The Book of My Life

Native LAanp AND ForEBEARS

My native country is the Duchy of Milan; the town in which the family of the Cardani had its origins is twenty-four miles distant from the city. From Gallarate it is only seven miles.

My father Fazio was a jurisconsult. My grandfather was Antonio, my great-grandfather another Fazio, my great-great-grandfather, Aldo. The first Fazio, my great-grandfather, had three sons: Giovanni, Aldo II and Antonio who became my grandfather. The sons of Antonio were Gottardo, Paolo, a jurisconsult and prelate, Fazio, my father, and an illegitimate son named Paolo. Now there are alive, from the same family, almost thirty kinsmen. Whether, however, the family of the Cardani is a line in itself, or whether, as certain people think, it is a branch of the Castiglioni, surely it has been both noble and ancient. From the year 1189 a Milone Cardano was prefect of Milan for seven years and eight months by the ecclesiastical as well as the civil calendar. And he presided not only at civil suits, but even, like other Chiefs of State, at criminal trials; he had charge, also, of cases in other cities which were under Milanese jurisdiction; and cases throughout the whole region. Among these cities was Como. Milone had secured this high post of honor through the Archbishop Crivelli when the latter had been hurriedly advanced to the Pontificate as Pope Urban III.