Carlo Giovanni Maria Denina (1731,

Revello Revello is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about southwest of Turin and about northwest of Cuneo. Revello borders the following municipalities: Barge, Brondello, Cardè, Envie, Gamba ...

– 5 December 1813, Paris) was an Italian historian. The unique contribution of Carlo Denina was to write a history of Italy from a “national” perspective, which significantly differed from other historians who mainly wrote from a “city state” or “localized” perspective during that time. He was born at

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

, in 1731, and was educated at

Saluzzo Saluzzo (; pms, Salusse ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy. The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are fo ...

and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

. In 1753 he was appointed to the chair of humanity at

Pinerolo Pinerolo (; pms, Pinareul ; french: Pignerol; oc, Pineròl) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northwestern Italy, southwest of Turin on the river Chisone. The Lemina torrent has its source at the boundary be ...

, but he was soon compelled by the influence of the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

to retire from it. In 1756 he graduated as doctor in

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, and began authorship with a theological treatise. Promoted to the professorship of humanity and rhetoric in the college of Turin, he published (1769–1770) his ''Delle revoluzioni d'Italia'', the work on which his reputation is mainly founded. Collegiate honors accompanied the issue of its successive volumes, which, however, at the same time multiplied his foes and stimulated their hatred. In 1782, at

Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...

's invitation, he went to Berlin, where he remained for many years, in the course of which he published his ''Vie et régne de Frédéric II'' (Berlin, 1788) and ''La Prusse littéraire sous Frédéric II'' (3 vols., Berlin, 1790–1791). His ''Delle revoluzioni della Germania'' was published at

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in 1804, in which year he went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as the imperial librarian, on the invitation of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

. At Paris he published in 1805 his ''Tableau de la Haute Italie, et des Alpes qui l'entourent''. He died there in 1813. The French politician and poet Joseph Aurèle de Bossi studied law under his direction.

Works

Carlo Denina left a great many works, most of them in Italian, including: *1760: ''Discours sur les vicissitudes de la littérature''; *1770: ''Révolutions d'Italie'', 1769 et

1820 Events January–March *January 1 – Nominal beginning of the Trienio Liberal in Spain: A constitutionalist military insurrection at Cádiz leads to the summoning of the Spanish Parliament (March 7). *January 8 – General Maritime T ...

(translated by abbé Jardin from 1770) ; *1781: ''Histoire politique et littéraire de la Grèce'' ; *1788: ''Essai sur la vie de Frédéric II'', in French ; *1790: la ''Prusse littéraire sous Frédéric II'' ; *1804: ''Révolutions de la Germanie'' ; *1805: ''Histoire du Piémont''; *1805: la ''Clef des langues'' (in French) ; *1809: ''Histoire de l'Italie occidentale''.

References

External links

Carlo Denina
on Data.bnf.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Denina Italian librarians 18th-century Italian historians 18th-century Italian male writers 19th-century Italian historians 19th-century Italian male writers 1731 births 1813 deaths People from the Province of Cuneo Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences