Jerome Cardan by William George Waters (important books to read .txt) 📕

footing was made more secure by his position as the Queen's heir-presumptive--should have held possession of his high dignities so long as he did. Alternately the tool of France and of England, he would one day cause his great rival Cardinal Beatoun to be proclaimed an enemy of his country, and the next would meet him amicably and adopt his policy. After becoming the partisan of Henry VIII. and the foe of Rome, he finally put the coping-stone to his inconsistencies by becoming a convert to Catholicism in 1543. But in spite of his indolence and weakness, he was still Regent of Scotland, when his brother, the Archbishop, was seized with that attack of periodic asthma which threatened to change vitally the course of Scottish politics. A very slight study of contemporary records will show that Arran had been largely, if not entirely, indebted to the distinguished talents and to the ambition of his brother for his continued tenure of the chief power of the State. If confirmation of this view be needed, it will be found in the fact that, as soon as the Archbishop was confined to a sick-room, Mary of Guise, the Queen Mother, supported by her brothers in France and by the Catholic party at home, began to undermine the Regent's position by intrigue, and ultimately, partly by coaxing, partly by threats, won from him a promise to surrender his power into her hands.

In the meantime Cardan was waiting for further intelligence and directions as to his journey. The end of January had been fixed as the date of the meeting at Paris, and it was not until the middle of February that any further tidings came to him. Then he received a letter from Cassanate and a remittance to cover the expenses of his journey.[140] He set out at once on February 22, undaunted by the prospect of a winter crossing of the Simplon, and, having travelled by way of Sion and Geneva, arrived at Lyons on March 13. In Cassanate's first letter Paris had been named as the place of meeting; but, as a concession to Cardan's convenience, Lyons was added as an alternative, in case he should find it impossible to spare time for a longer journey. Cardan accordingly halted at Lyons, but neither Archbishop nor physician was there to meet him. After he had waited for more than a month, Cassanate appeared alone, and brought with him a heavy purse of money for the cost of the long journey to Scotland, which he now begged Cardan to undertake, and a letter from the Archbishop himself, who wrote word that, though he had fully determined in the first instance to repair to Paris, or even to Lyons, to meet Cardan, he found himself at present mastered by the turn of circumstances, and compelled to stay at home. He promised Cardan a generous reward, and a reception of a nature to convince him that the Scots are not such Scythians as they might perchance be deemed in Milan.[141] Cardan's temper was evidently upset by this turn of affairs, and his suspicions aroused; for he sets down his belief that patient and physician had from the first worked with the intention of dragging him all the way to Scotland, but that they had waited till he was across the Alps before showing their hand, fearing lest if the word Scotland should have been used at the outset, he would never have moved from Milan.[142] In describing his journey he writes:--"I tarried in Lyons forty-six days, seeing nothing of the Archbishop, nor of the physician whom I expected, nevertheless I gained more than I spent. I met there Ludovico Birago, a gentleman of Milan, and commander of the King's foot-soldiers, and with him I contracted a close friendship, so much so that, had I been minded to take service under Brissac, the King's lieutenant, I might have enjoyed a salary of one thousand crowns a year. Shortly afterwards Guglielmo Cassanate, the Archbishop's physician, arrived in Lyons and brought with him three hundred other golden crowns, which he handed to me, in order that I might make the journey with him to Scotland, offering in addition to pay the cost of travel, and promising me divers gifts in addition. Thus, making part of our journey down the Loire, I arrived at Paris. While I was there I met Orontius; but he for some reason or other refused to visit me. Under the escort of Magnienus[143] I inspected the treasury of the French Kings, and the Church of Saint Denis. I saw likewise something there, not so famous, but more interesting to my mind, and this was the horn of a unicorn, whole and uninjured. After this we met the King's physicians, and we all dined together, but I declined to hold forth to them during dinner, because before we sat down they were urgent that I should begin a discussion. I next set forth on my journey, my relations with Pharnelius and Silvius, and another of the King's physicians,[144] whom I left behind, being of a most friendly nature, and travelled to Boulogne in France, where, by the command of the Governor of Sarepont, an escort of fourteen armed horsemen and twenty foot-soldiers was assigned to me, and so to Calais. I saw the tower of Caesar still standing. Then having crossed the narrow sea I went to London, and at last met the Archbishop at Edinburgh on the twenty-ninth of June. I remained there till the thirteenth of September. I received as a reward four hundred more gold crowns; a chain of gold worth a hundred and twenty crowns, a noble horse, and many other gifts, in order that no one of those who were with me should return empty-handed."[145]

The Archbishop's illness might in itself have supplied a reason for his inability to travel abroad and meet Cardan as he had agreed to do; but the real cause of his change of plan was doubtless the condition of public affairs in Scotland at the beginning of 1552. In the interval of time between Cassanate's first letter to Cardan and the end of 1551, the Regent had half promised to surrender his office into the hands of the Guise party in Scotland, wherefore it was no wonder that the Primate, recognizing how grave was the danger which threatened the source of his power, should have resolved that, sick or sound, his proper place was at the Scottish Court.

FOOTNOTES:

[112] Vesalius had certainly lectured on anatomy at Pavia, but it would appear that Cardan did not know him personally, seeing that he writes in _De Libris Propriis_ (_Opera_, tom. i. p. 138): "Brasavolum ... nunquam vidi, ut neque Vesalium quamquam intimum mihi amicum."

[113] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxii. p. 99.

[114] In describing Fazio, Jerome writes: "Erat Euclidis operum studiosus, et humeris incurvis: et filius meus natu major ore, oculis, incessu, humeris, illi simillimus."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. iii. p. 8. In the same chapter Fazio is described as "Blaesus in loquendo; variorum studiorum amator: ruber, oculis albis et quibus noctu videret."

