CEBES, the name of two Greek philosophers, (1) Cebes of Cyzicus, mentioned in Athenaeus (iv. 156 D), seems to have been a Stoic, who lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Some would attribute to him the Tabula Cebetis (see below), but as that work was well known in the time of Lucian, it is probably to be placed earlier. (2) Cebes of Thebes, a disciple of Socrates and Philolaus. He is one of the speakers in the Phaedo of Plato, in which he is represented as an earnest seeker after virtue and truth, keen in argument and cautious in decision. Three dialogues, the Έβδόμη, the Φρύνιχος and the Πίναξ or Tabula, are attributed to him by Suidas and Diogenes Laërtius. The two former are lost, and most scholars deny the authenticity of the Tabula on the ground of material and verbal anachronisms. They attribute it either to Cebes of Cyzicus (above) or to an anonymous author, of the 1st century a.d., who assumed the character of Cebes of Thebes. The work professes to be an interpretation of an allegorical picture in the temple of Cronus at Athens or Thebes. The author develops the Platonic theory of pre-existence, and shows that true education consists not in mere erudition, but rather in the formation of character.
The Tabula has been widely translated both into European languages and into Arabic (the latter version published with the Greek text and Latin translation by Salmasius in 1640). It is usually printed together with Epictetus. Separate editions by C.S. Jerram (with introduction and notes, 1878), C. Prächter (1893), and many others. See Zeller’s History of Greek Philosophy; F. Klopfer, De Cebetis Tabula (1818-1822); C. Prächter, Cebetis Tabula quanam aetate conscripta esse videatur (1885).
CEBÚ, a city and municipality, port of entry, and the capital of the province of Cebú, island of Cebú, Philippine Islands, on the E. coast, a little N. of the centre. Pop. (1903) of the city proper, 18,330; of the municipality, 31,079; in the same year, after the census enumeration, the neighbouring municipalities of Mabolo (pop. 1903, 8454) and El Pardo (pop. 6461) were added to the municipality of Cebú. The surrounding country, which is level and fertile, is traversed by several good carriage roads. The port, formed by the north-west shore of the island of Mactán, is well protected from violent winds, and in front of it stands a picturesque Spanish fort. The streets are wide and regularly laid out. The government buildings are fairly good, and the church buildings very fine. Cebú is an episcopal see, and the palace of the bishop, although small, is widely known for its interior decorations. The Augustinian church is famous for its so-called miraculous image of Santo Niño. The Recoleto monastery and the seminary of San Carlos are worthy of mention. The cathedral was finished toward the end of the eighteenth century. The San José hospital here was founded by one of the religious orders. There was a leper hospital in the outskirts of the city until 1906, when a leper colony was established on the island of Culión. Commercially, Cebú is the second city of the Philippines. Hemp, tobacco, sugar and copra are the most important exports. In addition to the trade with foreign ports, an important domestic commerce is carried on with Manila, Bohol, Negros and northern Mindanao. Salt, pottery and fabrics of silk, sinamay, hemp and cotton are manufactured, and sugar sacks are woven in considerable quantity. The island of Cebú is known for its excellent mangoes and for the rare cornucopia-shaped sponges, called Venus’s flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum), found here. Historically Cebú is famous as the scene of Magellan’s landing in 1521. A cross, said to be the one first erected by him, is still preserved in the cathedral. The great explorer lost his life in the neighbouring island of Mactán; a monument marks the place where he was killed. The first Spanish settlement in the Philippines was established at Cebú in 1565, and from that year to 1571 it was the capital of the colony. The city is unincorporated. The language is Cebú-Visayan.
CECCO D’ASCOLI (1257-1327), the popular name of Francesco degli Stabili, a famous Italian encyclopaedist and poet—Cecco being the diminutive of Francesco, and Ascoli, in the marshes of Ancona, the place of the philosopher’s birth. He devoted himself to the study of mathematics and astrology, and in 1322 was made professor of the latter science at the university of Bologna. It is alleged that he entered the service of Pope John XXII. at Avignon, and that he cultivated the acquaintance of Dante only to quarrel with the great poet afterwards; but of this there is no evidence. It is certain, however, that, having published a commentary on the sphere of John de Sacrobosco, in which he propounded audacious theories concerning the employment and agency of demons, he got into difficulties with the clerical party, and was condemned in 1324 to certain fasts and prayers, and to the payment of a fine of seventy crowns. To elude this sentence he betook himself to Florence, where he was attached to the household of Carlo di Calabria. But his free-thinking and plain speaking had got him many enemies; he had attacked the Commedia of Dante, and the Canzone d’Amore of Guido Cavalcanti; and his fate was sealed. Dino di Garbo, the physician, was indefatigable in pursuit of him; and the old accusation of impiety being renewed, Cecco was again tried and sentenced, this time to the stake. He was burned at Florence the day after sentence, in the seventieth year of his age.
