  gerolamo (or girolamo, or geronimo) cardano (; ; ; 24 september 1501 â 21 september 1576) was an italian renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer, philosopher and gambler. he wrote more than 200 works on medicine, mathematics, physics, philosophy, religion, and music. his gambling led him to formulate elementary rules in probability, making him one of the founders of the field. ==early life and education== he was born in pavia, lombardy, the illegitimate child of fazio cardano, a mathematically gifted lawyer, who was a friend of leonardo da vinci. in his autobiography, cardano claimed that his mother had attempted to abort him. shortly before his birth, his mother had to move from milan to pavia to escape the plague; her three other children died from the disease. in 1520, he entered the university of pavia and later in padua studied medicine. his eccentric and confrontational style did not earn him many friends and he had a difficult time finding work after his studies had ended. in 1525, cardano repeatedly applied to the college of physicians in milan, but was not admitted owing to his combative reputation and illegitimate birth. eventually, he managed to develop a considerable reputation as a physician and his services were highly valued at the courts. he was the first to describe typhoid fever. in 1553 he cured the scottish [[john hamilton (ar
1501_births 1576_deaths 16th-century_Italian_mathematicians 16th-century_Italian_physicians 16th-century_Latin-language_writers Italian_astrologers Italian_inventors Italian_mathematicians People_from_Pavia