exported books and manuscripts. His successor, Wynkyn
de Worde, had been his foreman from 1479.
Further reading: N. F. Blake, William Caxton and Eng-
lish Literary Culture (London: Hambledon, 2003).
Cecchino, Il See SALVIATI, FRANCESCO
celestial spheres (celestial globes) The representation
of constellations and planets on the surface of a globe. The
concept goes back at least to Eudoxus (fourth century
BCE), but the earliest surviving globe is the Farnese mar-
ble (c. 200 BCE) in the Naples museum. The tradition per-
sisted among Islamic astronomers and returned to the
West in the 13th century through the Sicilian court of
Frederick II. Islamic examples were generally made of en-
graved brass, but by the late 15th century printed paper
gores were produced, which when cut out could be pasted
onto a papier mâché or lath and plaster sphere. Elaborate
and highly decorated globes were made during the Re-
naissance by such figures as APIAN, MERCATOR, and BLAEU.
One with a diameter of five feet and on which 1000 stars
were plotted was to be found at the Uraniborg observatory
of Tycho BRAHE.
Celestina, La A novel in dramatic form by Fernando de
ROJAS, first published anonymously in a 16-act version
(1499) and later in a 21-act version. Originally entitled La
(tragi)comedia de Calisto y Melibea, the story concerns a
noble youth, Calisto, who falls in love with Melibea, the
daughter of the Jew Pleberio. Calisto is persuaded to seek
the help of the procuress or gobetween Celestina, who
succeeds in overcoming Melibea’s resistance by appealing
to her compassion. Celestina is killed in a quarrel over
money with Calisto’s corrupt servants. Calisto seduces
Melibea but falls to his death when leaving her; Melibea
commits suicide. The expanded version introduces Cen-
turio, a braggart soldier, in the final acts, but the ending is
the same. The book was enormously popular, with 60
reprints in the 16th century. Despite its sexual subject and
outspoken language, the characters pay dearly for their
sins and so the novel never attracted the censure of the In-
quisition.Cellini, Benvenuto (1500–1571) Italian goldsmith, die-
engraver, sculptor, and writer
From two books written toward the end of Cellini’s life,
his Autobiography (1558–62) and Treatises on Gold-
smithing and Sculpture (1565), we are better informed
about his career and attitude to his patrons than about any
other Renaissance artist. Born in Florence and originally
trained as a goldsmith, Cellini moved from city to city to
make his fortune and to escape punishment for his misde-
meanors: from 1519 until 1540 he worked in and around
the papal court and mint in Rome; from 1540 until 1545
he served Francis I of France at Paris and Fontainebleau,
alongside ROSSO FIORENTINOand PRIMATICCIO; back again
in Florence, he turned his hand to major sculpture in
bronze and marble for Duke COSIMO I DE’ MEDICI. By 1560
his popularity as a court artist had declined and he re-
sorted to writing.
The majority of Cellini’s goldsmith work and jewelry,
described with loving detail in both Autobiography and
Treatises, has been lost; his activities on a small scale may
be judged only from seals, coins, and medals, of which
several examples survive. Some drawings by him, or of
lost works (e.g. the fabulous cope-clasp for Pope Clement
VII), also exist, and he influenced most of the jewelry and
precious metalwork of Italy, France, and Germany during
the second half of the 16th century. Fortunately, Cellini’s
masterpiece of miniature sculpture does survive, in Vi-
enna: the salt-cellar in gold and enamel which he had
begun in Italy and finished for Francis I. It is a typically
mannerist artefact—intellectual, ingenious, colorful, and
a technical tour de force. Anatomical forms are distorted
for grace of line, as in a modern fashion plate. Cellini’s
most ambitious project for the French king, a series of 12
over-life-size statues of classical deities in silver, was never
completed, though his designs are probably reflected on a
reduced scale in some of his later bronze statuettes. How-
ever, a great bronze lunette for a portal at Fontainebleau,
showing the nymph of the fountain surrounded by the an-
imals of the hunt, survives in the Louvre, Paris, and there
is a drawing of one of the satyrs that flanked the portal as
caryatids.9966 CCeecccchhiinnoo,, IIllWilliam CaxtonA manuscript illustration showing Earl Rivers
presenting Edward IV of England with a copy of his Dictes or
Sayengis of the Philosophres(1477) printed by Caxton, who
is in attendance (Library of Lambeth Palace, London).
The Fotomas Index UK