[1] For the Cesnola controversy see C.D. Cobham’s Attempt at a Bibliography of Cyprus (4th ed., 1900). See also article [Cyprus].
CESPEDES (in Ital. Cedaspe), PABLO DE (1538-1608), Spanish poet, painter, sculptor and architect, was born at Cordova, and was educated at Alcalá de Henares, where he studied theology and Oriental languages. On leaving the university, he went to Rome, where he became the pupil and friend of Federigo Zuccaro, under whose direction he studied particularly the works of Raphael and of Michelangelo. In 1560, while yet in Rome, proceedings were taken against him by the Inquisition at Valladolid on account of a letter which, found among the papers of the archbishop of Toledo, had been written by Cespedes during the preceding year, and in which he had spoken with great freedom against the holy office and the inquisitor-general, Fernando de Valdés. Cespedes remained in Rome at this critical moment, and he appears rightly to have treated the prosecution with derision. It is not known how he contrived to bring the proceedings to an end; he returned, however, to Spain a little before 1577, and in that year was installed in a prebend of the cathedral at Cordova, where he resided till his death. Pablo de Cespedes has been called the most savant of Spanish artists. According to his friend Francisco Pacheco, to whom posterity is indebted for the preservation of all of Cespedes’s verse that is extant, the school of Seville owes to him its introduction to the practice of chiaroscuro. He was a bold and correct draughtsman, a skilful anatomist, a master of colour and composition; and the influence he exerted to the advantage of early Spanish art was considerable. Cristobal de Vera, Juan de Peñalosa and Zambrano were among his pupils. His best picture is a Last Supper at Cordova, but there are good examples of his work at Seville and at Madrid. Cespedes was author of several opuscules in prose on subjects connected with his profession. Of his poem on The Art of Painting enough was preserved by Pacheco to enable us to form an opinion of the whole. It is esteemed the best didactic verse in Spanish; and it has been compared, not disadvantageously, with the Georgics. It is written in strong and sonorous octaves, in the majestic declamatory vein of Fernando Herrera, and is not altogether so dull and lifeless as is most didactic verse. It contains a glowing eulogy of Michelangelo, and some excellent advice to young painters, insisting particularly on hard work and on the study of nature. The few fragments yet remaining, amounting in all to some six hundred lines, were first printed by Pacheco in his treatise Del arte de la pintura, in 1649.
CÉSPEDES Y MENESES, GONZALO DE (1585?-1638), Spanish novelist, was born at Madrid about 1585. Nothing positive is known of him before the publication of his celebrated romance, the Poema trágico del Español Gerardo, y desengaño del amor lascivo (1615-1617); there is evidence that he had been sentenced to eight years at the galleys previous to the 1st of January 1620, and that the penalty had been remitted; but the nature of his offence is not stated. His treatment of political questions in the Historia apologética en los sucesos del reyno de Aragón, y su ciudad de Zaragoza, años de 91 y 92 (1622), having led to the confiscation of the book, Céspedes took up his residence at Saragossa and Lisbon. While in exile he issued a collection of short stories entitled Historias peregrinas y exemplares (1623), the unfinished romance Varia fortuna del soldado Píndaro (1626), and the first part of his Historia de Felipe IV. (1631), a fulsome eulogy which was rewarded by the author’s appointment as official historiographer to the Spanish king. Céspedes died on the 27th of January 1638. His novels, though written in a ponderous, affected style, display considerable imagination and insight into character. The Poema trágico has been utilized by Fletcher in The Spanish Curate and in The Maid of the Mill.
The Historias peregrinas has been reprinted (1906) with a valuable introduction by Sr. Cotarelo y Mori.
CESS (a shortened form of “assess”; the spelling is due to a mistaken connexion with “census”), a tax; a term formerly more particularly applied to local taxation, in which sense it still is used in Ireland; otherwise it has been superseded by “rate.” In India it is applied, with the qualifying word prefixed, to any taxation, such as “irrigation-cess” and the like, and in Scotland to the land-tax.
CESSIO BONORUM (Latin for a “surrender of goods”), in Roman law, a voluntary surrender of goods by a debtor to his creditors. It did not amount to a discharge unless the property ceded was sufficient for the purpose, but it secured the debtor from personal arrest. The creditors sold the goods in satisfaction, pro tanto, of their claims. The procedure of cessio bonorum avoided infamy, and the debtor, though his after-acquired property might be proceeded against, could not be deprived of the bare necessaries of life. The main features of the Roman law of cessio bonorum were adopted in Scots law, and also in the French legal system. (See further [Bankruptcy].)