THE University of Pavia to which Jerome now betook himself was by
tradition one of the learned foundations of Charlemagne.[28] It had
certainly enjoyed a high reputation all through the Middle Ages, and had
recently had the honour of numbering Laurentius Valla amongst its
professors. In 1362, Galeazzo Visconti had obtained a charter for it from
the Emperor Charles IV., and that it had become a place of consequence in
1400 is proved by the fact that, besides maintaining several professors in
the Canon Law, it supported thirteen in Civil Law, five in Medicine, three
in Philosophy, and one each in Astrology, Greek, and Eloquence. Like all
the other Universities of Northern Italy, it suffered occasional eclipse
or even extinction on account of the constant war and desolation which
vexed these parts almost without intermission during the years following
the formation of the League of Cambrai. Indeed, as recently as 1500, the
famous library collected by Petrarch, and presented by Gian Galeazzo
Visconti to the University, was carried off by the French.[29]
To judge from the pictures which the Pavian student, writing in after
years, gives of his physical self, it may be inferred that he was
ill-endowed by the Graces. "I am of middle height. My chest is somewhat
narrow and my arms exceedingly thin: my right hand is the more grossly
fashioned of the two, so that a chiromantist might have set me down as
rude or doltish: indeed, should such an one examine my hand, he would be
ashamed to say what he thought. In it the line of life is short, and that
named after Saturn long and well marked. My left hand, however, is seemly,
with fingers long, tapering, and well-set, and shining nails. My neck is
longer and thinner than the rule, my chin is divided, my lower lip thick
and pendulous, my eyes are very small, and it is my wont to keep them
half-closed, peradventure lest I should discern things over clearly. My
forehead is wide and bare of hair where it meets the temples. My hair and
beard are both of them yellow in tint, and both as a rule kept close cut.
My chin, which as I have said already is marked by a division, is covered
in its lower part with a thick growth of long hair. My habit is to speak
in a highly-pitched voice, so that my friends sometimes rebuke me
thereanent; but, harsh and loud as is my voice, it cannot be heard at any
great distance while I am lecturing. I am wont to talk too much, and in
none too urbane a tone. The look of my eyes is fixed, like that of one in
deep thought. My front teeth are large, and my complexion red and white:
the form of my countenance being somewhat elongated, and my head is
finished off in narrow wise at the back, like to a small sphere. Indeed,
it was no rare thing for the painters, who came from distant countries to
paint my portrait, to affirm that they could find no special
characteristic which they could use for the rendering of my likeness, so
that I might be known by the same."[30]
After giving this account of his person, Cardan writes down a catalogue of
the various diseases which vexed him from time to time, a chapter of
autobiography which looks like a transcript from a dictionary of Nosology.
More interesting is the sketch which he makes of his mental state during
these early years. Boys brought up in company of their elders often show a
tendency to introspection, and fall into a dreamy whimsical mood, and his
case is a striking example. "By the command of my father I used to lie
abed until nine o'clock,[31] and, if perchance I lay awake any time before
the wonted hour of rising, it was my habit to spend the same by conjuring
up to sight all sorts of pleasant visions, nor can I remember that I ever
summoned these in vain. I used to behold figures of divers kinds like airy
bodies. Meseemed they were made up of tiny rings, like those in coats of
chain-armour, though at this time I had seen nought of the kind. They
would rise at the bottom of the bed, from the right-hand corner; and,
moving in a semi-circle, would pass slowly on and disappear in the left.
