The book of my life = (De vita propria liber) / Girolamo Cardano ; translated from the Latin by Jean Stoner ; introduction by Anthony Grafton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cardano, Girolamo, 1501-1576.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

New York Review Books classics

Standardized Title:

De propria vita. English

Language:

English

Latin

Subjects (All):

Cardano, Girolamo, 1501-1576.

Cardano, Girolamo.

Scientists--Italy--Biography.

Scientists.

Italy.

Local Subjects:

Cardano, Girolamo, 1501-1576.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xx, 291 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm.

Other Title:

De vita propria liber

Place of Publication:

New York : New York Review Books, [2002]

Summary:

A bright star of the Italian Renaissance, Girolamo Cardano was an internationally-sought-after astrologer, physician, and natural philosopher, a creator of modern algebra, and the inventor of the universal joint. Condemned by the Inquisition to house arrest in his old age, Cardano wrote "The Book of My Life," an unvarnished and often outrageous account of his character and conduct. Whether discussing his sex life or his diet, the plots of academic rivals or meetings with supernatural beings, or his deep sorrow when his beloved son was executed for murder, Cardano displays the same unbounded curiosity that made him a scientific pioneer. At once picaresque adventure and campus comedy, curriculum vitae, and last will, "The Book of My Life" is an extraordinary Renaissance self-portrait--a book to set beside Montaigne's Essays and Benvenuto Cellini's "Autobiography."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-291).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

1590170164

OCLC:

49283900