Cardan

Cardan, Jerome, philosopher and mathematician, was born in 1501 at Pavia. As professor of mathematics at Milan he began to acquire fame, subsequently devoting himself to medicine. His renown as a physician secured for him an invitation in 1552 to Scotland to attend Archbishop Hamilton, who had suffered from asthma for ten years, and whom Cardan succeeded in curing. In 1570, while professor of medicine at Bologna, he was imprisoned for debt, and being released in the following year evaded his creditors by removing to Rome. Here he became a member of the medical college, and had conferred on him a pension by the Pope. In 1576 he died, it being reported that he voluntarily starved himself in order that a prophecy (he made pretensions to the gift) he had made as to the date of his death might be fulfilled. His writings were numerous and on various subjects, physics, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, ethical science, logic, music, and natural history. He also wrote his autobiography.