thomas cerbu - naudé as editor of cardano

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NAUDE AS EDITOR OF CARDANO

by Thomas Cerbu

1. It would be no lie, Naude claims near the opening of his imagi

nary trial of Cardano, to say that once he started thinking for

himself, he took such delight in everything by Cardano that he did

not covet, search for, or read any other writings as much. To prove

the point («imo vero»), he recounts that he happily copied the D e ; v

sapientia for himself since it was unavailable at any price until its

reprinting, and he stresses that many of his friends can attest to

this1. The curious little fact is s lipped in to announce the burden of

(he final part of the Iudic iu m, namely to identify the best editions

of Cardano’s printed works, to locate the manuscript remains, and

to promote their collection in a multi-volume corpus. No doubt, it

also meant to remind those in the know of the story behind the reis

sue, in which Naude seems here to acknowledge that he played a

central role, perhaps by sending his own handwritten copy to the

1. De Cardano Iudicium , in Hieronymi Cardani Mediolanensis, De Propria Vita Liber. Ex Bibliotheca Gab. Naudaei (Parisiis, Apud Iacobum Villery. 1643) aiiiiv-|avrJ: «non mentiar tamen si dixerim, me eo usque omnibus eius auctoris lucubra-lionibus, ab ineuntis statim aetatis, & liberioris ingenii culturae principio delecta-lum fuisse, ut nullas aliorum ardentius unquam habere concupierim, diligentiusconquisierim, frequentius evolverim: imo vero cum illius libros de sapientia,

priusquam denuo Typis committerentur, nec prece, nec pretio nancisci a Bibliopolis possem, testes sunt ex amicis meis quam plurimi, me non dicam insuavem hunclaborem, sed gratissimum potius exantlasse, qui in illis manu propria exscribendisferendus erat». The De sapientia was reprinted with the De consolatione at Genevain 1624 by Pierre and Jacques Chouet; for other connections between Naude andthe volume, cfr. Ian Maclean, «Cardano and his publishers 1534-1663», in EckhardKeBler, ed., Girolamo Cardano. Philosoph - Naturforscher - Arzt (Wiesbaden,1994) 327-328.

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printer2. Cardano deserves such special affection, we are told,

because of the range of his learning, which is the subject of the

middle part of the ludicium with its ranking of Cardano at the very

top of a three-tiered hierarchy of great minds3. Before turning to

doctrine, however, Naude examines the man and his behavior. As far as personal revelations, he finds no reason to question that

Cardano was exactly as he portrayed himself, from the assortment

of ignoble traits listed in his own article of the L iber XII genitu-

rarum, to the catalogue of tragic misfortunes. He finds fault only in

Cardano’s having lacked the discretion to conceal what was embar

rassing. But when it comes to his alleged traffic with the supernat

ural («magicae vanitatis mancipia»), Naude makes a great show of

exposing him as a thorough liar, despite all the defendant’s protesta

tions to the contrary4. The case against Cardano’s reliability proves

far too easy, as Naude catches him lying on three different scores:

his miraculous acquisition of languages; the cure of John Hamilton,

the asthmatic Archbishop of St. Andrews; and most damning of all,

his familiar Spirit. Having dismissed the account of his Genius as

pure fable, Naude pronounces the following judgment5:

2. Naude’s proposal for an eight-volume corpus and the discussion of Cardano’smanuscripts were for obvious reasons omitted by Charles Spon in the reprinting ofthe ludicium at the head of vol. I of the Opera omnia (Lyon, 1663; rept. Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1966, and New York-London, 1967).

3. For the fortuna of the ludicium, particularly its hierarchy of learning, and ofthe quote from Cardano’s geniture, see C.T.W. Blackwell, «The historiography ofRenaissance philosophy and the creation of the myth of the Renaissance eccentricgenius - Naude through Brucker to Hegel», in KeBler, op. cit., 339-369; for a broad

discussion of the ludicium, see Lorenzo Bianchi, Rinascimento e libertinismo. Studi su Gabriel Naude (Naples, 1996) 48-54.

4. ludicium eiv: «sed cum veritatis amore, nihil unquam antiquius sibi fuissecontendat, & ex consequenti, frequenter in illas voces prorumpat, “Nunquam mementitum esse memini: ergo iam securus de mendacii suspicione, ut qui in veritatisstudio consenuerim”, & similes alias quae in eius libris passim occurrunt: egocontra mendacissimum ilium fuisse deprehendi, & ab hoc vitio, reliqua demumvelut e fonte promanasse, quae a nonnullis deliramenta vocantur, non levibus decausis existimo». The motif runs throughout the Vita, e.g. in 37.161: «ego qui nec

iuvenis, nec senex mentiri solitus sum».5. ludicium [evrJ: «Enimvero non semper eum sui compotem fuisse, sed aestu

quodam raptum, indicio est omnium certissimo, varietas ilia pugnantium inter sesententiarum, quas non est quod aliquis oblivione eorum quae iam dixerat; aut astu,vafricieque prolatas ab eo fuisse, sibi persuadeat, cum se in rebus aliis memorem admiraculum utque praestiterit; & artis ac vafriciei suspicionem omnem elevet, quodgrandia quidem, sed contraria semper, nunquam autem connexa, & sibi mutuocohaerentia loqueretur». Naude has just quoted and is commenting directly on two

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/ Naude as editor o f Cardano

Indeed, the surest sign that he did not always have his wits about him, and was rather prey to a kind of agitation, is that changeableness of opinions, clashing with one another, which one can be sure were produced neither out of forgetfulness of what had been said, nor through cunning and artful

ness, since in other matters his memory served him to a miraculous degree;

and any suspicion of cunning or artfulness is removed by the fact that he was speaking of matters truly sublime, but always contradictory, and never connected or mutually coherent.

