Girolamo Cardano

(1501 - 1576)

Girolamo Cardano declared himself the seventh genius of creation, adding that only one was born every ten centuries. He said he learned Greek and Latin in three days, and was in the habit of wearing a suit and headdress of thick leather along with leaded shoes that weighed eight pounds. A Renaissance physician, mathematician, and philosopher, Cardano is considered the first person to propose a mathematical theory for probability. He wrote Games of Chance while he was a student rector at the University of Padua, though the work was published much later, in 1663.