Note 101 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Cardan repeats the remark in the first chapter of the Liber Artis Magnæ (Opera, tom. iv. p. 222). "Deceptus enim ego verbis Lucæ Paccioli, qui ultra sua capitula, generale ullum aliud esse posse negat (quanquam tot jam antea rebus a me inventis, sub manibus esset) desperabam tamen invenire, quod quærere non audebam." Perhaps he wrote them down as an apology or a defence against the storm which he anticipated as soon as Tartaglia should have seen the new Algebra.