Denina

Denina, CARLO GIOVANNI MARIA, an Italian author, was born 28th February 1731, at Revello, in Piedmont, studied at Turin, and in 1756 became professor of Rhetoric in the university of Turin. In 1777 he published anonymously at Florence his Discorso sull' Impiego delle Persone, in which he sought to show how monks might be transformed into useful members of society. This cost him his chair, and caused his banishment. In 1782 he went to Berlin on the invitation of Frederick the Great. Here he lived for many years, and wrote many historical works. In 1804 he dedicated to Napoleon his Clef des Langues (1804), and was in consequence appointed imperial librarian at Paris, where he died 5th December 1813.—Denina's principal works are Delle Rivoluzioni d'Italia (3 vols. 1770) and Storia dell'Italia Occidentale (6 vols. 1810), besides works on ancient Greece, Frederick the Great, and Prussia.