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CESAROTTI CESNOLA 215 011 paintings were exceedingly successful, and he was regarded as among the most brilliant man- nerists of his day ; hence he served as a target for the attacks of the naturaluti school of the Carracci and others. Many of Oesari's works are in Rome, including his most famous pro- duction, which is a series of frescoes from early Roman history, in a compartment of the Capi- tol bearing his name. CESAROTTI, Melchiore, an Italian poet, born in Padua, May 15, 1730, died Nov. 3, 1808. He was professor of rhetoric in the university of Padua, and gained a high literary reputation by his translation of Ossian into Italian blank verse (1762). He also produced a translation of Plutarch (1763), a free version of the Iliad (1795), a great number of academical essays, peems, and letters (included in his Opere scelte, Milan, 1820), and a remarkable philological work, Saggio sulla filosqfia delle lingue. In 1807, at Milan, Napoleon made him a knight of the iron crown and bestowed a pension on him. A complete edition of his works appeared at Pisa in 1805-' 13, in 42 vols. 8vo. CKSE.YA, a city of Italy, in the province and 12 m. S. E. of Forli, on the ^Emilian way, and on the right bank of the river Savio ; pop. in 1872, 35,870. It is the seat of a bishop, has a cathedral, a seminary, a large town hall, a fountain, and a colossal statue of Pope Pius VI., who was born here. There is also the Capuchin church, containing a fine painting by Guercino, a library founded by the duke Ma- latesta in 1452, rich in MSS., and at a short distance the Benedictine monastery, long the residence of Pius VII., also a native of this place. A few miles S. of Cesena are extensive sulphur mines, which supply the works at Bologna and Rimini. It has a considerable trade in wine and hemp. CESNOLA, Luigi Palma di, count, an Ameri- can soldier and archaeological explorer, born in Turin, Italy, July 29, 1832. In 1848, at the age of 15, he left the royal military academy at Turin, and enlisted as a volunteer in the war against Austria. He then returned to the mili- tary academy, and graduated, receiving his commission in 1850, which he resigned in 1854. Upon the breaking out of the Crimean war he reentered the army, and served upon the staff of Gen. Ansaldi. The close of the war precluded all prospect of advancement in the Italian military service, and after a while he embarked for America, landing at New York in 1860. Here for many months he supported himself by giving instruction on the flute and lessons in French and Italian. In the spring of 1861 he married one of his pupils, a daughter of Commodore Reid of the United States navy. Soon after the outbreak of the civil war he established classes for military in- struction, and not long after became colonel of the 4th regiment of New York cavalry. He was present with his regiment in 18 engage- ments up to the fight at Aldie, June 17, 1863, where he was wounded, taken prisoner, and confined in the Libby prison, Richmond. In April, 1864, he was exchanged for Col. Brown, brother of the governor of Georgia, and after- ward took part in the subsequent operations hi Virginia. At the close of the war he was breveted brigadier general, became an Ameri- can citizen, and was appointed consul at Cy- prus, his place of residence being Larnaka, the principal seaport, which stands on the necropo- lis of the ancient Chittim of the Phoenicians, the Citium of the Romans. There in 1845 had been discovered a bass relief in black basalt, bearing a cuneiform inscription denoting that it was a present from Sargon, king of Assyria (721-704 B. C.), to his vassal, the king of Chittim. At Larnaka Cesnola heard of a massive stone vase, 7 ft. high and 11 ft. in diameter, weighing 30,- 000 Ibs., and supposed to belong to the 9th or 10th century B. C., which the emperor Na- poleon had just presented to the museum of the Louvre. His attention was soon attracted by some ancient coins and fragments of terra cotta in possession of the inhabitants of Lar- naka, and he began to open some of the tombs, in which he found many objects of antique art. In 1866, while residing at Dali, 20 m. N. W. of Larnaka, a curious stone was shown to him lying several feet below the surface of the ground. He perceived that it was a part of a tomb, and making excavations he discovered that Dali occupied the site of the necropolis of the ancient Idalium, a city which ceased to exist almost 2,000 years ago, where once stood a great temple of the Venus of Cyprus. Pro- curing a firman from the sultan, he commenced excavations. These were continued, here and elsewhere, for three years, employing some hundreds of men, during which more than 8,000 tombs had been opened, when at last the jealousy of the Turks was aroused, and an edict from the sultan prohibited all further excavations in Cyprus. But in the mean time Cesnola had accumulated a magnificent col- lection of antiquities, which in 1872 was pur- chased for the metropolitan museum of New York ; a collection which for extent and his- torical and artistic value is unequalled by any other of the kind in the world. The number of articles is not yet fully ascertained, but in August, 1870, when it was examined by the representative of the Russian imperial mu- seum, there were about 13,000 articles, among which were many statues and statuettes, 1,800 lamps, 5,000 vases, 2,000 coins, 1,700 pieces of glass ware, 600 gold ornaments, 300 bronzes, and 100 inscriptions. In July, 1870, the em- peror Napoleon made a large offer for the col- lection, then in Cyprus, for the imperial mu- seum of the Louvre, the cost to be paid from his own private purse ; but when Cesnola's acceptance of the offer reached Paris, the emperor was a prisoner. In 1872 Cesnola sent the entire collection to London for sale, where it was thoroughly examined by experts con- nected with the British museum, and others, and its value was fully recognized; but for