horruer[a=], eorum exemplo qui prius
coeperunt odisse quam cognoscere. Nunc cum ipsa gens per se humanissima
sit atque supra existimationem civilis, tu tamen tantum illi addis
ornamenti, ut longe nomine tuo jam nobilior evadat."--_De Astrorum
Judiciis_, p. 3.

[155] Cardan evidently carried the MS. with him, for he writes (_Opera_,
tom. i. p. 72): "Hoc fuit quod Regi Angliae Edoardo sexto admodum
adolescenti dum redirem a Scotia ostendi."

[156] "Cumque ibi esset nodus eti[a=] venenum, quod utin[a=]
abfuerit."--_Geniturarum Exempla_, p. 411.

[157] Edmund Dudley, the infamous minister of Henry VII.

[158] _Geniturarum Exempla_, p. 412.

[159] In the prologue to _Dialogus de Morte_, Opera, tom. i. p. 673, he
gives a full account of this transaction. Of the boy himself he writes:
"hospes ostendit mihi filium nomine Guglielmum, aetatis annorum duodecim,
probum, scitulum, et parentibus obsequentem. Avus paternus nomine
Gregorius adhuc vivebat, et erat Ligur: pater Laurentius, familia nobili
Cataneorum."

[160] _Opera_, tom. i. p. 119. Cardan here calls him "Gulielmus _Lataneus_
Anglus adolescens mihi charissimus." In the _De Morte_, however, he speaks
of him as "ex familia Cataneorum" (see last page).

[161] Cardan writes (_De Subtilitate_, p. 444) that Suisset [Richard
Swineshead], who lived about 1350, was known as the Calculator; but
Kaestner [_Gesch. der Math._ I. 50] maintains that the title Calculator
should be applied to the book rather than to the author, and hints that
this misapprehension on Cardan's part shows that he knew of Suisset only
by hearsay. The title of the copy of Suisset in the British Museum stands
"Subtilissimi Doctoris Anglici Suiset. Calculationes Liber," Padue [1485].
Brunet gives one, "Opus aureum calculationum," Pavia, 1498.

CHAPTER VIII

CARDAN travelled southward by way of the Low Countries. He stayed some
days at Antwerp, and during his visit he was pressed urgently to remain in
the city and practise his art. A less pleasant experience was a fall into
a ditch when he was coming out of a goldsmith's shop. He was cut and
bruised about the left ear, but the damage was only skin-deep. He went on
by Brussels and Cologne to Basel, where he once more tarried several days.
He had a narrow escape here of falling into danger, for, had he not been
forewarned by Guglielmo Gratarolo, a friend, he would have taken up his
quarters in a house infected by the plague. He was received as a