Jerome Cardan was born on the 24th of September 1501 and died on the 21st 1576. He was a celebrated Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer, and gambler.
He was born in Pavia, Italy; He is the child of a mathematically gifted lawyer who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci. In 1520, he entered the University of Pavia and later in Padua he 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.
Eventually, he managed to develop a considerable reputation as physician and his services were highly valued at the courts. He was the first to describe typhoid fever.
Today, he is best known for his achievements in algebra. He published the solutions to the cubic
And quartic equations in his 1545 book Ars magna. Part of the solution to the cubic was communicated to him by Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia, and the quartic was solved by Cardan’s student Lodovico Ferrari. Both were acknowledged in the foreword of the book.
Cardan invented several mechanical devices including the combination lock, the gimbal 
consisting of three concentric rings allowing a supported compass or gyroscope to rotate freely, and the Cardan shaft with universal joints, which allows to transmit rotary motion at various angles and is used in vehicles to this day.
Cardan was accused of heresy in 1570 because he had computed and published the horoscope of Jesus in 1554. He was arrested and had to spend several months in prison, was forced to abjure and give up his professorship. He moved to Rome, received a lifetime annuity from Pope Gregory XIII and finished his autobiography. He died there on the day he had (supposedly) astrologically predicted earlier.
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