The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jerome Cardan, by William George Waters

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Title: Jerome Cardan
A Biographical Study

Author: William George Waters

Release Date: October 22, 2006 [EBook #19600]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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JEROME CARDAN

[Illustration]

JEROME CARDAN

_A BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY_

BY

W.G. WATERS

"To be content that times to come should only know there was such a man,
not caring whether they knew more of him, was a frigid ambition in
Cardan."--SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

[Illustration]

LAWRENCE & BULLEN, Limited,

16 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, MDCCCXCVIII.

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON & BUNGAY.

PREFACE

No attempt is made in the following pages to submit to historical
treatment the vast and varied mass of printed matter which Cardan left as
his contribution to letters and science, except in the case of those works
which are, in purpose or incidentally, autobiographical, or of those which
furnish in themselves effective contributions towards the framing of an
estimate of the genius and character of the writer. Neither has it seemed
worth while to offer to the public another biography constructed on the
lines of the one brought out by Professor Henry Morley in 1854, for the
reason that the circumstances of Cardan's life, the character of his work,
and of the times in which he lived, all appeared to be susceptible of more
succinct and homogeneous treatment than is possible in a chronicle of the
passing years, and of the work that each one saw accomplished. At certain
junctures the narrative form is inevitable, but an attempt has been made
to treat the more noteworthy episodes of Cardan's life and work, and the
contemporary aspect of the republic of letters, in relation to existing
tendencies and conditions, whenever such a course has seemed possible.

Professor Morley