One might think that Naude deliberately set out to condemn

Cardano for his credulity, as if to purge him of his unacceptable

parts, but this does not tally witfi the instruction to look at him inte

grally6. Instead, one could interpret the first part of the Iudicium as an exercise in sympathetic emulation. Just as the ranking of great

minds mimics Cardano’s praise of the greatest inventors at the end

of Bk. XVI of the D e subtilita te , so Naude’s insistence on his

sincerity serves as the opening gambit in a strategy deployed to

reenact at his own expense the case brought against Cardano. Naude

professes the greatest admiration for Cardano’s learning while

indicting him at the same time as a liar precisely because Cardano

has been charged above all with incoherence and self-contradiction.

2. In spite of his devotion to Cardano, Naude himself created many

of the problems connected with the D e propria vita. The work was

drafted in 1575-76, the last year of Cardano’s life, and published for

the first time by Naude in 1643, allegedly from an autograph.

passages from Bk. XVI of De rerum varietate (Op. III.334a): «Ego certe nullumDaemonem aut Genium mihi adesse cognosco... Illud bene scio, mihi pro bonoGenio datam rationem, patientiamque in laboribus magnam, bonum animum, pecuniae honorumque contemptum, quae omnia maximi facio, & Daemonio Socratis,meliora atque ampliora dona existimo».

6. Iudicium [eviY]: «Sequitur nunc, ut quanta, qualisve Cardani doctrina fuerit,dispiciamus; qua in re, non eorum more mihi faciendum esse intelligo, quiCardanum nunquam integrum aspiciunt, nec ilium ex immensis voluminibus, quaenobis in omni ferme scientiarum genere reliquit, sed ex Medicis tantum, aut

Mathematicis aestimant». On Naude as the impartial critic, cf. for example the final page of Georg Misch’s valuable discussion of the De propria vita in his Geschichte der Autobiographie, vol. 4/2 (Frankfurt a.M., 1969) 696-732: «Dieseverstandesklaren Menschen [i.e., the Paris milieu of natural scientists and philoso

phers which formed Naude] stellten die Beurteilung des Buches als dasLiigenswerk eines Scharlatans fest»; and Etienne Wolff, «Les lecteurs de JeromeCardan: quelques elements pour servir a l’histoire de la reception de son oeuvre»,

Nouvelle Revue du XVIe siecle 9 (1991) 104.

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Although riddled with typographical errors and misconstructions his

text has of necessity served as the basis for subsequent editions and

translations7. Naude’s manuscript disappeared after 1643, but four

copies of the Vita exist which can improve the text in many places;

more importantly for our understanding of how Cardano worked, they all contain substantially more than the first edition did8. What

follows constitutes the anecdotal background to that edition, as well

as an attempt to grasp the presuppositions Naude brought to his task.

When he returned to Paris in March 1642 after more than ten

years in Italy, Naude was loaded down with manuscripts by friends

and acquisitions of his own, all of which he immediately set out to

publish, including the Vita9. To my knowledge, only once did he

7. Naude’s text was reissued by Ravesteyn, at Amsterdam in 1654, together with Naude’s 1635 ed. of the Praecepta ad filios; and again by Spon in vol. I of theOpera omnia (cfr. n. 2), who introduced new errors and some misguided emendations. The only other ed. to date, with accompanying tr. and valuable notes whichcontain archival material, is by Jean Dayre (Paris, 1936), who still relied on Naud6(too often as given by Spon), but also recorded the variants from the Ambrosianacopy of the De propria vita (see below); he used this ms. to make minor corrections, but introduced serious errors of his own that make his text unreliable. Thefollowing recent translations should be singled,out: Alfonso Ingegno (Milan, 1982),which shows that Cardano can be cogent, arid Francisco Socas (Madrid, 1991),

both of which are important not least of all for their introductions and notes; andEtienne Wolff (Paris, 1991), which reprints the notes by Dayre and his tr. withsome stylistic improvements, but without having checked the Latin. In English,there is the readable, but not very faithful tr. by Jean Stoner (New York, 1930; rept. New York, 1962). There is also a German tr. by Hermann Hefele (Jena, 1914), reissued with revisions by Friedhelm Kemp (Munich, 1969), and one in Polish by JerzyOchman (Wroclaw, 1974), which includes valuable facsimiles of Cardano’s hand.

Ochman also signals a Russian tr. by F.A. Petrovskii (Moscow, 1938), which I havenot seen. An unidentified reprint ([Milan, ca. 1995]) has once more put into circulation the tr. by Angelo Bellini (Milan, 1932).

8. They are: Milan, Ambrosiana, J 218 inf.; Modena, Estense, Lat. 739; Rome,Casanatense, 283; and Vatican, Barb. lat. 2445. All are signaled in P.O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum, xols. 1-2 (Leiden, 1963-67).

