Cardano : : The Gambling Scholar / / Øystein Ore.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Archive 1927-1999
• VerfasserIn: Ore, Øystein,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2017]; ©1953
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Legacy Library ; 5063
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (268 p.)

Cardano, next to Vesalius the greatest physician of his day, was also a devoted and skilled gambler who played for personal pleasure and profit. His mathematical genius enabled him to devise simple rules of probability for his own benefit and for his gambling contemporaries. These he collected in his Book on Games of Chance and embellished them with essays on the tricks of cheats and kibitzers, as well as on psychological rules of play. In this biography of a stormy Renaissance personality, Cardano's gambling studies are deciphered for the first time, and a translation of the Book on Games of Chance is appended.Originally published in 1953.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Plates -- 1. The Stormy Life of Cardano -- 2. Cardano's Enigmatic Character -- 3. The Battles of the Scholars -- 4. Cardano the Gambler -- 5. The Science of Gambling -- Bibliography -- Liber de Ludo Aleae -- Contents -- 1. On Kinds of Games -- 2. On Conditions of Play -- 3. Who Should Play and When -- 4-. The Utility of Play, and Losses -- 5. Why I Have Dealt with Gambling -- 6. The Fundamental Principle of Gambling -- 7. The Hanging Dice Box and Dishonest Dice -- 8. Conditions Under Which One Should Play -- 9. On The Cast of One Die -- 10. Why Gambling Was Condemned by Aristotle -- 11. On the Cast of Two Dice -- 12. On the Cast of Three Dice -- 13. On Composite Numbers Up to Six and Beyond and for Two and Three Dice -- 14. On Combined Points -- 15. On an Error Which Is Made About This -- 16. On Card Games -- 17. On Frauds in Games of This Kind -- 18. Customary Conventionsi in Primero -- 19. On the Diversity of Points or Numbers in Primero -- 20. On Luck in Play -- 21. On Timidity in the Throw -- 22. On the Twofold Division of Games -- 23. On Card Games in Which There is Occasion for Trained Skill -- 24. On The Difference Between Play with Cards and Play with Dice -- 25. On Card Games -- 26. Do Those Who Teach Also Play Well? -- 27. Is There Some Element Apart from Skill Which Plays a Role in the Exercise of Skill? -- 28. On Far-Reaching Plans, Judgment, and Procedure [in Backgammon] -- 29. On the Character of Players -- 30. On Games of Chance Among the Ancients -- 31. On Play with Knucklebones -- 32. Conclusion of the Work -- Index of Persons -- Index of Subjects