A NEW AND GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. CEBES, the author of a well-known and beautiful alle gory in Greek, entitled "A Picture of Human Life," is supposed to have flourished about 400 B. C. The piece is mentioned by some of the ancient writers, by Lucian, Diogenes Laertius, Tertullian, and Suidas; but of Cebes himself we have no account, unless that he is once mentioned by Plato, and once by Xenophon. The former says of him, in his "Phædo," that he was a sagacious investigator of truth, and never assented without the most convincing reasons; the latter, in his "Memorabilia," ranks him among the few intimates of Socrates, who excelled the rest in the innocency of their lives; but the abbé Sevin and professor Meiners have endeavoured to prove that the "Picture" is the work of a more modern author. Brucker seems to be of a different opinion. It is evidently Socratic in its moral spirit and character, althongh not without some sentiments which appear to have been borrowed from the Pythagorean school. It was translated by the rev. Joseph Spence for Dodsley's "Museum," and was afterwards inserted in his "Preceptor," and in other moral collections. There are many separate editions of the original, but for above a century, it has usually been printed with Epictetus's " Enchiridium," for the use of schools. CECCO D'ASCOLI, is the adopted name of Francis, or Francesco Stabili, a native of Ascoli, in the march of Ancona, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, who VOL. IX. Fabrieii Bibl. Grac.-Moreri.-Brucker. B acquired considerable reputation, unfortunately for himself, as a critic and poet. Among the many anachronisms and contradictions in the accounts given of his life, which Tiraboschi has endeavoured to correct, we find that when young, he was professor of astrology in the university of Bologna, that he published a book on that science, which being denounced to the Inquisition, he escaped by recanting what was offensive; but that the same accusations being afterwards renewed at Florence, he was condemned to be burnt, and suffered that horrible death in 1327, in the seventieth year of his age. We have already seen, in former lives, that it was no uncommon thing for enraged authors to apply to the secular arm for that revenge which they could not otherwise have inflicted on one another. The pretence for putting this poor man to death, was his "Commentary on the Sphere of John de Sacrabosco," in which, following the superstition of the times, he asserted that wonderful things might be done by the agency of certain demons who inhabited the first of the celestial spheres. This was foolish enough, but it was the prevalent folly of the times, and Cecco probably believed what he wrote. That he was not an impostor wiser than those whom he duped, appears from his conduct to Charles, duke of Calabria, who appointed him his astrologer, and who, having consulted him on the future conduct of his wife and daughter, Cecco, by his art, foretold that they would turn out very abandoned characters. Had he not persuaded himself into the truth of this, he surely would have conciliated so powerful a patron by a prediction of a more favourable kind; and this, as may be supposed, lost him the favour of the duke. But even the loss of his friend would not have brought him to the stake, if he had not rendered himself unpopular by attacking the literary merit of Dante and Guido Cavalcanti, in his poem entitled "Acerba." This provoked the malice of a famous physician, named Dino del Garbo, who never desisted until he procured him to be capitally condemned. This poem "Acerba," properly "Acerbo," or "Acervo," in Latin Acervus, is in the sesta rima divided into five books, and each of these into a number of chapters, treating of the heavens, the elements, virtues, vices, love, animals, minerals, religion, &c. The whole is written in a bad style, destitute of harmony, elegance, or grace; and, according to a late author, much of the plan, as well as the materials, are taken from the "Tresor" of Brunetto Latini. It is, however, a work in demand with collectors, and although often printed, most of the editions are now very scarce. The first was printed at Venice in 1476, 4to, with the commentary of Nicolo Massetti, and was reprinted in 1478. Haym (in the edition of his Biblioteca, 1771) speaks of a first edition as early as 1458, which we apprehend no bibliographer has seen.1 CECIL (WILLIAM), lord Burleigh, an illustrious statesman of the sixteenth century, descended from the ancient and honourable family of Sitsilt, or Cecil, of Alterennes, in Herefordshire, was the son of Richard Cecil*, master of the robes to Henry VIII. by Jane, daughter and heiress of William Hickington, of Bourne, co. Lincoln, esq. He was born in the house of his grandfather, David Cecil, at This Richard, by the interest of his father, David Cecil, or Cyssel, of Stamford, in Lincolnshire, esq. was