9. The letters to Italian friends after Naude got back to France are full of his publication projects. The following to Allacci on 11.VJI.1642 (Forli, AutografiPiancastelli 1567/5) gives a fair idea of his activity at the time: «L’istesso [i.e., the

widow of Guillaume Pele] haveva stampato prima che io venisse a Parigi la miaBibliographia politica in francese et doppo l’arrivo mio la fama trionfante del SrBerti. il Leonardo Aretino de studiis et literis che ho dedicato alia Signora LucretiaBarberina. il Campanella de libris et studiis. et adesso egli stampa pur ad instanzamia un tal Girolamo Rorario quod animalia bruta ratione utantur magis homine. etun altro ha cominciato i dialogi di Iano Nicio quali sono alia lettera P. et seguitara

poi nella vita di Cardano». Except for Rorarius, all appeared in 1642-43. Nauddwould also contract publishers for Allacci and Zacchia. Rene Pintard gives 12

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Naude as editor

make explicit the importance of this manuscript and how it had

come into his hands. In a letter to Peiresc of 1636, he casually

boasted that Vincenzo Alsario dalla Croce had given him the auto

graph of the Vita in gratitude for the dedication of his first Quaestio

iatrophilologica. The Iudicium repeats the details of provenance, but leaves the reader to understand from the context that the manuscript

was in Cardano’s hand. In both places, Naude says that Croce had

received the book for his service in the household of Bonifazio

Bevilacqua. How the cardinal came by it is a mystery, though one

wonders whether it happened during his tenure as Prefect o f the \

Congregation o f the Index, under Gregory X V 10. The dedication o f

the D e propria vita to Naude’s old friend Elie Diodati is dated 28 September 1642, which suggests that the manuscript was delivered

to the printer by early fall. Given the frantic pace at which Naude

worked that summer, the simplest explanation for both the'sloppi

ness of the edition and the disappearance of the manuscript is that

the holograph Vita, rather than a copy, was given to the printer.

March as the day on which Naude was back in Paris, with an opaque reference (Le

Libertinage erudit , rept. Geneva, 1983, 271). The Naudaeana are unambiguous: «Jesuis revenu d’ltalie le Samedi 10. Mars 1642» (Paris, 1701, 99-100); unfortunatelythat year the 10th fell on a Monday.

10. Naude to Peiresc, Rieti, 26.V .1636 (Philippe Tamizey de Larroque, ed., Les Correspondants de Peiresc, rept. Geneva, 1972, 11.79-80): «J’apprends aussi que leCardan de dentibus s’imprimera bientot a Lyon par Durand, libraire, qui ne faira

pas, a mon advis, une mauvaise entreprise, d’autant que ce livre est fort vante parson auteur, et qu’en effet il me semble tres beau et fort accompli. Je croy que c’estle meilleur de ceux qui restent a imprimer de ce prodigieux genie. Je ne S9ay si je

vous ay escript autrefois que j ’ay sa vie composee par luy mesme escripte de sa propre main, asses ample pour faire un juste volume in quarto ou in octavo, la-quelle je m’offre d’envoyer audit Durand, s’il la veut publier ensuite de celuy de

Dentibus'. elle me fust donnee a Rome par le Medico Croce en reconnoissance dece que je luy avois dedie la premiere de mes questions, et pour luy il l’avoit eiie ducardinal Bevilaqua, qu’il avoit longtemps servi». Naude goes on to describe anothermanuscript that belongs to him, the De prudentia eximifl (also cited in Iudicium f*vr]), and his intention to publish excerpts «dans certain recueil que j ’ay envie defaire de certaines petites pieces egarees de cet Auteur». See below n. 20 for the

Iudicium. For Croce, cf. Allacci, Apes Urbanae (Rome, 1633) 250-252 and AngeloFabroni, Historia Academiae Pisanae, vol. 3 (Pisa, 1795; rept. Bologna, 1971) 566-567. For Bevilacqua, cf. Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, s.v.; Dom Paul Denis,

Nouvelles de Rome, precedees de listes de tous les fonctionnaires de la Cour de Rome, 1601-1661 (Paris, 1913) ciii; and Maclean, op. cit., 329. The dedication ofthe quaestio An magnum Homini, a Venenis periculum was signed on the last dayof March 1632; the work appeared in Rome the same year and was reprinted in theirevTas quaestionum Iatro-philologicarum (Geneva, Samuel Chouet, 1647).

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While in Italy, Naude arranged for the publication in France of |

two other works by Cardano he had discovered. Relatively little is

known about the first. In 1634 he stumbled across the D e praeceptis

a d f ilio s libellu s in Urbino and rushed it off to Paris, where it

appeared the following year. Although the one used by Naude has not been identified, manuscripts of the P raeceptq have been found to

fall into two distinct families, which provide clues about Cardano’s

habit o f revising his works11. The production o f the second, the

Opuscula medica senilia of 1638, tells us a good deal more about

Naude as editor and the circulation of Cardano manuscripts.

When Naude wrote Peiresc about the Vita in 1636, it was by way

of reporting that the Lyon printer Laurent Durand had agreed to

publish the D e dentibus (the first of the four Opuscula senilia)i2.