Moreover I beheld the shapes of castles and houses, of horses and riders,
of plants, trees, musical instruments, theatres, dresses of men of all
sorts, and flute-players who seemed to be playing upon their instruments,
but neither voice nor sound was heard therefrom. And besides these things
I beheld soldiers, and crowds of men, and fields, and certain bodily
forms, which seem hateful to me even now: groves and forests, and divers
other things which I now forget. In all this I took no small delight, and
with straining eyes I would gaze upon these marvels; wherefore my Aunt
Margaret asked me more than once whether I saw anything. I, though I was
then only a child, deliberated over this question of hers before I
replied, saying to myself: 'If I tell her the facts she will be wroth at
the thing--whatever it may be--which is the cause of these phantasms, and
will deprive me of this delight.' And then I seemed to see flowers of all
kinds, and four-footed beasts, and birds; but all these, though they were
fashioned most beautifully, were lacking in colour, for they were things
of air. Therefore I, who neither as a boy nor as an old man ever learned
to lie, stood silent for some time. Then my aunt said--'Boy, what makes
you stare thus and stand silent?' I know not what answer I made, but I
think I said nothing at all. In my dreams I frequently saw what seemed to
be a cock, which I feared might speak to me in a human voice. This in
sooth came to pass later on, and the words it spake were threatening ones,
but I cannot now recall what I may have heard on these occasions."[32]
With a brain capable of such remarkable exercises as the above-written
vision, living his life in an atmosphere of books, and with all games and
relaxations dear to boys of his age denied to him, it was no marvel that
Jerome should make an early literary essay on his own account. The death
of a young kinsman, Niccolo Cardano,[33] suggested to him a theme which he
elaborated in a tract called _De immortalitate paranda_, a work which
perished unlamented by its author, and a little later he wrote a treatise
on the calculation of the distances between the various heavenly
bodies.[34] But he put his mathematical skill to other and more sinister
uses than this; for, having gained practical experience at the
gaming-tables, he combined this experience with his knowledge of the
properties of numbers, and wrote a tract on games of chance. Afterwards he
amplified this into his book, _Liber de Ludo Aleæ_.
With this equipment and discipline Jerome went to Pavia in 1520. He found
lodging in the house of Giovanni Ambrogio Targio, and until the end of his
twenty-first year he spent all his time between Pavia and Milan. By this
date he had made sufficiently good use of his time to let the world see of
what metal he was formed, for in the year following he had advanced far
enough in learning to dispute in public, to teach Euclid in the Gymnasium,
and to take occasional classes in Dialectics and Elementary Philosophy. At
the end of his twenty-second year the country was convulsed by the wars
between the Spaniards and the French under Lautrec, which ended in the
expulsion of the last-named and the establishment of the Imperial power in
Milan. Another result of the war, more germane to this history, was the
closing of the University of Pavia through lack of funds. In consequence
of this calamity Jerome remained some time in Milan, and during these
months he worked hard at mathematics; but he was not destined to return to
Pavia as a student. The schools there remained some long time in
confusion, so in 1524 he went with his father's consent to Padua. In the
autumn of that same year he was summoned back to Milan to find Fazio in
the grip of his dying illness. "Whereupon he, careful of my weal rather
than his own, bade me return to Padua at once, being well pleased to hear
that I had taken at the Venetian College the Baccalaureat of Arts.[35]
After my return to Padua, letters were brought to me which told me that he
had died on the ninth day after he had refused nourishment. He died on the
twenty-eighth of August, having last eaten on Sunday the twentieth of the
month. Towards the close of my twenty-fourth year I was chosen Rector of
the Academy at Padua,[36] and at the end of the next was made Doctor of
Medicine. For the first-named office I came out the victor by one vote,
the suffrages having to be cast a second time; and for the Doctorate of
Medicine my name had already twice come forth from the ballot with
forty-seven votes cast against me (a circumstance which forbade another
voting after the third), when, at the third trial, I came out the winner,
with only nine votes against me (previously only this same number had been
cast for me), and with forty-eight in my favour.
"Though I know well enough that affairs like these must needs be of small
account, I have set them down in the order in which they came to pass for
no other reason than that I give pleasure to myself who write these words
by so doing: and I do not write for the gratification of others. At the
same time those people who read what I write--if indeed any one should
ever be so minded--may learn hereby that the beginnings and the outcomes
of great events may well be found difficult to trace, because in sooth it
is the way of such things to come to the notice of anybody rather than of
those who would rightly observe them."[37]
Padua cannot claim for its University an antiquity as high as that which
may be conceded to Pavia, but in spite of its more recent origin, there is
no little obscurity surrounding its rise. The one fact which may be put
down as certain is that it sprang originally from the University of
Bologna. Early in the thirteenth century violent discords arose between
the citizens of Bologna and the students, and there is a tradition that
the general school of teaching was transferred to Padua in 1222. What
happened was probably a large migration of students, part of whom remained
behind when peace between town and gown in Bologna was restored. The
orthodox origin of the University is a charter granted by Frederic II. in
1238. Frederic at this time was certainly trying to injure Bologna,
actuated by a desire to help on his own University at Naples, and to crush
Bologna as a member of the Lombard League.[38] Padua, however, was also a
member of this league, so his benevolent action towards it is difficult to
understand. In 1228 the students had quarrelled with the Paduan citizens,
and there was a movement to migrate to Vercelli; but, whether this really
took place or not, the Paduan school did not suffer: its ruin and
extinction was deferred till the despotism of the Ezzelini. In 1260 it
was again revived by a second migration from Bologna, and this movement
was increased on account of the interdict laid by the Pope upon Bologna in
1306 after the expulsion of the Papal Legate by the citizens.
