ith elementary propositions of optics. It was first
printed in Milan in or about 1482.

[27] _De Vita Propria_, ch. x. p. 34. A remark in _De Sapientia_, Opera,
tom. i. p. 578, suggests that Fazio began life as a physician: "Pater meus
Facius Cardanus Medicus primo, inde Jurisconsultus factus est."

CHAPTER II

THE University of Pavia to which Jerome now betook himself was by
tradition one of the learned foundations of Charlemagne.[28] It had
certainly enjoyed a high reputation all through the Middle Ages, and had
recently had the honour of numbering Laurentius Valla amongst its
professors. In 1362, Galeazzo Visconti had obtained a charter for it from
the Emperor Charles IV., and that it had become a place of consequence in
1400 is proved by the fact that, besides maintaining several professors in
the Canon Law, it supported thirteen in Civil Law, five in Medicine, three
in Philosophy, and one each in Astrology, Greek, and Eloquence. Like all
the other Universities of Northern Italy, it suffered occasional eclipse
or even extinction on account of the constant war and desolation which
vexed these parts almost without intermission during the years following
the formation of the League of Cambrai. Indeed, as recently as 1500, the
famous library collected by Petrarch, and presented by Gian Galeazzo
Visconti to the University, was carried off by the French.[29]

To judge from the pictures which the Pavian student, writing in after
years, gives of his physical self, it may be inferred that he was
ill-endowed by the Graces. "I am of middle height. My chest is somewhat
narrow and my arms exceedingly thin: my right hand is the more grossly
fashioned of the two, so that a chiromantist might have set me down as
rude or doltish: indeed, should such an one examine my hand, he would be
ashamed to say what he thought. In it the line of life is short, and that
named after Saturn long and well marked. My left hand, however, is seemly,
with fingers long, tapering, and well-set, and shining nails. My neck is
longer and thinner than the rule, my chin is divided, my lower lip thick
and pendulous, my eyes are very small, and it is my wont to keep them
half-closed, peradventure lest I should discern things over clearly. My
forehead is wide and bare of hair where it meets the temples. My hair and
beard are both of them yellow in tint, and both as a rule kept close cut.
My chin, which as I have said already is marked by a division, is