"Ars Magna, published in 1545... contains many valuable discoveries; but that which has been most celebrated is the rule for the solution of cubic equations, generally known by Cardan's name, though he had obtained it from a man of equal genius in algebraic science, Nicolas Tartaglia. ...Cossali has ingeniously attempted to trace the process by which Tartaglia arrived at this discovery; one which, when compared with the other leading rules of algebra, where the invention... has generally lain much nearer the surface, seems an astonishing effort of sagacity. Even Harriott's beautiful generalization of the composition of equations was prepared by what Cardan and Vieta had done before, or might have been suggested by observation in the less complex cases. Cardan, though not entitled to the honor of this discovery, nor even equal, perhaps, in mathematical genius to Tartaglia, made a great epoch in the science of algebra; and according to Cossali and Hutton, has a claim to much that Montucla has unfairly or carelessly attributed to his favorite, Vieta."