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| University of Pavia |
On this day, 501 years ago, Fazio Cardano crossed the threshold into the unseen world he had courted in life. His name lingers in the shadow of his son, the great Girolamo Cardano, yet Fazio himself was no less a figure of wonder. True to the Renaissance spirit, Fazio was a man of many parts: jurist, physician, and mathematician. He taught geometry at the Piatti Foundation of Milan and lectured at the University of Pavia, within sight of that city’s towers that still rise as pictured below.
Fazio was a close friend and mathematical consultant to Leonardo da Vinci, and he translated a 13th-century book on optics by Archbishop John Peckham of Canterbury, which Leonardo used in setting up his own optical experiments. But Fazio’s story does not rest in academia alone. From his youth he was haunted—or perhaps chosen—by spirits. He once drove away a folletto, a mischievous sprite, but later kept a familiar spirit, seeking its aid in trials, and turning only in direst need to the saints. In August of 1491 he recorded a visitation by seven beings at once: demons, angels, or travelers from some other realm—who can say?
Half a millennium later, we remember Fazio Cardano—Renaissance scholar, mathematician, occultist, and companion of spirits.
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| Pavia, Italy |
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| Pavia, Italy |
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| Base of the Towers of Pavia, Italy |
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| University of Pavia |
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| Classroom in the University of Pavia |
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| Another view of the classroom at the University of Pavia |
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| The Towers of Pavia, viewed while leaving the University |
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