33 Facts About Gerolamo Cardano

Gerolamo Cardano became one of the most influential mathematicians of the Renaissance and one of the key figures in the foundation of probability; he introduced the binomial coefficients and the binomial theorem in the Western world.

Gerolamo Cardano made significant contributions to hypocycloids - published in De proportionibus, in 1570.

Today, Gerolamo Cardano is well known for his achievements in algebra.

Gerolamo Cardano resumed his studies at the University of Padua, where he graduated with a doctorate in medicine in 1525.

In 1525, Gerolamo Cardano repeatedly applied to the College of Physicians in Milan, but was not admitted owing to his combative reputation and illegitimate birth.

Gerolamo Cardano wanted to practice medicine in a large, rich city like Milan, but he was denied a license to practice, so he settled for the town of Piove di Sacco, where he practised without a license.

Gerolamo Cardano later wrote that those were the happiest days of his life.

Gerolamo Cardano later wrote that he turned down offers from the kings of Denmark and France, and the Queen of Scotland.

Gerolamo Cardano was the first European mathematician to make systematic use of negative numbers.

Gerolamo Cardano published with attribution the solution of Scipione del Ferro to the cubic equation and the solution of Cardano's student Lodovico Ferrari to the quartic equation in his 1545 book Ars Magna, an influential work on algebra.

Gerolamo Cardano was chronically short of money and kept himself solvent by being an accomplished gambler and chess player.

Gerolamo Cardano used the game of throwing dice to understand the basic concepts of probability.

Gerolamo Cardano demonstrated the efficacy of defining odds as the ratio of favourable to unfavourable outcomes.

Gerolamo Cardano was aware of the multiplication rule for independent events but was not certain about what values should be multiplied.

Gerolamo Cardano was a music theorist who studied music privately in Milan in his youth.

Gerolamo Cardano wrote two treatises on music, both of which were titled De Musica.

Gerolamo Cardano dabbled in composing, writing the motet Beati estis which is scored for 12 voices and contains four overlapping canons.

Gerolamo Cardano is credited with the invention of the Cardan suspension or gimbal.

Gerolamo Cardano made several contributions to hydrodynamics and held that perpetual motion is impossible, except in celestial bodies.

Gerolamo Cardano published two encyclopedias of natural science which contain a wide variety of inventions, facts, and occult superstitions.

Gerolamo Cardano introduced the Cardan grille, a cryptographic writing tool, in 1550.

Gerolamo Cardano was familiar with a report by Rudolph Agricola about a deaf-mute who had learned to write.

The title of a work of Gerolamo Cardano's, published in 1552, De Subtilitate, would lead us to expect, in the chapter on minerals, many far fetched theories characteristic of that age; but when treating of petrified shells, he decided that they clearly indicated the former sojourn of the sea upon the mountains.

In 1552 Gerolamo Cardano travelled to Scotland with the Spanish physician William Casanatus, via London, to treat the Archbishop of St Andrews who suffered of a disease that had left him speechless and was thought incurable.

The treatment was a success and the diplomat Thomas Randolph recorded that "merry tales" about Gerolamo Cardano's methods were still current in Edinburgh in 1562.

Gerolamo Cardano wrote that the Archbishop had been short of breath for ten years, and after the cure was effected by his assistant, he was paid 1,400 gold crowns.

Gerolamo Cardano obtained a position as professor of medicine at the University of Bologna.

Gerolamo Cardano was arrested by the Inquisition in 1570 after an accusation of heresy by the Inquisitor of Como, who targeted Gerolamo Cardano's De rerum varietate.

Gerolamo Cardano was imprisoned for several months and lost his professorship in Bologna.

Gerolamo Cardano abjured and was freed, probably with help from powerful churchmen in Rome.

Gerolamo Cardano moved to Rome, where he received a lifetime annuity from Pope Gregory XIII and finished his autobiography.

Gerolamo Cardano was accepted into the Royal College of Physicians, and as well as practising medicine he continued his philosophical studies until his death in 1576.

Forster believes Gerolamo Cardano was so absorbed in "self-analysis that he often forgot to repent of his bad temper, his stupidity, his licentiousness, and love of revenge".