Only incidentally, as if he were commenting on an ordinary news-

item, did he also mention that he planned to send Durand the autobi

ography once the medical work was finished. The statement

concealed as much information as it passed on. The two short,

prefatory epistles to the Opuscula senilia are both attributed to

Durand, but the fiction is transparent since in both the writer

mentions having been in Rome. The dedication to Lelio Biscia opens with the words «Cum Romam venissem», and recounts visit

ing the cardinal’s library and the discovery of the D e dentibus

«manu Autoris exaratum». The letter to the reader describes how

further inquiries resulted in a «syllogen» supplied by Allacci and

Giovani Argoli (both members of Biscia’s household) of the five

Cardano manuscripts owned by Biscia. Some of these were original,

some copies (we are not told which), and among them was a «de

Propria vita liber»13. Both letters specify that Biscia’s autograph De

11. Cfr. the introduction to Luigi Firpo’s ed. of the Praecepta in Studia Oliveriana III (1955) 7-16. There is an exceptionally large number of mss. Fiipostudied four, including one in Paris. Kristeller cites five more: in Austin, Texas(Iter Italicum V.208), Bergamo (1.7), Naples (1.435), the Vatican (11.606), andVenice (11.290). Barb. lat. 2445, one of the mss. of the Vita, also contains thePraecepta.

12. The four Opuscula medica senilia were reprinted together with the fifth,unedited one in vol. IX of the Opera omnia. I do not know why the fifth, De poda

gra, which was also in Biscia’s library, was not included.13. The other three were: Commentaria duo in quatuor primas Principis primae

sectionis doctrinas, quae & Libri floridorum inscribuntur; Commentarium primumin Galeni Artem Medicam, quod Cardani Autoris lectiones nonaginta tres continet;Commentaria itidem in quatuor libros distributa, quae etiam lectiones nonaginta sexin libris de Victu in Acutis complectuntur. P.O. Kristeller sensed that there might be

Thomas Cerbu 1

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Naude as editor o f Cardano

dentibus was collated with a copy belonging to Cardano’s great-

grandson Fazio14. The letter to the reader may have intended to

mislead, however, when it states that the text is based on a copy

drawn from the original while the «typographus» was in Rome. If

we can trust a remark by Durand in his correspondence with Allacci, a copy was indeed made, but in Lyon, where the autograph

had been sent. Allacci, who already had dealings with Durand for

the publication of his own works and for book orders on behalf of

his patron, was the one who actually forwarded the manuscript to

Lyon and was kept informed o f how the printing advanced15.

Ancient connections naturally reinforced proprietary claims,

which together imposed a cloak of silence on Naude. The prefatory

letters recall that Cardano had been friends with the cardinal’s jurist

father, and had known Lelio as a youngster. Cardano’s last testament

of 21 August 1576 was witnessed in Bernardino’s studio16. An

exchange of correspondence between Allacci and Rene Moreau, a

medical friend and former professor whom Naude had evidently

informed of the finds in Biscia’s library, reveals that Naude began

engineering the production of the Opuscula senilia shortly after his

a connection between the ed. of the Opuscula senilia and that of the De propria vita in 1643, but thought it was Biscia’s copy of the autobiography rather than Naudehimself: cf. «Between the Italian Renaissance and the French Enlightenment:Gabriel Naude as an Editor», Renaissance Quarterly 32 (1979) 48.

14. To the reader *4v-*5‘: «Interim hoc [i.e., De dentibus] tantummodo in prae-sentiarum fruere, vigili mea cura ac prompta in studiosos voluntate recognito;exscripto enim, cum Romae essem, e Bibliotheca Eminentissimi Bisciae exemplariuna cum illo quod a Facio Cardano Autoris pronepote viro ornatissimo acceperam,

contuli, examinatisque ita omnium locorum symbolis, maiori qua potui diligentiaemendatum publicum feci».

15. Durand to Allacci, Lyon, 8.VII. 1636 (Paris, BN ital. 2239, f. 13r)-' «UOddone Cistersiense e il Cardano aspettaro che VSa me gli mandi quanto prima per principiare di stamparli»; 9.XII. 1636 (Vallic. All. CXLVI1.4, f. 22r): «I1 trattato diCardano si va copiando per no maltrattare il originale, e quanto prima si comenssarala impressione»; 4.VI. 1638 (Vallic. All. CXLVII.4, f. 29r): «Con il corrieri pasatoI'ra otto giorni embie a VSa il Cardano, doi per Monsigre Eminentissimo CardinaleBiscia e doi per VS. mi escuza Su Em1 si non estan bene religato».

16. Dedication *2v-*3r: «Primo enim cum e Bibliotheca Tua exemplar fuerimmutuatus, obstringi plagio credidissem, si alteri, quam Tibi domesticum, & quodTuum est, inscripsissem. Adde, quod Autorem Patri Tuo Bernardino inter seculilurisperitos facile Principi, obsequio, ac virtute iunctissimum gavisurum in Superiscredibile est, quod Tibi hoc cedat munusculum, cuius ille adolescentiam admiratustenellum ingenium in oculis habuit»; and cfr. A. Bertolotti, / testamenti di Girolamo Cardano, medico, fdosofo e matematico nel secolo XVI (Milan, 1882) 49,originally in Archivio Storico Lombardo IX (1882) 615-660.

