Italian physician, also known as J‚r“me Cardan, famed from 1526; by age 50 he had a reputation second only to Vesalius.
Born illegitimate, though his parents did marry later, Cardan completed his studies in his mid-20s only to find that his bastardy barred him from entry into the College of Physicians in Milan. Always contentious and sharp-tongued, he had been unwisely critical in both conversation and writing in one of his earlier medical reviews, which had not endeared him to the College board. He was reduced to working as a doctor in small towns away from the medical elite of Milano. It was not until 1535 that he received an appointment to give public lectures in mathematics, a position once held by his father. The following year, he published his first works in math and medicine.
Though astrology held his interest, it was the simple expediency of needed income that first drew him and he entered the professional world of astrology in 1534 with his first publication, a pamphlet filled with short and long term predictions. As a poor young doctor, too proud to beg or borrow, he wrote astronomical tables for his income.
As an astrologer, he published many books until charged by the Inquisition with heresy and imprisoned for two months in Bologna. He then moved to Rome in 1571 and was granted a pension by the pope, which he lived on for the rest of his life.
Cardan was deeply grieved when his older son, Giambattista, a gifted doctor in his own right, was arrested, tried, convicted and executed in 1569 for murdering his wife with poison and when his younger son, Aldo, turned out to be a ne’er-do-well and petty thief.
Cardan died on 21 September 1576. Legend has it that he predicted the date of his death.
Link to Wikipedia biography