and thus make his name familiar to
many who have never handled a single one of his volumes.

It is somewhat strange to find running through the complex web of Cardan's
character a well-defined thread of worldly wisdom and common-sense; to
find that a man, described by almost every one who has dealt with his
character as a credulous simpleton, one with disordered wits, or a
down-right madman, should, when occasion demanded, prove himself to be a
sharp man of business. When Fazio died he left his son with a number of
unsettled law-suits on hand, concerning which he writes: "From my father's
death until I was forty-six, that is to say for a space of twenty-three
years, I was almost continually involved in law-suits. First with
Alessandro Castillione, surnamed Gatico, with respect to certain
plantations, and afterwards with his kinsfolk. Next with the Counts of
Barbiani, next with the college, next with the heirs of Dominico de
Tortis, who had held me in his arms when I was baptized. Out of all these
suits I came victorious. It was indeed a matter for surprise that I should
have got the better of Alessandro Castillione, seeing that his uncle sat
as judge. Moreover, he had already got a decision against me, a decision
which, as the jurisconsults declared, helped my case as the trial went on,
and I was able to force him to pay me all the money which was in dispute.
A like good fortune attended me while my claims were considered by the
heads of the Milanese College, and finally rejected by several votes. Then
afterwards, when they had decided to admit me, and when they tried to
subject me to certain rules which placed me on a footing inferior to their
own, I compelled them to grant me full membership. In the case of the
Barbiani, after long litigation and many angry words and much trouble, I
came to terms with them; and, having received the sum of money covenanted
by agreement, I was entirely freed from vexation of the law."[269] Writing
generally of his monetary dealings, Cardan says: "Whenever I may have
incurred a loss, I have never been content merely to retrieve the same, I
have always contrived to seize upon something extra."[270] Or again: "If
at any time I have lost twenty crowns, I have never rested until I have
succeeded in getting back these and twenty more in addition."[271]

Cardan left in his _Dicta Familiaria_ and _Praeceptorum ad filios
Libellus_ a long list of aphorisms and counsels, many of which give
eviden