Girolamo Cardano's name was Cardan in Latin and he is sometimes known by the English version of his name Jerome Cardan. His father, Fazio, was a lawyer in Milan but his expertise in mathematics was such that he was consulted by Leonardo da Vinci on questions of geometry.

At the University of Pavia, youg Cardano was a brilliant student, but controversial. Cardan squandered the small bequest from his father and turned to gambling to boost his finances. Card games, dice and chess were the methods he used to make a living. Cardano's understanding of probability meant he had an advantage over his opponents and, in general, he won more than he lost. Some consider him the founder of probability, later formalized by Blaise Pascal )to try to persuade others of the folly of gambling). In particular, Cardano developed the notion of equiprobability of all outcomes in a fair game. Just as an equal-arm balance is useful to weigh matter by deviation from the center of a scale, so deviation from equiprobability detects baias.

In 1536, Cardano's first two mathematical books were published, the second The Practice of Arithmetic and Simple Mensuration was a sign of greater things to come. This was the beginning of Cardan's prolific literary career writing on a diversity of topics medicine, philosophy, astronomy and theology, besides mathematics.

A meeting, in 1539, with Tartaglia, who won a contest on solving cubics, Cardano intensely worked on solving cubic and quartic equations by radicals over the next six years. In 1539 Cardano wrote to Tartaglia the conditions for the quartic formula to involve square roots of negative numbers, the first to grapple with "imaginary numbers".

After 1546, Cardano became rector of the College of Physicians, with the reputation of being the greatest physician in the world. Cardano received many offers from the heads of state in Europe, anxious to receive the best medical attention. But Cardano was brought down by the trial and execution of his son for poisoning the latter's wife.

In addition to Cardano's major contributions to algebra he also made important contributions to probability, hydrodynamics, mechanics and geology. His book Liber de Ludo Aleae was published in 1663 but the books on games of chance was probably completed by 1563. Cardan makes the first ever foray into the, until then untouched, realm of probability theory. It is the first study of things such as dice rolling, based on the premise that there are fundamental scientific principles governing the likelihood of achieving the elusive 'double six', outside of mere luck or chance.