The Life of Cardano.

And surely, just as a threefold order of such travelers is established here, so too, since the breadth of that highest class is so great, it seemed not inappropriate to me if I were to establish three grades or orders of the men whom it embraces: So that the first might be dedicated to those who, having diligently traveled through the liberal arts, wished also to wander into disciplines bordering upon them—namely Agellius, Macrobius, Petrarch, Poliziano, Valla, Calcagnini, Giraldi, Campano, Foxius, Rhodius, Tomasini, Gaudenzio, and similar others. The second, however, should embrace those who were carried further through the variety of the sciences, namely Cicero, Plutarch, Pliny, Vives, Gesner, Bodin, Patrizi, Mazzoni, Allatius, Mersenne, Doni, and others of that kind. The third, finally, should be of those who wished that there be nothing in the disciplines not accessible to their own genius, nothing left untried, being alert and ready for all things, and not less sufficient for each individual thing—a praise that was once the own property of Democritus, Theophrastus, and Varro, and in our own time, of Erasmus, Budé, Pico, Fracastoro, the Scaligers, Casaubon, Grotius, Salmasius, Petavius, Patin, and above all others, Girolamo Cardano. And though no one doubts that each was most excellent in his own proper art, I certainly consider him to have been the first and the only one who was so excellently versed in all things at the same time, that nature seems to have wished to show in him an example of a greater breadth and immensity of learning than she could concede to any human being up to this point.

For if we inquire into the gifts of all the others, we shall see that many have added theology alone to their humane studies; some, mathematics as well; some, the knowledge of medicine and philosophy; others, the knowledge of Oriental languages or the two laws i.e., Canon and Civil law; and again, some—like Pico and Fracastoro—have explained the marvelous excellence of their genius in a few pages. But if one should look for a man who kept more sciences in his repertoire, who descended into them more deeply, who illuminated them with more extensive commentaries, we shall truly find no one other than Girolamo Cardano. It is next to a miracle that this man saw more in almost all sciences than individual men might require in their own, or hope could be found. Certainly, in the liberal arts, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, history, metaphysics, moral politics, and even other more remote disciplines, nothing escaped him that was worth the effort of understanding for the sake of their accumulated knowledge. And tell me, who will deny that his book On Proportions original: "de Proportionibus" is worthy to be compared with the most beautiful inventions of the ancients? Who does not marvel in arithmetic, that he overcame so many difficulties, to explain which Villafrancus, Luca de Burgo Luca Pacioli, Stifel, and Tartaglia could scarcely, and indeed barely, have been equal? Who, in his books On Subtlety and Variety original: "de Subtilitate & Varietate", does not see nature expressed with all its ornaments and delights? Who would not prefer his commentaries on Ptolemy and his Astronomical Aphorisms original: "Aphorismi Astronomici" to those of Gauricus, Giuntini, Stöffler, and similar others? Who, in his small encomium of Nero, does not perceive that the history of all times and places was known to him?

Who, from his books On Wisdom original: "de Sapientia" or the Proxeneta a treatise on diplomacy/political conduct, would judge that anything escaped him which Machiavelli, Paruta, Bodin, Settala, or even Aristotle, Plato, and Xenophon themselves could know or think of?

Now indeed, if I should touch upon his moral books, his medical ones, and all the rest that you cannot force into a certain order, good God, what treasures can be drawn forth, what secrets can be extracted and held from them for common utility! Moreover, he who begins to compare Cardano with Julius Caesar Scaliger, his rival of almost divine genius, will be able to understand this even better. For although the latter came upon the stage with greater ornamentation and splendor, and possessed a mind teeming with clearly heroic thoughts and capable of the highest things, yet he kept himself within the boundaries of humane letters, philosophy, and medicine, and left the liberty to Cardano to occupy the place in all other disciplines that he might more desire. Nor for that reason, if those noble exercises referring to Scaliger's critical writings are worn by hands daily, is any disgrace branded upon Cardano by them that could not be wiped away by fair judges with the slightest effort. For first, who could bear that Scaliger indulged in his Exercises three years after the second edition of the books on subtlety, and yet did not wish to see it, nor spare those things in his mind which had been removed by this last diligence of Cardano—lest, clearly, he should lose the fruit of his labor, however much it was spent in vain?

Furthermore, who does not know that Cardano, in his first action against the calumniator of his books on subtlety, blunted all his stings, dissolved his objections, and broke his accusations in such a way that no account should be taken of those which perhaps might remain from such a great number? For Cardano was a man, and he thought nothing human alien to himself; nor is it so amazing that he erred, but rather it is much more worthy of admiration that he stumbled so rarely and in so few and too minor things. Indeed, I would dare to contend, with a wager laid, that there are far more flaws which Scaliger left mixed into his Exercises than those against which he sweated for nine whole years to harass Cardano so insolently; and this, not so much out of a desire to bring forth truth, as to satisfy his unbridled desire to grapple with all those whom he knew to be considered the Princes of letters and learning in his time. Thus, in his commentaries on Aristotle’s On Animals, he feigns that he was requested by the boys of the Academy of Paris and their directors to undertake that contest against Theodore Gaza—a most innocent man and one who sagaciously fashioned many words to render Greek into Latin—when he could not attack him with another title; which boys, far from being the authors of that matter to him, trampled underfoot with mud—and something that smells even worse—the first oration he gave against Erasmus. Finally, he provoked Fernel not in open war, but with certain hidden jeers and by dissimulating his name, lest he leave anyone untouched, whom he might think to obstruct his own lights. A man, otherwise, worthy to be transmitted to posterity by our age—even if he had edited no books other than his seven on Poetics—adorned with the greatest and almost divine honors.