Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), the great mathematician, physician, astrologer and scholar who founded probability theory, led a colorful and controversial life that included time spent in prison for the crime of...
A) Casting the horoscope of Jesus Christ ü B) Employing the square roots of negative numbers C) Murdering his daughter-in-law D) Practising medicine without a license
Cardano’s undoubted genius earned him many admirers, but his abrasive nature meant that he had few friends: his biography is a litany of intellectual achievements and personal hostilities. In 1570 he was jailed by the Inquisition for heresy after casting the horoscope of Christ and writing a book in praise of the notorious Roman emperor Nero. Ten years earlier, Cardano’s beloved eldest son Giambatista had been executed for the fatal poisoning of his grasping and unfaithful wife Brandonia. More tragedy followed in 1569, when the scholar’s second son, a ne’er-do-well named Aldo, was banished from their home city of Bologna for burglarizing his father’s house after gambling away the last of his own possessions.
