Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/983

CAS which he reviews the Augsburg Confession, and suggests concessions that might be made by Rome. He died in 1566. His works were collected and published at Paris in 1616.—J. B.  CASSARD,, a famous French naval officer, born at Nantes in 1672. He commanded a privateer, which inflicted considerable injury upon the English commerce, and performed several daring exploits, which obtained for him a wide celebrity in his native country, but were not productive of any permanent benefit to his own interests. After the peace of Utrecht, when his services were no longer required, he was completely neglected by the French court, and died in great poverty in 1740, having been confined for the last twenty-one years of his life in the fortress of Ham.—J. T.  CASSAS,, a French painter and architect, born in 1756; died in 1827. He published several illustrated works of travel, particularly "Voyages pittoresques de la Syrie, de la Phenicie, de la Palestine, de la basse Egypte," 1799, remarkable for its plans and views of Palmyra and Baalbek; and "Pictorial Sketches of the principal Sites and Monuments of Greece, Sicily, and Rome."  * CASSEBEER,, a German botanist, celebrated for his work "Ueber die Entwickelung der Laubmoose," published at Frankfort-on-the-Maine in 1823. A genus Cassebeera is named after him.—J. H. B.  CASSERIO,, a celebrated Italian anatomist, born in 1545, and surnamed from Placentia the place of his birth. He was originally a servant in the family of Fabricius de Aquapendente, of Padua, who, having marked his great talents, gave him instructions in anatomy, in which he soon made astonishing progress. Fabricius was proud of his accomplished pupil, and frequently employed him as his substitute in giving public lectures; and when, in 1604, his advanced age compelled him to resign his professorship, the Venetian senate appointed Casserio his successor. The minuteness and accuracy of his dissections enabled him to make many valuable discoveries, especially regarding the organ of hearing, which have immortalized his name. He died in 1616. His great work on anatomy, consisting of ninety-seven folio plates, representing all the parts of the human body, was not published till some years after his death.—J. T.  CASSIANI,, an Italian poet, born at Modena in 1712. Having been elected professor of poetry in the college for the nobility of his native state, he devoted his time entirely to poetical composition. He ranks amongst the first lyric poets of Italy, and every lover of Italian poetry is acquainted with his inimitable sonnet, "Il Ratto di Proserpina." Francis, duke of Modena, appointed him professor of eloquence in the university, intrusting him at the same time with the lucrative office of ducal historiographer. Cassiani's poetical and prose works have been published by his favourite pupil, Marquis Girolamo Luccesini. He died in 1778.—A. C. M.  CASSIEN,, born about 350; died about 443. The place of his birth is doubtful, some statements making him the native of a Greek city on the Black Sea. The authors of L'Histoire litteraire de la France describe him as descended from a distinguished French family. Marseilles is said to have been his birthplace. However this be, at Marseilles he chiefly resided; he wrote all his works there; he founded in that city his famous abbey of St. Victor, and there he died. Pilgrimages were the passion of the period in which he lived, and Cassien, with his friend, Germain, visited, first Bethlehem, and then the Thebaid. On his return he was ordained deacon at Constantinople by St. Chrysostom, and soon afterwards is said to have obtained priest's orders at Marseilles. At Marseilles he founded two monasteries—one of men, the other of females. In the first there were subject to his rule as many as five thousand monks. Cassien's chief works are his "Monastic Institutions," and his "Twenty-four Conferences of the Fathers of the Desert"—they were translated into French by Nicolas Fontaine. Another work of Cassien's is "A Treatise on the Incarnation," written at the request of Pope Celestine against Nestorius.—J. A., D.  CASSINI, the name of a family originally of Italy, but naturalized in France since the time of Louis XIV., all the representatives of which, with one exception, have attained eminence as astronomers. We notice:—

, a celebrated astronomer, was born at Périnaldo in the county of Nice in 1625. His studies, commenced under an able schoolmaster, were continued among the jesuits at Genoa; and a love of literature then manifested itself, which he retained through life. His attention was called to astronomy by means of the study of astrology, which he prosecuted for a short time with much interest, and he is said to have made, in accordance with its rules, several predictions which the event fulfilled. But he soon discerned the emptiness of its pretensions, and relinquished it for the more reliable investigations of astronomy. His progress in this science was so rapid, that in 1650, at the age of twenty-five years, he was chosen by the senate of Bologna to fill the chair of astronomy in the university of that town, vacant by the death of the famous mathematician, Cavalieri. While occupying this position, he performed what was considered a very difficult achievement, the tracing of a meridian in the church of the Petrone, and was employed by the senate to design and execute some works connected with the embanking of the Po. He also undertook the fortification of Urbino and Perugia, and was besides intrusted with some important negotiations with the Roman and Tuscan governments, relative to the courses of the Po and Chiana. In 1665, while residing at Città della Pieve in Tuscany, he discovered the shadows cast upon the planet Jupiter by his satellites, and made use of the discovery to amend the theory of satellite motion. He also discovered about the same time, by means of the fixed spots on Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, the times of rotation of these planets, which he determined to be respectively, 9 h. 55 m., 24 h. 40 m., and about 24½ hours. In 1684, while residing in France, where he had been naturalized in 1673, he discovered four of the satellites of Saturn, in addition to the one which was previously known through the discovery of Huygens. He investigated the zodiacal light, and gave an exact description of its form and position; and he was the first to announce the inclination of the moon's axis. The laws of its apparent variation, which he announced with considerable precision, constitute one of his finest discoveries. He was one of the principal projectors of the Cayenne expedition, which resulted in the disclosure of the fact, that gravity diminishes from the poles to the equator. In 1668 he published tables of the motions of Jupiter's satellites, a work of immense labour, and performed with great exactness, considering the state of astronomical science at the time. A revised edition appeared in 1693. In 1700 he completed the measurement of an arc of the meridian extending from some distance south of Paris to Roussillon, part of which had been previously measured by Picard and Lahire. He died in 1712.

, son of the preceding, was born at Paris in 1677, and admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1694. He travelled successively in Italy, Holland, and England, where he made the acquaintance of Newton, Halley, and Flamstead, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society of London in 1696. On his return to Paris he prepared a number of scientific papers for the Academy; and in 1717 presented to this society his great work "On the Inclination of the plane of the ring, and orbits of the satellites, of the planet Saturn." But he is best known by his terrestrial measurements. He had assisted his father in 1701 in extending an arc of the meridian to Canigou. In 1718 he carried it on to Dunkirk, and published his work "On the Size and Figure of the Earth," Paris, 1720. He was then intrusted by the Academy with the measurement of an arc of longitude extending across the whole kingdom of France, from Brest to Strasbourg. Cassini also published "Astronomical Tables of the Sun, Moon, Planets, Stars, and Satellites," Paris, 1740, which for a long time ranked among the best. A supplement was added to this work by his son in 1756. Jacques Cassini died at Thury in 1756.

, son of the preceding, was born in 1714, and at the age of twenty-two was received into the Academy of Sciences. The great work of his life was a trigonometrical survey of France, the expense of which was borne by government till 1756, after which time it was chiefly sustained by private enterprise. The results were published from time to time in the form of large charts on a scale of a line to 100 toises, and the whole were capable of being united in one large chart 33 feet high and 34 broad. The positions of all the towns are determined in it, with reference to the meridian of Paris, and a perpendicular to it passing through Paris. The publication of this magnificent work effected a complete revolution in geography, and it has served as a model for many subsequent undertakings. Cassini de Thury died of smallpox in 1784, having lived to see his work almost completed.

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