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Thomas Cerbu

arrival in Rome. Early in 1632, Moreau offered to look for a printer

for the Cardano manuscripts to which, as he had heard, Allacci had

access. Allacci responded that he would determine with Naude the

best course of action, and then listed the conditions for sending the

manuscripts: these included not only due recognition of their source, but also a prefatory epistle in Allacci’s name17. In fact the dedication

shows every sign of being the work of Allacci, who thus wrote in

the guise of the masked Naude posing as Durand! Its language is

considerably more formal than that of the other letter, and contains

the flourishes of erudition apt to come from a Hellenist: a few lines

by the obscure Dionysius Periegetes, and a play of mythological

references on the cardinal’s coat of arms. Naude contributed the

letter to the reader, which focuses more directly on Cardano, and

ends with the catalogue of manuscripts. The independent authorship

of the two pieces accounts for their awkWard duplication of material.

One other work may be conjectured to have been produced by, or

in association with, Naude. The Proxeneta seu de prudentici civili

liber was printed at Leiden in 1627 under unknown circumstances.

The dedication to Charles Feye d’Espesses, French ambassador to

the Low Countries, bears, like that of the Opuscula senilia, the

17. Moreau to Allacci, Paris, 15.11.1632 (Paris, BN ital. 2172, ff. 57v-58r, copy):«Audivi quoque in tua potestate nonnulla Cardani opuscula quae summopere &nostris expetuntur. Si eorum Copiam nobis faceres, et typographus ad manum, quiea evulgaret non sine gratia, et commemoratione Emi, et Illrni Cardinalis, qui in suaBibliotheca Thesaurum ilium servat, sed fortasse tecum liberius ago quam ignoto,et de te immerito conveniat»; Allacci to Moreau, [Rome, first half of 1632J (Paris,BN ital. 2169, f. 268\ minute): «De Cardani operibus, quae in Bibliotheca

Eminentissimi Cardinalis Bisciae Patroni mei asservantur, manu ut plurimum ipsiusAuctoris exarati, quid agendum sit, cum Naudaeo ipso, si Cerviam cum Cardinalisuo [i.e., Bagni], quo se dicit intendere, non proficiscatur, conveniemus. Prius enimex ipso Autographo exscribenda sunt, quae deinceps perpoliri debent, insuper locaauctorum, et praecipue Galeni quae ipse explicat Graeca, una cum interpretationeaddenda, ut integriora, atque perfectiora publicentur. Et praeter loci memoriamunde extracta sunt, opera etiam ipsa ad dictum Eminentissimum prefatoria Epistolanomine meo scripta dirigenda. Tandem aliquibus ad minus quinque exemplaribusdonandus. et ut aliquid Bibliothecae unde extrahuntur aemolumenti accedat eadem

Bibliotheca integro opere rerum Germanicarum Scriptorum, vel quando id incom-modum librario erit Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum Coloniensis postremae editionis,aut simili locupletanda. quod Typographus non aegre ferret, cum sic rerum erit,quaedam facilis compensatio, non pecunia erogata molesta, et quam omnesBibliopolae refugiunt, ac reformidant pensionem.» In Allacci’s copy of theOpuscula senilia, now at the Vatican (RG Medic. V.2205), Durand’s signature inhandwritten capital letters is pasted at the end of the dedication; in other copies Ihave seen (e.g. Florence, BN Magi. 5.8.355) the name is printed.

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Naude as editoy o f Cardano

fictional signature of the printer, in this case the Elsevier brothers;

and it is dated the 1st of September, or just a few months after

Naude returned from his year of study in Padua. The masked editor

preferred concealing how he had gotten the manuscript, but hoped

that its publication would incite others to edit the remaining works of the author18. References to the volume pop up in the correspon

dence between Peiresc and Pierre Dupuy in 1628. Curiously enough,

the only name that occurs in connection with it is that of Naude’s

good friend Diodati, who had sent Gassendi a copy which was

apparently waylaid. Peiresc also promised to inquire on behalf of

Diodati about manuscripts in Rome of the D e fa to and D e arcanis

aetern ita tis l9. The striking lack of information about the provenance

18. Dedication *2v-*3r:- «Nos itaque, quum unicum ejus voluminis exemplar(satis negligenter tamen descriptum) nescio quo fato nacti essemus, lucem tam

pulcro foetui, jam anhelanti, & animam propemodum agenti, invidere noluimus: sedauxiliarem manum ei quanta potuimus cura porrigentes, ita ipsum in lucem protra-ximus, ut reliquis ejusdem autoris operibus accenseri jure merito possit.» The samenote is sounded in the ludicium ([oviir~v]); and the editorial improvements recallthose made to the Opuscula senilia (cfr. n. 14 above). There seems to be only one

existing ms. of the Proxeneta, at the Vatican, Boncompagni I 50 (cfr. Kristeller, Iter Italicum VI.412); it has also been recently signaled by Eugenio Di Rienzo,«Cardaniana. Su alcuni manoscritti inediti di Cardano conservati alia BibliotecaVaticana», Rivista di Storia e Letteratura religiosa, XXV (1989) 103.

