HIERONYMI CARDANI

HIERONYMI CARDANI - DE EXEMPLIS CENTUM GENITURARUM

XIX

[Cardano, XIX, 468]

HIERONYMI CARDANI (1501-1576)

see Cardano

1)- introduction

Gerolamo (or Girolamo, or Geronimo) Cardano (24 September 1501 – 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged from being a mathematician, physician, biologist, physicist, chemist, astrologer, astronomer, philosopher, writer, and gambler. He was one of the most influential mathematicians of the Renaissance, and was one of the key figures in the foundation of probability and the earliest introducer of the binomial coefficients and the binomial theorem in the western world. He wrote more than 200 works on science.
Cardano partially invented and described several mechanical devices including the combination lock, the gimbal consisting of three concentric rings allowing a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints, which allows the transmission of rotary motion at various angles and is used in vehicles to this day. He made significant contributions to hypocycloids, published in De proportionibus, in 1570. The generating circles of these hypocycloids were later named Cardano circles or cardanic circles and were used for the construction of the first high-speed printing presses.
Today, he is well known for his achievements in algebra. He made the first systematic use of negative numbers, published with attribution the solutions of other mathematicians for the cubic and quartic equations, and acknowledged the existence of imaginary numbers.

Four months before his death Cardano completed his autobiography, which he had anxiously written during the entire previous year and which was supposed to sum up his complex life. He felt death approaching. According to some reports, his personal horoscope associated his end with his seventy-fifth birthday. He died on September 21, 1575, a few days before his birthday. There is a version that he committed suicide in anticipation of his inevitable death or even to confirm the horoscope. In any case, Cardano the astrologist took his horoscope seriously. In his book he described waiting for death at âge forty-four, as his earlier horoscope had foretold.

Cardano worried about whether his life had been successful. On the one hand, he lived on a meager papal pension in Rome, in enforced exile from the cities where he had spent the best part of his life, he had recently been in prison, and he was unhappy with his children. On the other hand, Cardano was sure of his own significance. He criticized much from his past, although it is not hard to discover the places where he succeeded in convincing himself that he was right. Cardano's leading idea is the predestination of his life. This is the source of his detailed analysis of the influence of the stars, his association with a "guardian angel," the scrupulous account of signs and omens, and the little events that allowed him to build a logically constructed picture of life. In a certain sense, Cardano's aim was, using the scholar's and astrologer's art, to analyze himself in detail as an object of the action of higher powers. A new style was established in science, where conclusions are drawn from the facts as they appear. Therefore, Cardano supplies the reader with detailed information about his physical features, drinking patterns, habits, etc. [Tales of Mathematicians and Physicists, Simon Gindikin, Springer, 2007, p. 21]

2)- natal chart

• ASC TAURUS, ruler VE (VI) LIBRA
• MC CApri, ruler SA (I)
• MA (I), JU (XII) angular ASC

Morinus gives JU as ALMUTEN (VE near before) - MO#MA (ASC) - SU is detrimental.

3)- primary directions

a)- SU opp MC

I have already said that this direction is found in the cases of brutal death. We know the legend that some have peddled: Cardano would have committed suicide to make the date of his death coincide with the one he had calculated ...

b)- #MO conj MA

 It is a typical converse direction. 

We count 2 DP (primary directions) and 1 symbolic direction.

c)- SA # SU

Another typical converse direction ; we see that kind of direction often linked with life end and illness. This time, #SA is in conjunction with MC ; so we already have this aspect in ray : SU opp MC.

It is interesting to plot the rays versus  the standard key of ptolemy (PTO) :

 
In this diagram, 6 (line) indicates the pitch of PTO (1 ° = 1an) - on the right, the upper values, on the lower left. So, PTO = 0 in this scale.