eties. "Nam et pater meus ut ab eo accepi, diu in
ingressu Collegii Jurisconsultorum laboravit, et ego, ut alias testatus
sum, bis a medicorum Patavino, toties filius meus natu major, a Ticinensi,
uterque a Mediolanensi rejecti sumus."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 94.

[56] _De Utilitate_, p. 358.

[57] He became a priest, and died Archbishop of Milan in 1552. Cardan
dedicated to him his first published book, _De Malo Medendi_.

[58] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvii. p. 119.

[59] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxv. p. 67.

[60] The Xenodochium, which was originally a stranger's lodging-house. By
this time places of this sort had become little else than _succursales_ of
some religious house. The Governors of the Milanese Xenodochium were the
patrons of the Plat endowment which Cardan afterwards enjoyed.

[61] "Hoc unum sat scio, ab ineunte aetate me inextinguibili nominis
immortalis cupiditate flagrasse."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 61.

[62] "Minimo tamen honorario, et illud etiam minimum suasu cujusdam amici
egregii praefecti Xenodochii imminuerunt; ita cum hujus recordor in mentem
venit fabellae illius Apuleii de annonae Praefecto."--_Opera_, tom. i. p.
64.

[63] _De Utilitate_, p. 351.

[64] The following gives a hint as to the treatment followed: "Referant
leprosos balneo ejus aquae in qua cadaver ablutum sit, sanari."--_De
Varietate_, p. 334.

[65] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvii. p. 121. This dream is also told in _De
Libris Propriis_, Opera, tom. i. p. 64.

[66] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvii. p. 121.

CHAPTER IV

JEROME CARDAN is now standing on the brink of authorship. The very title
of his first book, _De Malo Recentiorum Medicorum Medendi Usu_, gives
plain indication of the humour which possessed him, when he formulated his
subject and put it in writing. With his temper vexed by the persistent
neglect and insult cast upon him by the Milanese doctors he would
naturally sit down _con amore_ to compile a list of the errors perpetrated
by the ignorance and bungling of the men who affected to despise him, and
if his object was to sting the hides of these pundits and arouse them to
hostility yet more vehement, he succeeded marvellously well. He was
enabled to launch his book rather by the strength of private friendship
than by the hope of any commercial success. Whilst at Pavia he had become
intimate with Ottaviano Scoto, a fellow-student who came from Venice, and
in after times he found Ottaviano's purse very useful to