preferred in the eighth year of Henry VIII. to be one of the pages of the crown. In 1520 he waited on the king at that famous interview with the king of France, between Calais and Guiennes; and in 1530, being groom of the robes to that king, obtained a grant of the office of constable of Warwick-castle, then in the crown. In 1535, being one of the grooms of the wardrobe, he had a grant of the office of bayliff of the king's water called Wittlesey-mere, and the custody of the swans, and of those waters called Great Crick and Merys, in the counties of Cambridge, Lincoln, Huntingdon, and Northampton, for the term of thirty years, after the expiration of the term granted to David Cyssell his father. In 1539 he was sheriff of Rutlandshire. In 1540, being written Richard Cecyll of Burley, in the county of Northampton, esq. he had a grant to him, his heirs, and assigns for ever, of the site of St. Michael's priory near Stamford, and the church, and 299 acres of arable land, lying in the parish of St. Martin's, in Stamford, in the county of Northampton. In 1542, being then yeoman of the wardrobe, he was made yeoman of the king's manors of Nassington, Yarwel, and Upton, in the county of Northampton, for life. In 1544 he purchased the manor of Esyngdon, in the county of Rutland, then also in the crown, as a parcel of the earl of Warwick's lands, and the following year he surrendered his custody of Warwickcastle. He remained yeoman of the robes to king Edward VI. to the last day of his life, which was the nineteenth of May, 1552; and dying at court, his body was interred in the parish church of St. Margaret's Westminster. In the month of April, 1553, a commission was issued to sir Ri chard Cotton, sir Ralph Sadler, and sir Walter Mildmay, knights, together with Edmund Pidgeon, clerk of the wardrobes, any three or two of them, to take an account of Jane Cecil, and sir William Cecil, knt. administrators of the testament of Richard Cecil, for. certain robes, apparel, and jewels of the king, in the custody of the said Richard. His widow, who survived him thirty-five years, was a very grave, religious, and virtuous lady, delighting much in works of piety and charity," as well in her life-time as at her decease, March 10, 1587, aged eightyseven. The lord-treasurer Burleigh caused to be erected at the upper end of the north chancel in St. Martin's church at Stamford, a noble monument to the memory of his parents; and by it is his own. 1 Tiraboschi. Moreri.-Ginguené Hist. Lit. d'Italie, vol. II.-Mosheim in Asculanus. Bourne, in Lincolnshire, Sept. 13, 1520, and was first educated at the grammar-school at Grantham, whence he afterwards removed to Stamford. On May 27, 1535, he entered of St. John's-college, Cambridge, and was no less distinguished by the regularity of his life, than by an uncommonly diligent application to his studies. Finding several persons of eminent talents at that time students there, this inspired him with such a thirst for learning, that he made an agreement with the bell-ringer to call him up at four o'clock every morning, and this sedentary life brought on a humour in his legs, which, although removed with some difficulty, his physicians considered as one of the principal causes of that inveterate gout with which he was tormented in the latter part of his life. Dr. Nicholas Medcalfe, who was at this time master of the college, was his principal patron, and frequently gave him money to encourage him; but the strong passion he had to excel his contemporaries, and to distinguish himself early in the university, was the chief spur to his endeavours. At sixteen he read a sophistry lecture, and at nineteen a Greek lecture, not for any pay or salary, but as a gentleman for his pleasure, and this at a time when there were but few who were masters of Greek, either in that college or in the university. But though he applied himself with so much assiduity to Greek literature, he laid up at the same time a considerable stock of general knowledge, having then no particular predilection to any single branch of science. One About 1541, his father placed him in Gray's-inn, with a view to the profession of the law, where he pursued the same indefatigable application, until by an accidental display of his knowledge, he became known at court. O'Neil, an Irish chief, brought to court two of his chaplains, who falling in with Mr. Cecil, engaged in a dispute with him on the power of the Roman pontiff, in which he had so much the superiority, that the matter was mentioned to Henry VIII. who expressed a desire to see him, admired his abilities, and gave him the reversion of the place of custos brevium. Such early encouragement diverted Mr. Cecil from the profession of the law, and his marriage with the sister of the celebrated sir John Cheke, who introduced him to the earl of Hertford, afterwards duke of Somerset, probably directed his views to politics, In the beginning of the |