Decoding Cardano's Liber de Ludo Aleae

Written in the 16th century, Cardano's Liber de Ludo Aleae was, in its time, an advanced treatment of the probability calculus. At the same time it could be viewed as a gambling manual. Several commentators on the book have concluded that it is a mishmash of several, sometimes contradictory, results and statements written over an approximate 40-year period. In the current paper the Liber de Ludo Aleae is examined as a Renaissance text written in the intellectual milieu of humanism. A close examination of the book shows that it was heavily influenced by Aristotle's Ethics, in particular Aristotle's concept of justice. By reading the Liber de Ludo Aleae in this way, it is shown that there is an internal consistency to the work with a common thread of justice (ius) and knowledge (scientia) running through it. These themes are examined in detail. It is also argued that some of Cardano's probability calculations related to dice might have been taken from a printed version of the late medieval poem De Vetula. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.