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

...the more ancient Albertus Magnus, Bishop of Regensburg, had spoken of it in his Speculum Astronomicum in this manner: "We now know that our Lord Jesus Christ was born under the ascendant of that same part of the sky (namely, Virgo), not because the most desired of all those born, who had created the stars themselves, was subject to their motion or their judgment, but because when he stretched out the sky like a skin, forming the book of the universe, he did not want to be absent from its letters, from those things which are written in the book of eternity according to his providence. Not that the figure of the sky was the cause of his birth, but its signification; or rather, and more truly, he himself was the cause why the manner of his admirable birth would be signified through the sky."

What more? Even before Albert, Albumasar Abu Ma'shar, or if you prefer Alboasar, however much he was a Mohammedan, nonetheless says many things about Christ that are not worn out among other Arabs; and among other things, he contends that he was born under the first face of Virgo. Although Roger Bacon left it in doubt, after bringing forth the words of Albumasar from the Latin translation of Hermann of Carinthia, whether the horoscope of Christ the Lord or that of the Blessed Virgin his mother had been revealed in writing by this Arab. For the words of Bacon are from the third work that he gave to Clement V: "The intention is that the Blessed Virgin has the figure and image within the first ten degrees of Virgo, and that she was born when the sun is in Virgo, and so it is marked in the calendar, and that she will nourish her son Christ Jesus in the land of the Hebrews."

The Christian author of the book De Vetula, which some erroneously ascribe to Ovid, seems also to have been of this opinion. In the forty-sixth and final number, he addresses the Virgin thus:

O happy Virgin, O Virgin signified
By the stars where the ear of wheat shines, who would grant me to live
So much that I might be the herald of your praises.

But whatever must be determined about this difficulty, it is certain that the nativity of our Savior was written out by four other very serious authors before it entered Cardano's mind to write about it as well. Hence, I cannot wonder enough that those men were never seen or heard of by those two coryphaei of the learned, Thuanus and Scaliger, who at least from Bacon, Pico della Mirandola, or the commentaries of Robert Holkot on the Wisdom of Solomon, could have learned that this error had been made by some before this Cardano, so that they subjected Christ to false and fictitious images of the stars. It is therefore not fair that Cardano should be beaten so bitterly by them as if he were the first creator of that crime; especially since, if anything, he should only be blamed for having done this, even if he followed the example of great men who were almost beyond all exception.

Otherwise, it is clear from this how crafty Cardano was. For since he had it explored more than certainly that the horoscopes of Christ had been written out by d'Ailly and Tiberius Russilianus, and what Pico, Albumasar, and Bacon had said about them could not escape him, he still did not want to mention them, so that he could persuade the common run of literary men that this was his own invention. After that succeeded according to his wish, no differently than had happened with the fire, which he was the first to assert—after Laurentius Valla, but suppressing his name—did not exist beneath the concave of the moon, he did not want to make even the slightest mention of those authors afterward, however much he was pressed by rivals and came into danger of his life. He preferred to have so many rumors disseminated about his impiety than to lose the glory gained from the opinion of such a bold deed. And these are the things by which I have persuaded myself that the arrows of calumnies, which had been disseminated against Cardano’s books and his unbridled audacity both by his rival Scaliger and by others, can be blunted.

It remains now that I investigate, from an attentive inspection of each individual work, what kind of person Cardano was in his books, and in what style, by what method, with how much ease, and with what variety of learning he wrote them. He used a free, even, and open style, not polished or elaborated, such as is seen in Fernel and Scaliger; but also not neglected or corrupted, as it was in the works of those of Forlì, the Conciliator Peter of Abano, Niphus, Pomponatius, and that kind of philosopher and physician, who are commonly called barbarians for their impure speech. Furthermore, when he likes, he rises, he plays, he wanders, and pursues delights and most pleasant charms. As a specimen of which, I will only bring forth that which he said in book 2 of De Venenis On Poisons, chapter vii, about that matter which he who has never practiced it shamefully will not consider shameful to name here: "Coitus is a great thing, because it is for the preservation of the species; and therefore its appetite is adorned by nature in many ways. And where there is no end to the goal, there is no way to find the limit of pleasure. There is pleasure in the act itself, there is pleasure in the enticements while it is performed, there is pleasure while it is being completed, there is pleasure in meditation, and in memory. Both pain and pleasure delight the one who experiences them; whether it brings shame, or offers itself willingly, they are almost equal. The very form, the gain, the mode, the arousal, the effusion of seed, all are equally pleasant. It is a pleasure to see one approaching willingly, it is a pleasure to see one declining the encounter, it is a pleasure to look through a chink; everywhere there is something you prefer. Whether naked, adorned, or half-dressed, all things ignite the spurs of lust. If she is in the house, you rejoice in the convenience, you rejoice in the games; if outside, you rejoice in the theft. If she is of humble condition, because everything is permitted to you; if she is noble, because you are loved by her. If the matter is public, because everyone is a participant in your happiness; if hidden, because you have more than they imagine."

It is no wonder, therefore, if because of this very thing, seas and lands are troubled, and so many charms, filters, poisons, and so many affects and passions of the body and soul are established within it. Give me now a more charming flower of speech from the Exercitationes of Scaliger, or from the orators and masters of elegance, and I will hand over the victory in turn to the one who brings it forth, and I will concede that Cardano was not the most eloquent every time and wherever he wished. Cardano was so far from lacking eloquence that in all his prefaces, in the encomiums of various things, and in similar booklets that required the adornment of speech, he performed it most abundantly. In other works, when he was forced to use barbaric and impure terms, he always did so having first asked for indulgence. Hence, in his Arithmetica, he says: "Do not wonder, candid Reader, that this work is not at all..."