Guess the Scientist, #3
What famous sixteenth-century scientist does this passage describe? Answer is in extended (and in the comments).
Answer: The truly bizarre sixteenth-century polymath Girolamo Cardano, author of 230 books.
Cardano is considered to have made significant contributions to many fields, but especially mathematics. He was also notorious for having cast Jesus Christ's horoscope and concluding that Jesus' life and crucifixion were due to unfavorable influences of the planets and stars. This earned him imprisonment by the Inquisition. His own son helped convict him. Cardano also supposedly predicted the exact date of his death, though many suspect he committed suicide in order to accurately fulfill the prophecy.
The text is from The Italian 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Cultural, Scientific, and Political Figures, Past and Present by Stephen J. Spignesi.
_________ relates in one of his autobiographies (he wrote three) that he was completely impotent from the age of twenty-one until his marriage at the age of thirty-one; but that after he wed, the union resulted in three children, two boys and a girl...
_________ also suffered from an amazing array of physical problems and ailments, including: stuttering; chronic hoarseness; nasal discharge; heart palpitations; hemorrhoids; indigestion; malaria; gout; chronic itching; hernia; colic; insomnia; dysentery; and a malignant growth on his left nipple. He also had some truly odd physical problems. He wrote that "in 1536 I was overtaken with an extraordinary discharge of urine; and although for nearly forty years I have been afflicted with this trouble, giving from sixty to a hundred ounces a day, I live well."
Answer: The truly bizarre sixteenth-century polymath Girolamo Cardano, author of 230 books.
Cardano is considered to have made significant contributions to many fields, but especially mathematics. He was also notorious for having cast Jesus Christ's horoscope and concluding that Jesus' life and crucifixion were due to unfavorable influences of the planets and stars. This earned him imprisonment by the Inquisition. His own son helped convict him. Cardano also supposedly predicted the exact date of his death, though many suspect he committed suicide in order to accurately fulfill the prophecy.
The text is from The Italian 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Cultural, Scientific, and Political Figures, Past and Present by Stephen J. Spignesi.
Comments
Half of that crap sounds like it was psychosymatic (sp?)
Posted by Jules in Connecticut on 11/03/08 at 10:48 AM
His wife was obviously very tolerant.
Posted by BikerPuppy on 11/03/08 at 10:58 AM
Perhaps it took that long to find a woman kinky enough for him.
Posted by John in O-high-O on 11/03/08 at 09:37 PM
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