19. Peiresc asks Pierre Dupuy on 19.V. 1628 to lend Gassendi the Proxeneta,and on 4.VIII. 1628 he adds a postscript conveying a message to Diodati, that hewill not forget to ask for the two works by Cardano when he writes to Rome: cfr.Philippe Tamizey de Larroque, ed., Lettres de Peiresc aux freres Dupuy, vol. 1(Paris, 1888) 612, 658. The message was in response to a request that Diodati had

sent Peiresc from Paris on 25.VII.1628 (BN Fr. 9544, f. 219r): «Devisant demiere-ment du hazard qui nous a donne le livret de Prudentia Civili de Cardan imprime aLeyden, i’appris qu’au mesme lieu, ou cettuy ci avoit long temps couru manuscript,c’est assavoir a Rome, estoyent encores ceux qui sont les plus desires de luy, c’esta savoir les livres De Fato, De Arcanis aeternitatis, et plusieurs autres, lesquels ne pouvant esperer qu’on imprime en Italie, il seroit a desirer d’en pouvoir recouvrerune copie bien correcte, pour les faire imprimer de deija les monts, dont ie ne voyaucun, pouvoir venir mieux a bout que vous Monsieur, qui par vostre courtoisie et beneficence, aves des amis & des serviteurs par tout. On m’escript qu’a Basle on se

prepare a imprimer toutes ses oeuvres; dans peu de temps ie sauray ce qui en sera,& vous en donneray advis...». This critical passage for Diodati’s role in the 17th-century efforts to publish Cardano was discovered and first published by ErnestaCaldarini, who also intuited that there might be a connection between this letter andthe dedication of the De propria vita fourteen years later; see her «Notizia sulcarteggio tra N.C. de Peiresc ed Elia Diodati», Studi UrbinatiXXX IX (1965) 425-426 (the essay is reprinted in the posthumous collection of her essays edited by Nerina Clerici Balmas, Percorsi critici, Fasano, 1991).

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of the Proxeneta in the Iudiciu m , and its listing alongside the three

works we know were due to Naude, make one suspect he knew very

well how it had found its way to Leiden20.

Naude’s dedication of the D e propria vita to his friend becomes

more significant in light of their shared interest in Cardano manuscripts. Diodati is remembered today primarily for having defended

the cause of Galileo, but for Peiresc and the Dupuy circle he was also

the frequent traveller to Italy and England, via Geneva and Leiden,

who brought back new books and occasionally arranged for the

revised publication of old ones, like Sarpi’s History and Scaliger’s De

emendatione temporum21. The special notice taken in the Iudicium of

the Geneva reprint of thq De sapientia in 1624 thus also seems to

point at Diodati, especially given that some fifteen years later, when

Naude was still in Italy, he offerred to find a printer for the Vita11.

3. Alean dro respond ed in quick time to Peiresc ’s queries about

Cardano, but evidently had still not sent any specifics by November

1628, when Peiresc announced his intention to buy a large collection

of Cardano manuscripts which was up for sale in Rome, and

wondered whether it included those Diodati wanted23. By the end of

20. Iudicium *iiiv-*iiiir: «Hincque [i.e., from among the better manuscripts, notthose in the Coccanario collection] Proxenetam Elzeviriis debemus, & opuscula 4. senilia, ex Eminentissimi Cardinalis Bisciae Musaeo, Leonis Allatii opera prodierunt:quemadmodum etiam ex mea, quantulacunque tandem sit, Bibliotheca liber de praeceptis ad filios, & alius de propria vita, quem postremum Vincentius Alzarius k Cruce celeberrimi nominis medicus, ab Eminentissimo Cardinali Bevilaqua accep-tum, mihi, priusquam Pisas ubi fatis concessit proficisceretur, pro ea qua in me fuit

incredibili benevolentia, obtulerat». The Proxeneta was reprinted twice: by theElsevier again in 1635; and at Geneva in 1630, which further ties it to Diodati.21. Lettres de Peiresc 1.678, 834, 11.219; for an evocative sketch of Diodati, see

Pintard, op. cit., 129-131: «I1 etait le sourcier qui signale les nappes d ’eau sanss’occuper lui-meme d’y atteindre, ou le decouvreur de documents et d’idees quiabandonne a d’autres le soin de faire un choix parmi ses trouvailles». Diodati wasapparently charge d’affaires in Paris for the Genevan republic.

22. Naude to Allacci, Rieti, 15.11.1639 (Forli, Autografi Piancastelli 1567/4): «I1Diodati mi scrive che io mandi la vita del Cardano et che piglia sopra di sel’assunto de farla stampare come ancora il Pomponatio in parva naturalia mentre

non sia troppo grosso». The timing of this offer raises the possibility that Naudehoped to make use of Biscia’s copy of the autobiography, which may have becomemore accessible after the cardinal’s death on 19.XI. 1638.

23. Peiresc to Dupuy, Aix, 22.XI.1628 ( Lettres de Peiresc 1.751): «je vous priede dire a Mr Diodati, s’il est revenu, ou a Mr Gassendy, qu’il s’est trouve dans Romeun grand recueil des oeuvres de Cardan escriptes de la propre main de l’aulteur, quel’on a voulu laisser pour 40 livres. J’escripts pour les faire prendre, et attends avecimpatiance si les pieces de Fato et Arcanis /Ethernitatis y pourroient poinct estre».

