Who doesn't know what a driveshaft is today? The advent of the cardan mechanism revolutionized technology. But few people know about the fate of the man whose name he is named after - Girolamo Cardano. An outstanding and versatile scientist of the Renaissance - a doctor, philosopher, inventor, naturalist, mathematician, astrologer - left more than 130 scientific papers in various fields of knowledge to the descendants. On the pages of the book is the life of Girolamo Cardano, his insights and mistakes, ups and downs. The richest historical material allows the authors to recreate a complex and controversial portrait of the great Italian scientist of the 16th century.