[137] The quotation from the _De Sapientia_ differs somewhat from the
original passage which stands on p. 578 of the same volume.

[138] _Opera_, tom. i. p. 89.

[139] In a subsequent interview with Cardan, Cassanate modifies this
statement.--_Opera_, tom. ix. p. 124.

[140] "Accepique antequam discederem aureos coronatos Gallicos 500 et
M.C.C. in reditu."--_De Vita Propria_, ch. iv. p. 16.

[141] "Difficillimis causis victus venire non potui." The Archbishop's
letter is given in _Opera_, tom. i. p. 137.

[142] _Geniturarum Exempla_, p. 469.

[143] He mentions this personage in _De Varietate_, p. 672: "Johannes
Manienus medicus, vir egregius et mathematicaram studiosus." He was
physician to the monks of Saint Denis.

[144] The reception given to Cardan in Paris was a very friendly one.
Orontius was a mechanician and mathematician; and jealousy of Cardan's
great repute may have kept him away from the dinner, but the physicians
were most hospitable. Pharnelius [Fernel] was Professor of Medicine at the
University, and physician to the Court. Sylvius was an old man of a
jocular nature, but as an anatomist bitterly opposed to the novel methods
of Vesalius, who was one of Cardan's heroes. With this possibility of
quarrelling over the merits of Vesalius, it speaks well for the temper of
the doctors that they parted on good terms. Ranconet, another Parisian who
welcomed Cardan heartily, was one of the Presidents of the Parliament of
Paris. He seems to have been a man of worth and distinguished attainments,
and Cardan gives an interesting account of him in _Geniturarum Exempla_,
p. 423.

[145] _De Vita Propria_, ch. xxix. p. 75. Cardan refers more than once to
the generosity of the Archbishop. He computes (_Opera_, tom. i. p. 93)
that his visit must have cost Hamilton four talents of gold; that is to
say, two thousand golden crowns.

CHAPTER VII

CARDAN, as he has himself related, arrived at Edinburgh on June 29, 1552.
The coming of such a man at such a time must have been an event of
extraordinary interest. In England the Italy of the Renaissance had been
in a measure realized by men of learning and intellect through the reports
of the numerous scholars--John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, Henry Parker,
Lord Morley, Howard Earl of Surrey, and Sir Thomas Wyat, may be taken as
examples--who had wandered thither and come back with a stock of histories
setting forth the beauty and charm, and also the terror and wi