In the early days Medicine and Arts were entirely subordinate to the
schools of canon and civil law; but by the end of the fourteenth century
these first-named Faculties had obtained a certain degree of independence,
and were allowed an equal share in appointing the Rector.[39] The first
College was founded in 1363, and after 1500 the number rapidly increased.
The dominion of the Dukes of Carrara after 1322 was favourable to the
growth of the University, which, however, did not attain its highest point
till it came under Venetian rule in 1404. The Venetian government raised
the stipends of the professors, and allowed four Paduan citizens to act as
_Tutores Studii_; the election of the professors being vested in the
students, which custom obtained until the end of the sixteenth
century.[40] The Rector was allowed to wear a robe of purple and gold;
and, when he retired, the degree of Doctor was granted to him, together
with the right to wear the golden collar of the order of Saint Mark.
Padua like Athens humanized its conquerors. It became the University town
of Venice, as Pavia was of Milan, and it was for a long time protected
from the assaults of the Catholic reaction by its rulers, who possibly
were instigated rather by political jealousy of the Papacy as a temporal
power, than by any enthusiasm for the humanist and scientific studies of
which Padua was the most illustrious home south of the Alps; studies which
the powers of the Church began already to recognize as their most
dangerous foes.
Such was the University of Padua at the height of its glory, and it will
be apparent at once that Padua must have fallen considerably in its
fortunes when it installed as its Rector an obscure student, only
twenty-four years of age, and of illegitimate birth, and conferred upon
him the right to go clad in purple and gold, and to claim, as his
retiring gift, the degree of Doctor and the cross of Saint Mark. In 1508
the League of Cambrai had been formed, and Venice, not yet recovered
from the effects of its disastrous wars with Bajazet II., was forced to
meet the combined assault of the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of
France. Padua was besieged by the Imperial forces, a motley horde of
Germans, Swiss, and Spaniards, and the surrounding country was pillaged
and devastated by these savages with a cruelty which recalled the days
of Attila. It is not wonderful that the University closed its doors in
such a time. When the confederates began to fight amongst themselves the
class-rooms were reopened, intermittently at first, but after 1515 the
teaching seems to have been continuous. Still the prevalent turmoil and
poverty rendered it necessary to curtail all the mere honorary and
ornamental adjuncts of the schools, and for several years no Rector was
appointed, for the good and sufficient reason that no man of due
position and wealth and character could be found to undertake the
rectorial duties, with the Academy just emerging from complete
disorganization. These duties were many and important, albeit the Rector
could, if he willed, appoint a deputy, and the calls upon the purse of
the holder must have been very heavy. It would be hard to imagine any
one less fitted to fill such a post than Cardan, and assuredly no office
could befit him less than this pseudo-rectorship.[41] It must ever
remain a mystery why he was preferred, why he was elected, and why he
consented to serve: though, as to the last-named matter, he hints in a
passage lately cited from _De Utilitate_, that it was through the
persuasions of his mother that he took upon himself this disastrous
honour. Many pasages in his writings suggest that Chiara was an
indulgent parent. She let Fazio have no peace till he consented to allow
the boy to go to college; she paid secretly for music-lessons, so that
Jerome was enabled to enjoy the relaxation he loved better than anything
else in the world--except gambling; she paid all his charges during his
student life at Padua; and now, quite naturally, she would have shed her
heart's blood rather than let this son of hers--ugly duckling as he
was--miss what she deemed to be the crowning honour of the rectorship;
but after all the sacrifices Chiara made, after all the misfortunes
which attended Jerome's ill-directed ambition, there is a doubt as to
whether he ever was Rector in the full sense of the term. Many times and
in divers works he affirms that once upon a time he was Rector, and over
and beyond this he sets down in black and white the fact, more than
once, that he never told a lie; so it is only polite to accept this
legend for what it is worth. But it must likewise be noted that in the
extant records of the University there is no mention of his name in the
lists of Rectors.[42]
Jerome has left very few details as to his life at Padua. Of those which
he notices the following are the most interesting: "In 1525, the year in
which I became Rector, I narrowly escaped drowning in the Lago di Garda. I
went on board the boat, unwillingly enough, which carried likewise some
hired horses; and, as we sailed on, the mast and the rudder, and one of
the two oars we had with us, were broken by the wind. The sails, even
those on the smaller mast, were split, and the night came on. We landed at
last safe and sound at Sirmio, but not before all my companions had given
up hope, and I myself was beginning to despair. Indeed, had we been a
minute later we must have perished, for the tempest was so violent that
the iron hinges of the inn windows were bent thereby. I, though I had been
sore afraid ever since the wind began to blow, fell to supper with a good
heart when the host set upon the board a mighty pike, but none of the
others had any stomach for food, except the one passenger who had advised
us to make trial of this perilous adventure, and who had proved to be an
able and courageous helper in our hour of distress.
