Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/607

 CERVANTES

545

CESALPINO

Cervantes, Salazar Francisco, b. at Toledo, Spain, probably in 1513 or 1514, went to Mexico in 1550, died there in 1575. He deserves mention, especially as one of the first professors of t he Uni- versity of Mexico, established by order of Charles V, and opened formally, 25 January, 1553. Cer- vantes occupied the chair of rhetoric. He wrote several important works on the history of the city of Mexico and the province of New Spain in general. In Spain he was a professor at the University of < i.-ima. He was a man of solid learning and of considerable influence during his lifetime. Of his numerous writings the " Dialogos Latinos" are best known. They give in three parts a description of the young city of Mexico as it was about 1554, and notes valuable to the historian and archaeologist. Not less interesting is the "Tiimulo Imperial de la gran Ciudad de Mexico", printed 1560, and reprinted in 1886 by Ycazbalceta in his "Bibliograffa". It refers to the funeral honours celebrated at Mexico on the occasion of the death of Charles V, and gives not only a minute description of the ceremonies, but of the decorations and temporary structures raised for the occasion, with one fairly executed plate. For the customs of the times ft is highly valuable. The " Dialogos" were published at Mexico in 1554 in the original Latin, and in 1875 Ycazbal- cel. republished them in Latin, with an excellent Spanish translation and valuable notes. Cervantes has left several other works, mostly of a theological nature, and it is known that he also "wrote a " History of Mexico" which is lost, but was highly praised by those who were able to consult the manuscript.

Ycazbalceta, Tres Dialogos latinos que Francisco Cervantes Snhiznr  < imj :, \l,r.,,, i Mcxini, 1 N7."> i; Ij»i;m.

r Mr\irn, tSSti ; ]>,) KIs | ,[\ ■ &, /

tea \ixpano-americana (Mexico, 1818 : Archbishop

Mow DECONT! .Mill, h .' I l.lT.'i ', in I I ' i

•h Indias (Madrid, 187sr Antonio, Biblioteca hixpana nova

various editions, but nnti. .■ in-ntfi.-ipnt ; F.r.i mn i Eguren, Biblioteca mexicana (Mexico, 1755, incomplete!

Ad. F. Bandelier.

Cervia, Diocese of (Cerviensis). suffragan of Ravenna. Cervia is a city in the province of Ra- venna, Italy, on the ancient Via Flaminia in a marshy district not far from the sea. It was called anciently Phknchr, but took its present name before 997, perhaps after the destruction of the city by lire in 708. Its political vicissitudes are more or less the same as those of Ravenna. During the episcopate of Bishop Rustico (1210), Cervia was placed under an interdict for its maltreatment of an envoy of the Archbishop of Ravenna. The first known Bishop of Cervia is Si. Gerontius. He was returning with Viticanus, Bishop of Cagli, from the Roman council held In 501 to treat accusations made against Pope Symmachus. when he was assaulted and killed by bandits. (The legend says •heretics", perhaps Goths, or more probably Ileruli. of the army of Odoacer.) His relics are venerated at Cagli. Other bishops worthy of mention were: the iap Pietro Barbo (1440), later Pope Paul II: Bonifacio Bevilacqua (1601), afterwards Cardinal, and an intimate friend of Gregory XV, who made him Duke of Fornano. The diocese has a population of 12,696, with 12 parishes. 26 churches and chapels, 43 secular priests, and 1 religious house of women.

Capph.u m. /.. d f Italia Venice, lsll), II. 557-78;

Forlivesi, Crma in Cenni Slorici (Bologna.
 * ccl. (Koine. 1907

U. Ill'MIIM.

Cesalpino (('.ksm.pim-si. Axdrka. physician, phi- losopher, and naturalist, distinguished above all as a botanist, b. at Axezzo in Tuscany, Italy. 6 June. 1519; d. at Rome, 23 February, 1603. For his studies at the University of Pisa his instructor in medicine was R. Colombo (d. 1559), and in botany the celebrated Luca Ghini (d. 1556) \iter completing his course III

he taught philosophy, medicine, and botany for many years at the same university, besides making botan- ical explorations in various parts of Italy. At this time the first botanical gardens in Europe were laid out; the earliest tit Padua, in 1546; the next at Pisa in 1547 by Ghini, who was its first, director. Ghini was succeeded by Cesalpino, who had charge of the Pisan garden 1554-1558. When far advanced in years Cesalpino accepted a call to Rome as professor of medicine at the Sapienza and physician to Pope Clement VIII. It is not positively certain whether he also become the chief superintendent of the Roman botanical garden which had been laid out about 1566 by one of his most celebrated pupils, Michele Mercati (1541-1593). All of Cesalpino's writings show the man of genius and the profound tliinker. His style, it is true, is often heavy, yet in spite of the scholastic form in which his works are cast, passages of great beauty often occur. Modern botanists and physiolo- gists who are not acquainted with the writings of Aristotle find Cesalpino's books obscure; their failure to comprehend them has frequently misled them in their judgment of his achievement. No comprehen- sive summing up of the results of Cesalpino's investi- gations, founded on a critical study of all his works, has appeared, neither has there been a complete edi- tion of his writings. Seven of these are positively known, and most of the seven have been printed several times, although none have appeared since the seventeenth century. In the following list the date of publication given is that of the first edition. His most important philosophical work is "Qusestionum peripatctiearum libri V" (Florence, 1569). Cesalpino proves himself in this to be one of the most eminent ami original students of Aristotle in the sixteenth century. His writings, however, show traces of the influence of Averroes, hence he is an Averroistic Aristotelean; apparently he was also inclined to Pantheism, consequently he was included, later, in the Spinozists before Spinoza. A Protestant oppo- nent of Aristotelean views. Nicholas Taurellus (d. 1606, at Altdorf), who is called "the first German philosopher", wrote several times against Cesalpino. The work of Taurellus entitled "Alpes csesae", etc. (Frankfort, 1597), is entirely devoted to combating the opinions of Cesalpino, as the play on the name Csesalpinus shows. Nearly one hundred years later Cesalpino's views were again attacked, this time by an Englishman, Samuel Parker (d. 1688), in a work entitled; " Disputationes de Deo et providentia di- \ .in a I London, 1678).

i < alpino repeatedly asserted the steadfastness of his Catholic principles and his readiness to acknowl- edge the falsity of any philosophical opinions ex- pounded by him as Aristotelean doctrine, which should be contrary to revelation. In Italy he was in high favour both with the secular and spiritual rulers. Cesalpino's physiological investigations concerning

the circulation of the bl I are mII known, but even

up to the present time tbej have ben as often over- estimated as undervalued, \n examination of the various passages in his writings which bear upon the question shows that although it must be said that Cesalpino had penetrate, I further into the secret of the Circulation of the blood than any other physiolo- gist before William Harvey, still he had not attained to a thorough knowledge, founded on anatomical re- search, of the entire course of the blood. Resides the work "Qusestionum peripatctiearum " already men- tioned, reference should be made to "QuSBBtiomim medicarum libri duo" (Venici 1593 and to his most important publication "De plantis libri XVI" (Flor- iniido ( Sesalpino im- mortal; tin- date of its publication. 1583, is one of the

most important in the history of botany before I.in-

naus. Tln> permission to print tie- book is dated 27 September, 1581. The work is dedicated to the