[179] De Vita Propria, ch. xiii. p. 45.
[180] "Quid profuit hæc tua industria, quis infelicior in filiis? quorum alter male periit: alter nec regi potest nec regere?"—Opera, tom. i. p. 109.
[181] Opera, tom. i. p. 614.
[182] "In cæteris erit elegans, splendidus, humanus, gravis et qui ab omnibus, potentioribusque, præsertim probetur."—Geniturarum Exempla, p. 464.
[183] "A scorto nuntius venit."—De Utilitate, p. 833.
[184] This incident is taken from the De Utilitate, which was written soon after the events chronicled. The account given in the De Vita Propria, written twenty years later, differs in some details. "Venio domum, accurrit famulus admodum tristis, nunciat Johannem Baptistam duxisse uxorem Brandoniam Seronam."—De Vita Propria, ch. xli. p. 147.
[185] Cardan in describing this action of Gian Battista, who was then determined to murder his wife, says of him: "Erat enim natura clemens admodum et gratus."—De Utilitate, p. 834.
[186] "Triduana illa disceptatio Papiæ cum Camutio instituta, publicata apud Senatum: ipse primo argumento primæ diei siluit."—De Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 37. This does not exactly tally with Camutio's version. With regard to Cardan's assertion that his colleagues hesitated to meet him in medical discussion it may be noted that Camutio printed a book at Pavia in 1563, with the following title: "Andrææ Camutii disputationes quibus Hieronymi Cardani magni nominis viri conclusiones infirmantur, Galenus ab ejusdem injuria vindicatur, Hippocratis præterea aliquot loca diligentius multo quam unquam alias explicantur." In his version (De Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 37) Cardan inquires sarcastically: "Habentur ejusdem imagines quædam typis excusæ in Camutii monumentis."
[187] De Vita Propria, ch. xii. p. 39. The Third Book of the Theonoston (Opera, tom. ii. p. 403) is in the form of a disputation, "De animi immortalite," with this same Branda.
[188] In his defence at the trial Cardan affirmed that, while Brandonia was lying sick from eating the cake, her mother and the nurse quarrelled and fought, and finally fell down upon the sick woman. When the fight was over Brandonia was dead. In Opera, tom. ii. p. 311 (Theonoston, lib. i.) he writes: "Obiit illa non veneno, sed vi morbi atque Fato quo tam inclytus juvenis morte sua, omnia turbare debuerat."