"Again, once when I was in Venice on the birthday of the Virgin, I lost
some money at dicing, and on the day following all that was left me went
the same way. This happened in the house of the man with whom I was
gambling, and in the course of play I noticed that the cards were marked,
whereupon I struck him in the face with my dagger, wounding him slightly.
Two of his servants were present at the time; some spears hung all ready
from the beams of the roof, and besides this the house door was fastened.
But when I had taken from him all the money he had about him--his own as
well as that which he had won from me by cheating, and my cloak and the
rings which I had lost to him the day before--I was satisfied that I had
got back all my possessions. The chattels I sent home by my servant at
once, but a portion of the money I tossed back to the fellow when I saw
that I had drawn blood of him. Then I attacked the servants who were
standing by; and, as they knew not how to use their weapons and besought
my mercy, I granted this on the condition that they should unlock the
door. Their master, taking account of the uproar and confusion, and
mistrusting his safety in case the affair should not be settled forthwith
(I suspect he was alarmed about the marked cards), commanded the servants
to open the door, whereupon I went my way.
"That very same evening, while I was doing my best to escape the notice of
the officers of justice on account of the wound I had given to this
Senator, I lost my footing and fell into a canal, having arms under my
cloak the while. In my fall I did not lose my nerve, but flinging out my
right arm, I grasped the thwart of a passing boat and was rescued by those
on board. When I had been hauled into the boat I discovered--wonderful to
relate--that the man with whom I had lately played cards was likewise on
board, with his face bandaged by reason of the wounds I had given him.
Now of his own accord he brought out a suit of clothes, fitted for
seafaring, and, having clad myself in them, I journeyed with him as far as
Padua."[43]
Cardan's life from rise to set cannot be estimated otherwise than an
unhappy one, and its least fortunate years were probably those lying
between his twenty-first and his thirty-first year of age. During this
period he was guilty of that crowning folly, the acceptance of the
Rectorship of the Gymnasium at Padua, he felt the sharpest stings of
poverty, and his life was overshadowed by dire physical misfortune. He
gives a rapid sketch of the year following his father's death. "Then, my
father having breathed his last and my term of office come to an end, I
went, at the beginning of my twenty-sixth year, to reside at Sacco, a town
distant ten miles from Padua and twenty-five from Venice. I fixed on this
place by the advice of Francesco Buonafidei, a physician of Padua, who,
albeit I brought no profit to him--not even being one of those who
attended his public teaching--helped me and took a liking for me, being
moved to this benevolence by his exceeding goodness of heart. In this
place I lived while our State was being vexed by every sort of calamity.
In 1524 by a raging pestilence and by a two-fold change of ruler. In 1526
and 1527 by a destructive scarcity of the fruits of the earth. It was hard
to get corn in exchange for money of any kind, and over and beyond this
was the intolerable weight of taxation. In 1528 the land was visited by
divers diseases and by the plague as well, but these afflictions seemed
the easier to bear because all other parts were likewise suffering from
the same. In 1529 I ventured to return to Milan--these ill-starred
troubles being in some degree abated--but I was refused membership by the
College of Physicians there, I was unable to settle my lawsuit with the
Barbiani, and I found my mother in a very ill humour, so I went back to my
village home, having suffered greatly in health during my absence. For
what with cruel vexations, and struggles, and cares which I saw impending,
and a troublesome cough and pleurisy aggravated by a copious discharge of
humour, I was brought into a condition such as few men exchange for aught
else besides a coffin."[44]
The closing words of his eulogy on his father tell how the son, on the
father's death, found that one small house was all he could call his own.