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pursue the negotiations can be detected in his reaction to a comment

by Dupuy (which we do not have), presumably made in response to

receiving a copy of Aleandro’s list28:

Je me doubte fort que vostre soub§on concernant les oeuvres de Cardan ne soyt vray; je n’ay jamais peu tant gouster cet homme la, ou je trouve, ce me semble, beaucoup plus de plume que de chair, mais j ’eusse este bien aise d’y servir Mr Deodati et ceux qui y trouvent leur goust, car comme

j ’ay souvent des gousts extraordinaires, et que je suis bien aise que mes amys me les souffrent, je pense estre oblige d’en faire de mesme envers ceux qui ont d’autres gousts que les miens, et c’est comme cela qu’en recherchant pour l’amour de mes amys des choses que je s§avois estre de leur goust et qui n’estoient nullement du mien, je m’y suis laisse neant- moings prendre quelques foys sans y penser, comme a la moustarde, et m’y suis enfin trouve affriande voulusse je ou non, dont je ne me suis pas tant repenty. Mais je ne pense pas pourtant que cela m’advienne, pour ce chef la, a mon advis.

I '

In both his reports about Cardano, Naude betrays some apprehen

sion about the likelihood of engaging Peiresc’s interest. He does not

have any illusion in 1632 that Peiresc might still want to buy the Cardano manuscripts. And in 1636 he seems compelled to argue for

the value of the D e dentibus as the most important work by Cardano

that remains to be published. Such an estimate may reflect the view,

attacked moreover in the ludicium , that measured Cardano chiefly by

his medical and mathematical writings, but it strikes the modem

reader as especially odd next to the announcement Naude goes on to

make about his manuscript of the Vita. Was this what he thought

Peiresc would prefer to hear, or was Naude himself uncertain about the worth of the autobiography, even if it was in Cardano’s own hand?

The need felt by Naude to conduct a trial of Cardano before

pfesenting the D e propria vita to the public reflects a sharp division,

sharper at any rate than it had been in the mid-1620’s, between

those like Moreau, Diodati, and himself, who thought all the

elements of the case deserved to be heard, and others, like Dupuy

and Peiresc, who had already passed a negative verdict. Naude tried to weigh and counter the charges brought by the opposition, which

much was new, especially in the first two volumes, as well as the entire tenthvolume. Ian Maclean has discovered Billaine’s sales catalogue advertising themanuscripts (Maclean, op. cit., 330), and very kindly sent me a copy of his transcription.

28. Peiresc to Dupuy, Aix, 4.V.1629 (Lettres de Peiresc 11.89-90).

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he emblematically identified by putting de Thou at the head of the :

Testimonia which follow the Vita29. Up to the concluding biblio

graphic survey, the Iudicium in fact takes up point by point, and in

the same sequence, the major elements in the sketch of Cardano in

the H istoriae sui tem poris , from the inconstancy of his life and character, to the impiety of his horoscope of Christ.

At the end of the Iudicium, Naude reflects that by having told the

story of the manuscript remains, he has done all that can be

expected of him on the score of Cardano’s writings. He then throws

his hands up in the air30:

If one wants to know more about the man, the De vita and De libris propriis are available. However, Cardano is so changeable and inconstant in these books, that although there is apparently nothing about himself that he did not say, he still left room for glory to whoever would give us a Life of Cardano drawn from his works and other sources, which had a definite structure, clear language, and a brief and accurate presentation.

The 1643 edition of the D e propria vita liber is ultimately the

record of a defeat. The obstacles faced in consulting and acquiring

Cardano’s manuscripts and the Byzantine intrigues necessary to

publish them had worn down even the enthusiastic Naude. Just

when his own affairs had taken a long-awaited turn for the better

and, as the newly-appointed librarian of cardinal Mazarin, he would

be able to hunt for rare books and manuscripts on a princely scale,

he settled for a slipshod production of the Vita by a minor printer.

More serious still, he had lacked the time or the energy to respond

fully to the challenge issued by the followers of de Thou. Naude had not discovered in the autobiography the coherence missing else

where in Cardano; one fears that he did not make very much sense

o f it.

29. In the Opera omnia the Testimonia immediately follow the abridged versionof the Iudicium making their function as witnesses even more evident. De Thou had

named Dupuy, who was his nephew, as one of his literary executors: cf. SamuelKinser, The Works o f Jacques-Auguste de Thou (The Hague, 1966) 26, 86. Hissketch is most important as the only source for the date of Cardano’s death.

30. Iudicium [*viir]: «Plura de eo si quis desiderat, libros habet in promptu, devita, & libris propriis, in quibus tamen adeo varius, & inconstans est Cardanus, utquamvis de se nihil non dixisse videatur; locum tamen ei reliquerit non inglorium,qui vellet Cardani vitam, ex operibus suis, & aliunde collectam, ordine certo,sermone claro, brevi & accurata methodo... nobis exhibere».

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Appendix

List of Cardano manuscripts in Rome, sent to Peiresc at the beginning of 1629 (cf. nn. 23-25)

Paris, BN Dupuy 691, ff. 146r-147v

The list stretches to the top of the fourth page of a bifolio showing the folds due to its having been sent as a letter. The title, in the top-right corner of the first page, is perhaps in Aleandro’s hand. The list was written by a secretary who occasionally had difficulty deciphering. Alongside the bottom-right margin of the back page Peiresc wrote «Romae».

