On remembering Cardano anew (Q2341293)

This essay consists of two articles presented together in the section ``Years Ago'', on Cardano's exotic figure, in two different directions. On the one hand, Heeffer focuses on the proportio reflexa (or the reflexive ratio), explained and used by Cardano in some mathematical works, while on the other, Rothman deals with the ``great feud'' between Cardano and Tartaglia and the tales involved in this subject. Heeffer's article, entitled ``Cardano's favorite problem: the proportio reflexa'', begins by presenting some background to this principle, which consists in the ratio of the sides of a specific triangle inscribed in a regular heptagon useful for the construction of such polygons. First, he provides some details about the critiques of Cardano's proportio reflexa by Kepler in his \textit{Harmonices mundi} (1619). Heeffer emphasizes that Cardano ``was less interested in the construction of the regular heptagon than he was in the special proportion he had discovered''. The author dedicates the rest of the article to showing the very singular and interesting use of this reflexive ratio as well as the quantification of this ratio by means of algebra, in Cardano's \textit{De subtilitate} (1554) and \textit{Opus novum de proportionibus} (1570). Heeffer ends the article by referring to this ratio as ``a nice example of conceptual continuity in Cardano's thinking''. The author compares his approach to that of an artist for presenting this idea in different contexts; in fact, he connects mathematics with the paths of celestial bodies that also become solvable by algebra. Rothman's article, entitled ``Cardano versus Tartaglia: the great feud goes supernatural'', deals with the famous dispute in the history of mathematics between Cardano and Tartaglia. Using Witmer's English translation of the \textit{Ars magna}, he constructs three parts entitled: ``Absolute truth (more or less)'', ``Disputable'' and ``Falsifiable''. In the first part, he exposes the history of the solution to the cubic equation through its actors: Antonio Maria Fiore, Tartaglia, Cardano and his student Ludovico Ferrari, which is quite well documented. In the second part, he presents relevant passages from Ferrari's work in which Tartaglia appears as a man who did not want to publish his discovery, a fact that Rothman discusses. Finally, in the third part, he describes some tales about Tartaglia's and Cardano's life that one can find, for instance, in the Wikipedia entry and in Wyke's book, and Rothman shows his falsity. For example, Tartaglia died 19 years before Cardano, however, we can read at the end of Cardano's biography: ``Less than a year later his enemy Tartaglia also died''. The most interesting part is Rothman's final reflexion about the reasons for these errors in popular and semi-popular literature. He ends the article with the phrase: ``If one prefers tall tales and inventions to research, that's fine, but don't call it history''. In fact, both articles present two new interesting views on Cardano's work and life, providing new ideas for research into the mathematics of the past and improving our knowledge about this great Renaissance figure.