The explanation of this seems to be that the old man, being of a careless
disposition and litigious to boot, had left his affairs in piteous
disorder. In consequence of this neglect Jerome was involved in lawsuits
for many years, and the one afore-mentioned with the Barbiani was one of
them. This case was subsequently settled in Jerome's favour.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Pavia, like certain modern universities, did not spend all its time
over study. "Aggressus sum Mediolani vacationibus quadragenariæ, seu
Bacchanalium potius, anni MDLXI. Ita enim non obscurum est, nostra ætate
celebrari ante quadragenariam vacationes, in quibus ludunt, convivantur,
personati ac larvati incedunt, denique nullum luxus ac lascivæ genus
omittunt: Sybaritæ et Lydi Persæque vincuntur." _Opera_, tom. i. p. 118.
[29] These books were taken to Blois. They were subsequently removed by
Francis I. to Fontainebleau, and with the other collections formed the
nucleus of the Bibliothèque Nationale.
[30] _De Vita Propria_, ch. v. p. 18.
[31] The time covered by this experience was from his fourth to his
seventh year.
[32] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxxvii. p. 114; _De Rerum Subtilitate_ (Basil,
1554), p. 524.
[33] _Opera_, tom. i. p. 61.
[34] "Erat liber exiguus, rem tamen probe absolvebat: nam tunc forte in
manus meas inciderat, Gebri Hispani liber, cujus auxilio non parum adjutus
sum."--_Opera_, tom. i. p. 56.
[35] "Initio multi quidem paupertate aliave causa quum se nolunt subjicere
rigoroso examini Cl. Collegii in artibus Medicinae vel in Jure,
Baccalaureatus, vel Doctoratus gradum a Comitibus Palatinis aut
Lateranensibus sumebant. Postea vero, sublata hac consuetudine, Gymnasii
Rector, sive substitutus, convocatis duobus professoribus, bina puncta
dabantur, iisque recitatis et diligentis [_sic_] excussis, illis gradus
Baccalaureatus conferebatur."--_Gymnasium Patavinum_ (1654), p. 200.
[36] He constantly bewails this step as the chief folly of his life:
"Stulte vero id egi, quod Rector Gymnasii Patavini effectus sum, tum, cum,
inops essem, et in patria maxime bella vigerent, et tributa intolerabilia.
Matris tamen solicitudine effectum est, ut pondus impensarum, quamvis
aegre, sustinuerim."--_De Utilitate_, p. 350.
[37] _De Vita Propria_, ch. iv. p. 11.
[38] Muratori, _Chron. di Bologna_, xviii. 254.
[39] The stipends paid to teachers of jurisprudence were much more liberal
than those paid to humanists. In the Diary of Sanudo it is recorded that a
jurist professor at Padua received a thousand ducats per annum. Lauro
Quirino, a professor of rhetoric, meantime received only forty ducats, and
Laurentius Valla at Pavia received fifty sequins.--Muratori, xxii. 990.
[40] Tomasinus, _Gymnasium Patavinam_ (1654), p. 136.
[41] Tomasinus writes that the Rector should be "Virum illustrem,
providum, eloquentem ac divitem, quique eo pollet rerum usu ut Gymnasi
decora ipsius gubernatione et splendore augeantur."--_Gymnasium
Patavinum_, p. 54. He likewise gives a portrait of the Rector in his robes
of office, and devotes several chapters to an account of his duties.
[42] "Ab anno 1509 usque ad annum 1515 ob bellum Cameracense Gymn.
interrmissum fuit."--_Elenchus nominum Patavii_ (1706), p. 28. The first
names given after this interregnum are Dom. Jo. Maria de Zaffaris, Rector
in Arts, and Dom. Marinus de Ongaris, Rector in Jurisprudence in 1527.
Papadapoli (_Historia Gymn. Patav._) gives the name of Ascanius Serra as
pro-Rector in 1526: no Rector being mentioned at all.
[43] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxx. p. 79.
[44] _De Vita Propria_, ch. iv. p. 13.