Cecco d’Ascoli left many works in manuscript, most of which have never been given to the world. The book by which he achieved his renown and which led to his death was the Acerba (from acervus), an encyclopaedic poem, of which in 1546, the date of the last reprint, more than twenty editions had been issued. It is unfinished, and consists of four books in sesta rima. The first book treats of astronomy and meteorology; the second of stellar influences, of physiognomy, and of the vices and virtues; the third of minerals and of the love of animals; while the fourth propounds and solves a number of moral and physical problems. Of a fifth book, on theology, the initial chapter alone was completed. A man of immense erudition and of great and varied abilities, Cecco, whose knowledge was based on experiment and observation (a fact that of itself is enough to distinguish him from the crowd of savants of that age), had outstripped his contemporaries in many things. He knew of metallic aerolites and shooting stars; the mystery of the dew was plain to him; fossil plants were accounted for by him through terrene revolutions which had resulted in the formation of mountains; he is even said to have divined the circulation of the blood. Altogether a remarkable man, he may be described as one of the many Cassandras of the middle ages—one of the many prophets who spoke of coming light, and were listened to but to have their words cast back at them in accusations of impiety and sentences of death.
The least faulty of the many editions of the Acerba is that of Venice, dated 1510. The earliest known, which has become excessively rare, is that of Brescia, which has no date, but is ascribed to 1473 or thereabouts.
CECIL, the name of a famous English family. This house, whose two branches hold each a marquessate, had a great statesman and administrator to establish and enrich it. The first Lord Burghley’s many inquiries concerning the origin of his family created for it more than one splendid and improbable genealogy, although his grandfather is the first ascertained ancestor. In the latter half of the 15th century a family of yeomen or small gentry with the surname of Seyceld, whose descendants were accepted by Lord Burghley as his kinsmen, lived on their lands at Allt yr Ynys in Walterstone, a Herefordshire parish on the Welsh marches. Of the will of Richard ap Philip Seyceld of Allt yr Ynys, made in 1508, one David ap Richard Seyceld, apparently his younger son, was overseer. This David seems identical with David Cyssell, Scisseld or Cecill, a yeoman admitted in 1494 to the freedom of Stamford in Lincolnshire. He may well have been one of those men from the Welsh border who fought at Bosworth, for at the funeral of Henry VII. he appears as a yeoman of the guard and is given a livery of black cloth. At Stamford he prospered, being three times mayor and three times member of parliament for the borough, and he served as sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1532-1533. Remaining in the service of Henry VIII. he was advanced to be yeoman of the chamber and sergeant-at-arms, being rewarded with several profitable leases and offices. His first wife was the daughter of a Stamford alderman, and his second the already twice widowed heir of a Lincolnshire squire. By the first marriage David Cecil left at his death in 1536 a son and heir, Richard Cecil, who enjoyed a place at court as yeoman of the king’s wardrobe under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. A gentleman of the privy chamber and sometime sheriff of Rutland, Richard Cecil had his share at the distribution of abbey lands, St Michael’s priory in Stamford being among the grants made to him. William Cecil, only son of Richard, was born, by his own account, in 1520, at Bourne in Lincolnshire. He advanced himself first in the service of the protector Somerset, after whose fall, his great abilities being necessary to the council, he was made a secretary of state and sworn of the privy council. In 1571 he was created Lord Burghley, and from 1572, when he was given the Garter, he was lord high treasurer and principal minister to Queen Elizabeth. By his first wife, Mary Cheke, sister of the scholar Sir John Cheke, tutor to Edward VI., he was father to Thomas, first earl of Exeter. By a second wife, Mildred Cooke, the most learned lady of her time, he had an only surviving son, Robert Cecil, ancestor of the house of Salisbury.