Girolamo Cardano (1501-76) is one of the most original thinkers of his day; a polymath who applied his mind to philosophy, medicine, mathematics, mechanics and astrology, and whose intellectual career led him to study and teach Pavia, Padua, Milan, and Bologna. He is also one of the earliest and most original autobiographers; his De propria vita was written at the very end of his life, and eventually published posthumously by the French scholar Gabriel Naudé in 1643. Before that, he had issued a number of accounts of his own writings; these helped to secure his reputation in to the republic of letters throughout Europe during his own lifetime. The various versions of Cardano’s De libris propriis which are brought together in this volume developed from simple lists of his compositions to full and intricate accounts of his own intellectual and personal life, and include his assessment of the whole field of knowledge of his day, and the place he claimed to occupy in it.

INDEX

AcknowledgementsIntroduction (The evolution of the De libris propriis; Literary models; The textual history of the De libris propriis and their Milanese context; Motives for writing; Modes for writing: quotation; Encyclopedism, polygraphy and the map of human knowledge; The psychology of reading; Commentary; Autobiography: interpreting the self; Veracity; Publication: the book market and its clients)Principles of transcription, notes and abbreviationsA chronology of the composition of Cardano’s worksA synopsis of Cardano’s lifeTexts

• Practica Arithmetice (1539)
• De libris propriis (1544)
• De libris propriis (1550)
• De libris propriis (1557)
• De libris propriis (1562)
• De propria vita liber (first edition, 1943)

Index nominum.
Abstract