Complete Works, Volume 1: The Book on Games of Chance

And would that the community of scholars might acknowledge that we have expended as much industry and diligence in publishing these works as he applied talent and erudition in writing them. Be that as it may, we sincerely testify that we have omitted no care in searching out, transcribing, and correcting everything belonging to this Author. So that nothing at all of such a great man might remain hidden, or lie any longer in filth or in private storage, we have searched the corners of very many libraries in France, Italy, and Germany: from whence we have fished out with golden hooks the manuscript codices and the very autographs of Cardano.

Above all, however, we have taken care, Prince of the purple-clad Themis a reference to the personification of divine law and justice, often associated with the high judiciary, that nothing should be included here unless it is legitimate and genuine. The kinship of the style and the uniform tenor of the senses will most easily prove this. And certainly, if we were to foist anything adulterated upon you, your Paris, a sharp-nosed city, would immediately sniff it out; and then, woe, eternal woe to the forgers!

It happened by a happy chance that, just as Cardano's earlier works saw the light many years ago in illustrious Basel, the Roman colony of Munatius Plancus, so these posthumous and new works, together with...