ollected and brought to Montserrate from all parts of the world by Sir
Francis Cook, and afterwards by his successor, Sir Frederick Cook, the
second viscount. The Praia das Macas, or "beach of apples," in the
centre of a rich fruit-bearing valley, is a favourite sea-bathing
station, connected with Cintra by an extension of the electric tramway
which runs through the town.

CIPHER, or CYPHER (from Arab, _[.s]ifr_, void), the symbol 0, nought, or
zero; and so a name for symbolic or secret writing (see CRYPTOGRAPHY),
or even for shorthand (q.v.), and also in elementary education for doing
simple sums ("ciphering").

CIPPUS (Lat. for a "post" or "stake"), in architecture, a low pedestal,
either round or rectangular, set up by the Romans for various purposes
such as military or mile stones, boundary posts, &c. The inscriptions on
some in the British Museum show that they were occasionally funeral
memorials.

CIPRIANI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1727-1785), Italian painter and engraver,
Pistoiese by descent, was born in Florence in 1727. His first lessons
were given him by an Englishman, Ignatius Heckford or Hugford, and under
his second master, Antonio Domenico Gabbiani, he became a very clever
draughtsman. He was in Rome from 1750 to 1753, where he became
acquainted with Sir William Chambers, the architect, and Joseph Wilton,
the sculptor, whom he accompanied to England in August 1755. He had
already painted two pictures for the abbey of San Michele in Pelago,
Pistoia, which had brought him reputation, and on his arrival in England
he was patronized by Lord Tilney, the duke of Richmond and other
noblemen. His acquaintance with Sir William Chambers no doubt helped him
on, for when Chambers designed the Albany in London for Lord Holland,
Cipriani painted a ceiling for him. He also painted part of a ceiling in
Buckingham Palace, and a room with poetical subjects at Standlynch in
Wiltshire. Some of his best and most permanent work was, however, done
at Somerset House, built by his friend Chambers, upon which he lavished
infinite pains. He not only prepared the decorations for the interior of
the north block, but, says Joseph Baretti in his _Guide through the
Royal Academy_ (1780), "the whole of the carvings in the various fronts
of Somerset Place--excepting Bacon's bronze figures--were carved from
finished drawings made by Cipriani." These designs include the five
masks forming the keystones to the arches on the cou