankly admits, had represented himself as competent to cure. He was of great service to the archbishop, whose complaint proved to be asthmatical; but the See also:principal interest attaching to his expedition is derived from his account of the disputes of the medical faculty at See also:Paris, and of the See also:court of See also:Edward VI. of See also:England. The Parisian doctors were disturbed by the heresies of Vesalius, who was beginning to introduce anatomical study from the human subject. Cardan's liberality of See also:temper led him to sympathize with the innovator. His account of Edward VI.'s disposition and understanding is extremely favourable, and is entitled to See also:credit as that of a competent observer without See also:bias towards either sideof the religious question. He See also:cast the king's nativity, and indulged in a number of predictions which were effectually confuted by the royal youth's See also:death in the following year. Cardan had now attained the See also:summit of his prosperity, and the See also:rest of his life was little but a See also:series of disasters. His principal misfortunes arose from the crimes and calamities of his sons, one of whom was an utter reprobate, while the tragic See also:fate of the other overwhelmed the See also:father with anguish.

This son, Giovanni Battista, also a physician, had contracted an imprudent See also:

marriage with a girl of indifferent See also:character, Brandonia Seroni, who subsequently proved unfaithful to him. The injured See also:husband revenged himself with See also:poison; the See also:deed was detected, and the exceptional severity of the See also:punishment seems to justify Cardan in attributing it to the rancour of his medical rivals, with whom he had never at any time been on See also:good terms. The See also:blow all but crushed him; his reputation and his practice waned; he addicted himself to gaming, a See also:vice to which he had always been prone; his mind became unhinged and filled with distempered imaginations. He was ultimately banished from Milan on some See also:accusation not specified, and although the See also:decree was ultimately rescinded, he found it advisable to accept a professorship at See also:Bologna (1562). While residing there in moderate comfort, and mainly occupied with the See also:composition of supplements to his former works, he was suddenly arrested on a See also:charge not stated, but in all See also:probability See also:heresy. Though he had always been careful to keep on terms with the See also:Church, the See also:bent of his mind had been palpably towards See also:free thought, and the circumstance had probably attracted the See also:attention of See also:Pius V., who then ruled the Church in the spirit, as he had formerly exercised the functions, of an inquisitor. Through the intercession, as would appear, of some influential cardinals, Cardan was released, but was deprived of his professorship, prohibited from teaching and See also:publishing any further, and removed to See also:Rome, where he spent his remaining years in See also:receipt of a See also:pension from the pope. It seems to have been urged in his favour that his See also:intellect had been disturbed by grief for the loss of his son—an assertion to which his frequent hallucinations See also:lent some countenance, though the existence of any serious derangement is disproved by the lucidity and coherence of his last writings. He occupied his time at Rome in the composition of his commentaries, De Vita Propria, which, along with a See also:companion treatise, De Libris Propriis, is our principal authority for his See also:biography. Though he had burned much, he See also:left behind him more than a See also:hundred See also:MSS., not twenty of which have been printed. He died at Rome on the 21st of September 1596. Alike intellectually and morally, Cardan is one of the most interesting personages connected with the revival of science in See also:Europe.

He had no especial bent towards any scientific pursuit, but appears as the man of versatile ability, delighting in See also:

research for its own See also:sake. He possessed the true scientific spirit in perfection; nothing, he tells us, among the king of See also:France's treasures appeared to him so worthy of admiration as a certain natural curiosity which he took for the See also:horn of a See also:unicorn. It has been injurious to his fame to have been compelled to labour, partly in See also:fields of research where no important discovery was then attainable, partly in those where his discoveries could only serve as the stepping-stones to others, by which they were inevitably eclipsed. His medical career serves as an See also:illustration of the former See also:case, and his mathematical of the latter. His medical knowledge was wholly empirical; restrained by the authority of See also:Galen, and debarred from the practice of See also:anatomy, nothing more could be expected than that he should stumble on some fortunate nostrums. As a mathematician, on the other See also:hand, he effected important advances in science, but such as merely paved the way for discoveries which have obscured his own. From his astrology no results could be expected; but even here the scientific character of his mind is displayed in his See also:common-sense treatment of what usually passed for a mystical and occult study. His prognostications are as strictly empirical as his prescriptions, and rest quite as much upon the observations which he supposed himself to have made in his practice. As frequently is the case with men incapable of rightly ordering their own lives, he is full of See also:wisdom and See also:sound See also:advice for others; his ethical precepts and See also:practical rules are frequently excellent. To See also:complete the See also:catalogue of his accomplishments, he is no contemptible poet. The work of Cardan's, however, which retains most interest for this See also:generation is his autobiography, De Vita Propria. In its clearness and frankness of self-See also:revelation this book stands almost alone among records of its class.

It may be compared with the autobiography of another celebrated Italian of the age,Benvenuto See also:

Cellini, but is much more free from vanity and self-consciousness, unless the extreme candour with which Cardan reveals his own errors is to be regarded as vanity in a more subtle See also:form. The general impression is highly favourable to the writer, whose impetuosity and fits of reckless dissipation appear as See also:mere exaggerations of the warmth of See also:heart which imparted such strength to his domestic affections, and in the region of science imparted that passionate devotion to research which could alone have enabled him to persevere so resolutely and effect such marked advances in such multifarious fields of inquiry. Cardan's autobiography has been most ably condensed, and at the same time supplemented by See also:information from the general body of his writings and other See also:sources, by See also:Henry See also:Morley (See also:Jerome Cardan, 1854, 2 vols). His See also:capital See also:treatises, De Subtilitate and De Varietate Rerum, are combined and fully analysed in vol. ii. of Rixner and Siber's Leben and Lehrmeinungen beruhmter Physiker am Ende See also:des xvi. and am Anfange des xvii. Jahrhunderts (Sulzbach, 1820). Cardan's works were edited in ten volumes by Sponius (See also:Lyons, 1663). A biography was prefixed by See also:Gabriel See also:Naude, whose unreasonable depreciation has unduly lowered Cardan's character with posterity. (R.

End of Article: CARDAN [Ital. CARDANOI, GIROLAMO [GERONYMO or HIERONIMO] (1501-1576)

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