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Gerolamo Cardano
(24 Sep 1501 - 21 Sep 1576)
Italian doctor, astrologer, mathematician, and natural philosopher who helped create modern algebra and invented the universal joint.. |
“To
throw in a fair game at Hazards only three-spots, when something great
is at stake, or some business is the hazard, is a natural occurrence
and deserves to be so deemed; and even when they come up the same way
for a second time if the throw be repeated. If the third and fourth
plays are the same, surely there is occasion for suspicion on the part
of a prudent man. ”
— Gerolamo Cardano
from De Vita Propria Liber
“Scipio
Ferro of Bologna well-nigh thirty years ago discovered this rule and
handed it on to Antonio Maria Fior of Venice, whose contest with
Niccolo Tartaglia of Brescia gave Niccolo occasion to discover it. He
[Tartaglia] gave it to me in response to my entreaties, though
withholding the demonstration. Armed with this assistance, I sought out
its demonstration in [various] forms. This was very difficult.”
— Gerolamo Cardano
from Ars Magna (1545)
“Quinquies exscriptus, maneat tot millibus annis.” (I wrote it out five times, may it last the same number of millennia.)
— Gerolamo Cardano
final line of Ars magna
