Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/1012

CEL methodo dimetiendi distantiam solis a terra;" ". observationes de lumine boreali;" "De Luna non habitabili;" and "Letters on Comets," in Swedish.—J. T.  CELSIUS,, a Swedish naturalist and mathematician, was born in 1621, and died in 1679. He was professor of mathematics at Upsal; but his published works are on natural history—such as "De Plantis Upsaliæ," 1647, and "De Natura Piscium in Genere et Piscatoria," 1676.—J. H. B.  CELSIUS, or , a well-known medical botanist and theologian, was the son of Magnus Nicolaus Celsius. He was born in 1670, and died in 1756. He was professor of theology and of the oriental languages at Upsal. By order of Charles XI. he travelled through the principal European states. His most celebrated work is entitled "Hierobotanicon," or an account of the plants mentioned in the Bible. It is a very learned work, and shows that the author was both a good oriental scholar and a botanist. He was one of the founders of natural science in Sweden, and he was the first instructor of Linnæus, who named the genus Celsia after him. Besides numerous botanical dissertations, Celsius wrote various theological works, such as—on the original language of the New Testament; on the Suedo-Gothic versions of the Bible; on the warlike laws of the Hebrews; on the sculpture of the Hebrews; on Solomon's navigation; on the pyramids of Egypt; on the Arabic language, &c.—J. H. B.  CELSUS, an Epicurean philosopher of the time of the Antonines, a friend of Lucian, supposed to be the author of the work against christianity entitled , which the reply of Origen rendered famous.—J. S., G.  CELSUS, in English CELESTINE, and in Irish CELLACH, born in 1079, was consecrated archbishop of Armagh in 1106. He was deeply learned, and is called in the Antiquities of Oxford, "an universal scholar." He was present at the great synod held in 1111, convoked "to regulate the lives and manners of the clergy and laity." He died in 1129, aged fifty years, and was buried at Lismore.—J. F. W.  CELSUS,, a Roman poet who lived about the beginning of the christian era. He was the secretary of Tiberius Claudius Nero, and the friend of Horace, who has addressed to him one of his epistles.—J. T.  CELSUS, or, the most celebrated, and one of the most valuable of the ancient Latin medical writers. His exact date is unknown, but he lived probably at the beginning of the christian era, and at Rome. Little or nothing is known of his personal history, and it is even doubtful whether he was a physician by profession, or whether he was merely a literary man who wrote on various subjects, and on medicine among the rest. At any rate, his work "De Medicina," which is the only one of his writings that remains (with the exception of a few fragments of a treatise on rhetoric), shows that he was quite on a level in scientific and medical knowledge with his contemporaries; and it is the best synopsis we possess of the opinions and practice of the physicians of his day. It is divided into eight books, and treats in a cursory manner of diet, hygiene, pharmacy, anatomy, medicine, surgery, &c. The most valuable portion of the work is his account of various surgical operations which were commonly performed in his day, and which show, that, while the medical theories of his contemporaries were frequently erroneous, and their treatment of internal diseases feeble and unskilful, their surgical practice was much superior, and exhibited considerable boldness and judgment. It ought not to be forgotten that the style of his Latinity is peculiarly elegant, and fully equal to that of his contemporaries in the Augustan age. Celsus does not seem to have been much read during the middle ages; but four editions of his work were published in the fifteenth century, and it has ever since continued to be reprinted from time to time. Part of its present popularity in England is caused by its being one of the usual text-books for medical students. Among the principal editions may be mentioned that by Targa, Patav., 1769, 4to, whose text has been the basis of most subsequent editions. There is a good edition by Milligan, Edinburgh, 1826, 8vo; and a new edition has been prepared by Dr. Daremberg for a publisher at Paris. Celsus has been translated into English, French, Italian, and German; none of the English translations that the writer has had an opportunity of inspecting appear to be very good.—(For further particulars respecting his opinions and practice—see Haller's Biblioth. Chirurg., vol. i.; and Biblioth. Medic. Pract., vol. i.; and the Histories of Medicine by Le Clerc, Sprengel, Bostock, and Hamilton. See also Choulant, Handbuch der Bücherkunde für die Aeltere Medicin, Leipzig, 1840, 8vo; Dr. William Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography.)