Sixteenth-century physician Girolamo Cardano was not only a Renaissance man in the truest sense, but one of the most colorful figures of his era. He was born on September 24, 1501 in Pavia, Italy and is known as the “gambling scholar” and as “one of the greatest algebraist” of his time. Cardano was a man with many interests and professions including: law, medicine, astrology, and mathematics.
Even though Cardano ended up having a lot of success later in his lifetime to only have it taken away, he had started off with a hard time. Not to mention that he was born illegitimate, was most of his life mistreated, and was unwanted by his parents. His overbearing father was a lawyer named Fazio Cardano who was a gifted mathematician and also was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci. His mother’s name was Chiara Micheria who while she was pregnant tried “various abortive medicines” during her pregnancy. After a depressing childhood with Girolamo frequently having illnesses and a rough upbringing he went to the University of Pavia in 1520, even though it was against his father’s wish of him becoming a lawyer. He later graduated with a doctorate in medicine in 1526 at the university of Padau since the war against Spain and France had caused authorities to shut down the University of Pavia.
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Then in 1531 Girolamo Cardano married young Lucia Banderini. Lucia bore him three children before she died; the first child, his favorite, was a baby boy that they named Giovanni Battista that was born in 1534. Their second child, a baby girl, was born in 1537 and they named her Chiara. Their final child that they had together was a baby boy who was born in 1543 and they named him Aldo. In 1546 Girolamo’s young wife died of an unknown