Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/470

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CASTNER


414


CASTRACANE


in Austria as secretary to that prince, and late in life took ecclesiastical orders, retiring to a monastery near Vienna where he passed the remainder of his days. Castillejo was the champion of the old school of Spanish verse as opposed to the Italian measures recently introduced by Boscan, seconded by Garci- lasso de la Vega. He vigorously opposed the inno- vation, maintaining and demonstrating in his writ- ings that the old metres were amply competent for the expression of all sentiments. When he did use the villancicos, canciones, and other measures of the new school, it was only to attack and ridicule the innova- tors.

As a poet he was distinguished for purity of lan- guage, grace, fluency, and humour, the latter quality abounding in his " Dialogue between Himself and His Pen". He used satire with simplicity and ease, and, at times, freely and boldly. Some of his satires, notably the "Sermon on Love" and the "Dialogue on the Condition of Women", were so offensive to the clergy that the Inquisition prohibited the publication of his poems until they had been expurgated. Among his other works are the fanciful "Transformation of a Drunkard into a Mosquito " and a satire addressed "To those who give up the Castillian measures and follow the Italian". His poems are divided into three books devoted to love; conversation and pastime; moral and religious verses. In 1573 a col- lection of the "Works of Castillejo Expurgated by the Inquisition" was published in Madrid, which was one of the first books printed in that city. The most complete edition is that published by Ramon Fernan- dez (Madrid, 1792).

Biblioteca de autores esparioles (Madrid. 1S32), XXXII; Ticknor, History of Spanish Literature (New York, 1849); Fitzmaurice-Kelly, History of Spanish Literature (New York, 1906).

Ventura Ftjentes.

Castner (or Kastner), Caspar, a missionary, b. at Munich, Bavaria, 7 October, 1655; d. at Peking, China, 9 November, 1709. He entered the Society of Jesus. 17 September, 1681, and studied theology at Ingolstadt where he finished his studies 22 March, 1694. For a short time he taught logic in the gym- nasium at Ratisbon; after this he devoted himself to the work of missions and sailed in 1696 for China at the head of a company of brother Jesuits from Por- tugal and Genoa. In China he laboured with great success on the island of Shang-chuen (St. John) and in the city of Fatshan, then a competitor of Canton. In 1702 he went with Father Franciscus Noel to Lisbon and Rome in order, as representative of the Bishops of Nanking and Macao, to obtain some settle- ment of the question of Chinese Rites. In 1706 he returned to China, taking with him a number of mis- sionaries.

Besides the merit of his apostolic labours, Father Castner deserves much praise for his work in the sciences of navigation, astronomy, and cartography. He called the at t ention of the Portuguese Government to the fact that the voyage to Macao would be much shorter if the vessels followed a direct course from the Cape of Good Hope by way of the Sunda Islands, avoiding Mozambique and Goa, and the result showed that he was right. He did excellent work in the map- ping of the Chinese Empire and had so great a repu- tation as a mathematician that he was made president of the mathematical tribunal and instructor of the heir to the throne. Besides a number of elaborate reports cm the question of Chinese Kites which he drew up with the aid of Father Noel. Father Castner also wrote an interesting but rare little work called "Relatio Sepulture Magno Orientis Apostolo S. Francisco Xaverio erects in Insula Sanciano MDCC".

It is an exact descript ion of I he island where from 1!)

March to 2 June. 17(10. he bad I □ engaged in

erecting, at the command of his superiors, a memorial


over the grave of St. Francis Xavier. The book was accompanied by a good map. One of the few copies printed in China is in the so-called "Orban'sehe Sammlung" of the library of the University of Mu- nich. A translation was published by Father Joseph Stocklein in his "Welt-Bott" (Augsburg, 1729), No. 309. The title-page and map are reproduced in the work of Henri Cordier, " L'imprimerie sino-europe- enne en Chine" (Paris, 1901), 11-15.

Franco. Synopsis annalium Societatis Jesu (Auesburir, 17261. 39S, 424; Mederer. Annates Ingolstadien-ies (17S2I. III. SO; Zach, Monatliehe Correspondenz zur Beforderung der Erd- undHimm.lskunde (Gotha, 1800), I. 589-93; Lipowski, Gesch. der Jeauitai in Baiern (Munich, 1816). 11.253; Kalender fur katholische fhnst.n (Sulzbaoh. 18891, 123-121; Backer-Som- mervogel, Bibl. de la c. de J . (1S91), II, 853-54; (1900), IX, 9; Munstebbehg, Bauern und Asien im XVI., XVII., XVIII. Jahrhundert in Zritsehrift des Munehener Alterthums-\ T rre,ns (Munich, 1894), VI, 12 sqq.; Huonder, Deutsche Jeniitm- misxtoniire, supplement to Slimmrn aus Mann-Laaeh (1X991. LXXIV, 189.

Otto Hartig.

Castoria, a titular see of Macedonia. Livy (XXXI. XL) mentions a town near a lake in Orestis, called Celetrum, whose inhabitants surrendered to Sulpitius during the Roman war against Philip V (200 B. c). Procopius (De sedif., vii, 3) tells us that Justinian, finding the town of Diocletianopolis ruined by the barbarians, built a city on the lake of Castoria. Tafel (De Via, Egnatiana, 44—46) suggests that Cele- trum, Diocletianopolis, and Castoria are three suc- cessive names of the same place. Be that as it may, Castoria seems to have replaced Celetrum. There Bohemond camped with his army at Christmas, 1083. The Byzantine chroniclers describe it as a strong fortress. In the tenth century it must have been oc- cupied by the Bulgarians. About 1350 it was given up by the Emperor Joannes Cantacuzene to the King of Servia, and in 1386 it was captured by the Turks. As early at least as the reign of Basil II, Castoria was the first suffragan see of Achrida. Lequien (II, 315) mentions only three bishops: Joasaph in 1564, Hiero- theus, who went to Rome about 1650, and Dionysius Mantoucas; this short list of course can be readily completed. The see still exists for the Greeks and has been made a metropolitan. Some ten Latin bishops are known from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries. (Lequien, III, 10S7; Eubel, 1,179,11,134.) Castoria is to-day the chief town of a mutessariftik in the vilayet of Monastir, with about 10.000 inhabi- tants — Turks, Greeks, and Bulgarians. It is also the see of a Bulgarian bishopric with 2224 families, 32 priests, and 22 churches.

du Dezert, Geogr. anc. de la Maccdoine (Paris, 1S63\ 40, 30S; Demitsas, Geogr. of Macedonia (Greek: Athens. 1S70), I. 186, sqq.; II, S4-89; V.ulhe in Did. de thiol. cath.,s. v. Bulgarie.

S. PtTRinES.

Castracane degli Antelminelli, Francesco, naturalist, b. at Fano, Italy, 19 July, 1817; d. at Rome 27 March. 1S99. He was educated at the Jesuits' school at Reggio nell' Emilia, and was ordained priest in 1840. Four years later he was made canon of the cathedral at Fano, and at the same time resumed his studies at the Collegio dei Nobili in Rome. In 1852 he resigned his canonry, and took up his residence at Rome. Castracane had a great love of nature, and during the latter half of his life devoted himself to biological research. He was one of the first to intro- duce microphotography into the study of biology. His first experiments in applying the camera to the microscope were made as early as 1862 with diatoma- ((((. and lie subsequently made these micro-organisms his chief study. While investigating their structure and physiological functions and, particularly in his last years, their processes of reproduction, he valued the knowledge which they afforded, not merely as an end in itself, but also on account of its bearing on some of the problems of biology, geology, and even hydrography. The extensive collect ions of diutomacea