—W. A. G.  CELSUS,, one of the thirty tyrants of Rome. Proclaimed emperor in Africa,. 265, in the twelfth year of the reign of Gallienus, he was slain on the seventh day after his assumption of the purple. <section end="1012H" /> <section begin="1012I" />CELSUS, P., the name of two Roman jurists, father and son, both cited in the Digest. Of the elder little is known. The younger flourished under Nero and Trajan, and wrote "Digestorum libri .;" "Epistolæ;" "Commentarii;" and "Institutiones." <section end="1012I" /> <section begin="1012J" />CELTES,, an eminent German scholar, whose real name was either or. He was born at Wipfelde, near Wurzburg, in 1459, and died at Vienna in 1508. His father's intention of making him a vintner was frustrated by his flight to Cologne, where he strenuously applied himself to the study of the ancient languages, and soon distinguished himself as a scholar and poet. He then visited the most renowned universities of Germany, was crowned poet laureate at Nurnberg in 1487, by the emperor, Frederick III., and travelled in Italy in 1488, where he formed acquaintances with the foremost scholars of his age. After his return he spent some years at Cracow, and thence proceeded to Mentz where he originated the celebrated Rhenish Society of Letters. In 1497, he was appointed professor of poetry and rhetoric in the university of Vienna by Maximilian I. Here he founded the Collegium Poetarum in 1502, enriched the imperial library with numerous Greek and Latin works, and first introduced theatrical representations in the court. In one of his frequent travels, he discovered in the convent of Tegernsee that celebrated old map, known as the Tabula Peutingeriana, so called after its first editor. He wrote a number of Latin works, edited the writings of the nun Hroswitha, and chiefly excelled in Latin poetry after the model of Horace and Tibullus.—(See Klupfel, De vita et Scriptis C. C.; edition by Ruef and Zell, Freiburg, 1827, 2 vols.)—K. E. <section end="1012J" /> <section begin="1012K" />CENCI,, a Roman lady of the eleventh century, whose memory has been preserved by her extraordinary beauty and tragical fate. She was the daughter of Count Francesco Cenci, a man notorious for his debauchery and frightful wickedness. He had on various occasions purchased at an enormous price, from the papal government, pardon for murder and other shocking crimes. He had married a second time, and had conceived an implacable hatred towards his children by his first wife, and is even charged with having put two of his sons to death. The remarkable beauty of his daughter Beatrice, excited in the breast of the old villain "feelings at which nature shudders," and the gratification of his incestuous passion was aggravated by every circumstance of cruelty and violence. His unfortunate victim appealed to the pope, Clement VIII., but in vain; and her attempts to escape by flight having been frustrated, she sank into despair. At length her mother-in-law and brother, unable longer to bear the ill-treatment and villanies of the count, conspired with his steward and several other persons to put their oppressor to death, which they accomplished by means of a hired assassin. It is uncertain whether or not Beatrice was privy to this plot. Suspicion, however, fell upon her as well as upon the other members of the Cenci family, and they were all arrested, carried to Rome, and subjected to the most frightful tortures. Beatrice constantly asserted her innocence, but she was condemned to death along with her mother-in-law and two brothers. The most earnest entreaties for her pardon were made to the pope by the noblest families in Rome, but the pontiff was inexorable, and Beatrice was executed on the 11th September, 1599, along with her mother-in-law and elder brother; the younger having been spared on account of his youth. The immense possessions of the family were confiscated by the pope. The details of this terrible tragedy were long kept secret by the papal court, and have only within these few years been brought to light. The story of the Cenci has been made the subject of a powerful drama by Shelley.—J. T. <section end="1012K" /> <section begin="1012L" />CÈNE. See. <section end="1012L" /> <section begin="1012Zcontin" />CENNINI,, an Italian painter, born about 1360. He was a pupil of the celebrated Giotti. The only frescos of his which remain are in the church of St. Francis at Volterra. He is best known now, however, by his treatise on painting, the earliest extant, which lay unnoticed in the Vatican until it was discovered in 1821, and published by the chevalier Tambroni. <section end="1012Zcontin" />