he largest income he could possibly have earned,
consequently poverty was never far removed from the household. Hitherto
his reputation as a man of letters and a mathematician had exceeded his
fame as a doctor; for, even after he had taken up his residence as
Professor of Medicine at Padua, many applications were made to him for his
services in other branches of learning. It was fortunate indeed that he
had let his reading take a somewhat eclectic course, for medicine at this
time seemed fated to play him false. At the end of 1544 no salary was
forthcoming at Pavia, so he abandoned his class-room, and returned to
Milan.

During his residence there, in the summer of 1546, Cardinal Moroni, acting
on behalf of Pope Paul III., made an offer for his services as a teacher
of mathematics, accompanied by terms which, as he himself admits, were not
to be despised; but, as was his wont, he found some reason for demur, and
ultimately refused the offer. In his Harpocratic vein he argued, "This
pope is an old man, a tottering wall, as it were. Why should I abandon a
certainty for an uncertainty?"[81] The certainty he here alludes to must
have been the salary for the Plat lectureship; and, as this emolument was
a very small one, it would appear that he did not rate at a high figure
any profits which might come to him in the future from his acceptance of
the Pope's offer; but, as he admits subsequently, he did not then fully
realize the benevolence of the Cardinal who approached him on the subject,
or the magnificent patronage of the Farnesi.[82] It is quite possible that
this refusal of his may have been caused by a reluctance to quit Milan,
the city which had treated him in such cruel and inhospitable fashion,
just at the time when he had become a man of mark. In the arrogance of
success it was doubtless a keen pleasure to let his fellow-townsmen see
that the man upon whom they had heaped insult after insult for so many
years was one who could afford to let Popes and Cardinals pray for his
services in vain. But whatever may have been his humour, he resolved to
remain in Milan; and, as he had no other public duty to perform except the
delivery of the Plat lectures, he had abundant leisure to spend upon the
many and important works he had on hand at this season.

Cardan had now achieved European fame, and was apparently on the high
road to fortune, but on the very threshold of his triumph a great sorrow
and misfortune befell him, the