All the titles given by Naude in the ludicium ([*vr-*vir]) as forming the Coccanario collection appear on this list, and in very nearly identical terms, as do those that he describes as belonging to Marc’Antonio da Paliano. But the ludicium does not help us with the owner, or owners, of all the items. Listed here are parts 3 and 5 ot the Opuscula medica senilia (De simpli-

cium m edicam entorum facultatibu s and De podagra, not edited in the 1638 volume), as well as two more works (In q uatuo r prim as d octrinas and De vicut in acutis) owned by Biscia too (cfr. n. 13). These manuscripts must have been in a different collection, however, since the remaining two works in Biscia’s library (In Galeni artem medicam and De propria vita)

do not figure on Aleandro’s list. They may have belonged to Cardano’s great-grandson Fazio, like the copy of the De dentibus mentioned in the prefatory epistles to the Opuscula senilia.

When possible, the owner of the manuscript is identified in parentheses, as is the volume of the Opera omnia in which the work was published. Spon’s preface to the reader mentions that a few manuscripts were in such bad condition that they could not be used. Works otherwise unidentifiable are marked with an asterisk.

H. CARDANI opera ms. Romae

Libri in folio

Paralipomenon in 20 libros distinctus, quorum primus (Coccanario; Op. X)

De humanis Civilibus conversationibus

De humana perfectne

De portentisDe dubiis naturalibus

De rebus factis raris, et artificiis

De humana compositione naturalium

De Mortalibus [!] morbis, et Symptomatibus

* De interpretatne difficilium dictorum De Mathematicis quaesitis De astrorum, ac temporum ratnc, et divisionibus

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Historiae lapidum, et metallorum Historiae animalium Historiae plantarum De anima

De dubiis ex historiaDe hominum clarorum libris editis, et amissis elencus

* De Illbus viris huius temporis

* De dubiis circa opinionem bominum, seu de his quae videntur, et non sunt I

De usu hominum, et dignatnc [!] eorum cum cura De sapiente

De natura. De Principiis rerum. de corporibus simplicibus. De Anima, et animatis, et pertinentibus ad illam. (Coccanario; Op. II)

Theonoston, seu Hyperboreorum libri tres. Pus de tranquillitate. 2US de animi imortalitate. 3USde contemplatne (Op. II)

De numerorum proprietatibus, et commentaria super omnibus libris Euclidis de elementis. (Op. IV)

In quatuor primas Principis primae sectionis doctrinas. Commentaria duo (cfr. Biscia; Op. IX)

De problematibus sectiones septem. Pa Naturalium. 2a Medicorum. 3a Moralium, et praestantiae. 4a Flagitiorum. 5a Mathematicorum. 6a casuum. 7a Mixtorum liber, qui continet castigationes in libros suos, et quamplurimas additiones (Coccanario; Op. II)

Liber de orthographia seu de recta scribendi ratne in quo de litteris, accentibus, syllabis, ac divisione orationis tractat. (Coccanario; Op. I)

De Musica liber unus (Op. X)

De ludo aleae liber (Coccanario; Op. I)

* Tabula magna Diaflorum

Artis magnae, sive quadraginta capitulorum, et quadraginta quaestionum

(Op. IV)Contradictiones logicae n° 144 omnes per capita resolutae (Coccanario;

Op. I)

* Lectiones variae.

Norma vitae consarcinatae [!] sacra vocata in tres partes distincta I et septuaginta capita continens, et est opusculum aureum, ubi modus

discitur (Paliano; Op. I)

De optimo vitae gen ere tractatus. In pa parte, De consuetudine, in 2a de

difficultatibus. De remediis earum. de adiectne. De negotiatne, ct Dialogus in quinta parte inter Auctorem, et Fatium eius patrem

(Paliano; Op. I)

Dialogo, se la qualita puo trapassare di subietto, in subietto (Coccanario; Op. II)

Artis aritmeticae de integris (Op. X)

Medicinae encomium (Op. VI)

* Tabula generalis Medica


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De simplicium medicamentorum facultatibus, et eorum usu (cfr. Biscia; Op. IX)

De victu in acutis commentaria (cfr. Biscia; Op. X?)

* De emplastris conficiendis

De Morbis articularibus, seu De dentibus, et Podagra (cfr. Biscia; Op.

IX)Contradictiones medicae libri duodecim (Coccanario; Op. VI; cfr. Op.,

Ad lectorem)

De experimentis, et omnium morborum curationibus (Coccanario; ined.: cfr. Op., Ad lectorem)

De experimentis tomus alter (Coccanario; ined.: cfr. Op., Ad lectorem) Opuscula, Volumen primum in folio alligata, (Coccanario)

Opuscula Volumen secundum (Coccanario)

Fragmenta Volumen primum (Coccanario)Fragmta Volumen 2m(Coccanario)

In Prognostica Hipocratis (Op. VIII?) I

In Epidemiam Hipocratis (Op. X; cfr. Op., Ad lectorem)

De victu in acutis Hipocratis (Op. X?)

thomas cerbu - naudé as editor of cardano

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