The Life and Times of Cardano

Cardano has no need to choose between the Aristotelian goal of contemplative fulfillment and the stoic ideal of withstanding all misfortune, he finds it possible to achieve both. Cardano names Galen as a precedent for autobiographical writing and many aspects of his life story ring-galenic bells. Like Galen, Cardano revels in telling stories where he humiliated rival scholars in debate or through superior medical diagnosis. He offers us a list of his own books, as Galen did, and like him is not shy in criticizing the books of others.