in the fact that he could only speak and write Italian, and
that in the Brescian dialect, being entirely ignorant of Latin, the only
tongue which the writer of a mathematical work could use with any hope of
success. Tartaglia's record of his conversation with Messer Juan Antonio,
the emissary employed by Cardan, and of all the subsequent details of the
controversy, is preserved in his principal work, _Quesiti et Inventioni
Diverse de Nicolo Tartalea Brisciano_,[96] a record which furnishes
abundant and striking instance of his jealous and suspicious temper. Much
of it is given in the form of dialogue, the terms of which are perhaps a
little too precise to carry conviction of its entire sincerity and
spontaneity. It was probably written just after the final cause of quarrel
in 1545, and its main object seems to be to set the author right in the
sight of the world, and to exhibit Cardan as a meddlesome fellow not to be
trusted, and one ignorant of the very elements of the art he professed to
teach.[97]

The inquiry begins with a courteously worded request from Messer Juan
Antonio (speaking on behalf of Messer Hieronimo Cardano), that Messer
Niccolo would make known to his principal the rule by means of which he
had made such short work of Antonio Fiore's thirty questions. It had been
told to Messer Hieronimo that Fiore's thirty questions had led up to a
case of the _cosa_ and the _cubus_ equal to the _numerus_, and that
Messer Niccolo had discovered a general rule for such case. Messer
Hieronimo now especially desired to be taught this rule. If the inventor
should be willing to let this rule be published, it should be published as
his own discovery; but, if he were not disposed to let the same be made
known to the world, it should be kept a profound secret. To this request
Tartaglia replied that, if at any time he might publish his rule, he would
give it to the world in a work of his own under his own name, whereupon
Juan Antonio moderated his demand, and begged to be furnished merely with
a copy of the thirty questions preferred by Fiore, and Tartaglia's
solutions of the same; but Messer Niccolo was too wary a bird to be taken
with such a lure as this. To grant so much, he replied, would be to tell
everything, inasmuch as Cardan could easily find out the rule, if he
should be furnished with a single question and its solution. Next Juan
Antonio handed to Tartaglia eight algebraical questions which had been
confided to him