worse. He does not deny that other men
may not now and then encounter like experiences, but the experiences of
other men were not fraught with such momentous crises, nor did they
foreshadow so many or grave dangers.

The chronicling of this episode and the fanciful coincidence of the deaths
of Dominicus and Troilus may be taken as evidence that his idiosyncrasies
were becoming aggravated by the decay of his faculties. Writing on October
1, 1576, he makes mention of the various testaments he had already made,
and goes on to say that he had resolved to make a new and final
disposition of his goods. He would fain have let his property descend to
his immediate offspring, but with a son like Aldo this was impossible, so
he left all to Gian Battista's son, who would now be a youth about
eighteen years of age, Aldo getting nothing. He desired, for reasons best
known to himself, that all his descendants should remain _in curatela_ as
long as possible, and that all his property should be held on trust; if
the issue of his body should fail, then the succession should pass in
perpetuity to his kinsfolk on the father's side. He desired that his works
should be corrected and printed, and that, if heirs failed entirely, his
house at Bologna should pass to the University, and be styled, after his
family, _Collegium Cardanorum_.

There is no authentic record of the exact date of Cardan's death. De Thou,
in writing the record of 1576, says that if Cardan's life had been
prolonged by three days he would have completed his seventy-fifth year. As
Cardan's birthday was September 24, 1501, this would fix his death on
September 21, 1576. The exact figures given by De Thou are: "eodem, quo
praedixerat, anno et die, videlicet XI. Kalend. VIII.," and he adds by way
of information that a belief was current at the time that Cardan, who had
foretold how he would die on this day and in this year, had abstained from
food for some days previous to his death in order to make the fatal day
square with the prophecy.

But the details which Cardan himself has set down concerning the last few
weeks of his life are inconsistent with the facts chronicled by De Thou.
In the _De Vita Propria_, chapter xxxvi., Cardan records how on October 1,
1576, he set to work to make his last will and testament, wherefore if
credit is to be given to his version rather than to that of De Thou, he
was alive and active some days after the date of his death as fixed by the
ch