[115] "At uxor mea imaginabatur assidue se videre calvariam patris, qui erat absens dum utero gereret Jo: Baptistam."--_Paralipomenon_, lib. iii. c. 21.

[116] _De Utilitate_, p. 832.

[117] "Post ex geminatis somniis, scripsi libros de Subtilitate quos impressos auxi et denuo superauctos tertio excudi curavi."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. xlv. p. 175.

[118] "Libros de Rerum varietate anno MDLVIII edidi: erant enim reliquiae librorum de subtilitate."--_De Vita Propria_, p. 176. "Reversus in patriam, perfeci libros XVII de Rerum varietate quos jampridem inchoaveram."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 110. He had collected much material during his life at Gallarate.

[119] Aristotle, _Metaphysics_, book I. ch. v., contains an examination of the Pythagorean doctrine which maintains Number to be the Substance of all things:--[Greek: all' auto to apeiron kai auto to hen ousian einai touton on kategorountai.]

[120] "Sed nullus major labor quam libri de Rerum Varietate quem cum saepius mutassem, demum traductis quibuscunque insignioribus rebus in libros de Subtilitate, ita illum exhausi, ut totus denuo conscribendus fuerit atque ex integro restituendus."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 74.

He seems to have utilized the services of Ludovico Ferrari in compiling this work.--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 64.

[121] _De Varietate_, p. 661.

[122] Book XV. ch. lxxix.

[123] He gives one example of his skill as a palmist in the _De Vita Propria_: "Memini me dum essem adolescens, persuasum fuisse cuidam Joanni Stephano Biffo, quod essem Chiromanticus, et tamen nil minus: rogat ille, ut praedicam ei aliquid de vita; dixi delusum esse a sociis, urget, veniam peto si quicquam gravius praedixero: dixi periculum imminere brevi de suspendio, intra hebdomadam capitur, admovetur tormentis: pertinaciter delictum negat, nihilominus tandem post sex menses laqueo vitam finivit."--ch. xlii. p. 156.

[124] "Ergo nunc Britannia inclyta vellere est. Nec mirum cum null[u=] animal venenat[u=] mittat, imo nec infestum praeter vulpem, olim et lupum: nunc vero exterminatis etiam lupis, tuto pecus vagat. Rore coeli sitim sedant greges, ab omni alio potu arcentur, quod aquae ibi ovibus sint exitiales: quia tamen in pabulo humido vermes multi abundant, cornic[u=] adeo multitudo crevit, ut ob frugum damna nuper publico consilio illas perdentibus proposita praemia sint: ubi enim pabulum, ibi animalia sunt quae eo vescuntur, atque immodice tunc multiplicantur cum ubique abundaverit. Caret tamen ut dixi, serpentibus, tribus ex causis: nam pauci possunt generari ob frigus immensum."--_De Subtilitate_, p. 298.

[125] AEneas Sylvius in describing his visit to Britain a century earlier says that rooks had been recently introduced, and that the trees on which they roosted and built belonged to the King's Exchequer.

[126] "Ejusdem insulae accola fuit Ioannes, ut dixi, Suisset [Richard Swineshead] cognom[e=]to Calculator; in cujus solius unius argumenti solutione, quod contra experiment[u=] est de actione mutua tota laboravit posteritas; quem senem admodum, nec inventa sua dum legeret intelligentem, flevisse referunt. Ex quo haud dubium esse reor, quod etiam in libro de animi immortalite scripsi, barbaros ingenio nobis haud esse inferiores: quandoquidem sub Brumae caelo divisa toto orbe Britannia duos tam clari ingenii viros emiserit."--_De Subtilitate_, p. 444.

[127] _Ibid.,_ p. 142.

[128] p. 369.

[129] The fame of Scots as judges of precious stones had spread to Italy before Cardan's time. In the _Novellino_ of Masuccio, which was first printed in 1476, there is a passage in the tenth novel of the first part, in which a rogue passes as "grandissimo cognoscitore" of gems because he had spent much time in Scotland.

[130] _De Varietate_, p. 636.

[131] _De Varietate_, p. 637.

[132] _Ibid.,_ p. 637.

[133] _Ibid.,_ p. 565.

[134] "Peracto L anno quod stipendium non remuneraretur mansi Mediolani."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. iv. p. 15.

[135] About this time he wrote the _Liber Decem Problematum_, and the treatise _Delle Burle Calde_, one of his few works written in Italian.--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 109.

[136] Cassanate's letter is given in full (_Opera_, tom. i. p. 89).

[137] The quotation from the _De Sapientia_ differs somewhat from the original passage which stands on p. 578 of the same volume.

[138] _Opera_, tom. i. p. 89.

[139] In a subsequent interview with Cardan, Cassanate modifies this statement.--_Opera_, tom. ix. p. 124.

[140] "Accepique antequam discederem aureos coronatos Gallicos 500 et M.C.C. in reditu."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. iv. p. 16.

[141] "Difficillimis causis victus venire non potui." The Archbishop's letter is given in _Opera_, tom. i. p. 137.

[142] _Geniturarum Exempla_, p. 469.

[143] He mentions this personage in _De Varietate_, p. 672: "Johannes Manienus medicus, vir egregius et mathematicaram studiosus." He was physician to the monks of Saint Denis.

[144] The reception given to Cardan in Paris was a very friendly one. Orontius was a mechanician and mathematician; and jealousy of Cardan's great repute may have kept him away from the dinner,