CAILO GIOVANNI MARIA, an eminent Italian writer, was born at Revel, in the principality of Piedmont, in the year 1731. Having studied at Saluzzo, he was about to enter into the order of the Grand Augustines at Ceva, at the age of fifteen, when one of his uncles appointed him to a benefice. He accordingly assumed the ecclesiastical habit, and remained two years at Saluzzo, where he learned a little divinity, and acquired a knowledge of the French language through the medium of a Swiss officer. In 1748 he obtained an exhibition, which enabled him to prosecute his studies at the provincial college in the University of Turin. Some time afterwards he took orders; and in 1753 he was appointed professor of humanity at Pignerol. In consequence, however, of a quarrel with the Jesuits, he was obliged to quit Pignerol and the royal schools, and was sent to the schools of an inferior order. In 1756, on taking his degree of doctor in theology at the Palatine schools of Milan, he printed his first work, which was a theological tract. After this he was restored to the royal schools, and appointed extraordinary professor of humanity and rhetoric at the Superior College of Turin; and six months afterwards he had the offer of the situation of an ordinary professor at Chambéry, which he refused. About this period he projected, but did not execute, a work on the literary history of Piedmont. His discourse On the Vicissitudes of Literature, which was printed in 1760, attracted a considerable degree of attention, and drew upon him the vengeance of Voltaire, who attacked him in his Homme aux quarante écus, published in 1767. The publication of the first volume of his great work On the Revolutions of Italy obtained for him the professorship of rhetoric in the Superior College of Turin; and twelve months afterwards, on the publication of the second volume, he was preferred to the chair of Italian eloquence, and of the Greek language, at the university. The third volume, which was published in 1771, was still more favourably received than the preceding; while at the same time it tended to augment the number and to increase the virulence of his enemies. The misfortune, however, which he now experienced, was partly occasioned by his own indiscretion. A manuscript, containing some obnoxious opinions, which he had entrusted to Cambiaso at Florence, having been published by authority of the Tuscan censors, but without that of the censors of Turin, Denina was declared to be guilty of an infraction of the Piedmontese laws, and punished with great severity. His book was suppressed, and he was compelled to pay the costs. He was then banished to Vercelli, and afterwards received orders to retire to his native province. Denina's friend, the Abbé Costa d'Arignan, undertook his defence, and procured the restoration of part of his annual pensions, with permission to return to Turin.

In 1782 he repaired to Berlin, having before his departure received the honorary title of librarian to the king of Sardinia. On his arrival at Berlin, Frederick II. appointed him a member of the Royal Academy, but he never became a favourite of that prince. He continued to reside in Germany for many years, where he occupied himself with literary pursuits, and published a variety of works. Being at Mentz in 1804, he attracted the notice of Napoleon, who, in the month of October of that year, appointed him his librarian. Denina accordingly went to Paris, where he continued to reside until his death, on the 5th of December 1813.

Denina is esteemed one of the most distinguished of the later Italian authors. The work upon which his reputation is principally founded is his History of the Revolutions of Italy, of which an improved edition was published at Turin in 1782, in five volumes 4to. In this work the facts are related with accuracy, and the narrative exhibits considerable talent for historical inquiry. Some able critics in the Italian language have remarked that there is a great difference between the style of this work and that of the other writings of the same author; and Denina acknowledged that he had submitted his history to the review of his friend the Abbé Costa d'Arignan, afterwards Cardinal and Archbishop of Turin, who made a good many judicious corrections.

The following is a list of his other works:—De Studio Theologiae et norma fidei, 1728, 8vo. Dissertazione sopra la storia della Letteratura, 1750, 12mo, which was reprinted, with additions, at Glasgow in 1753, and has since gone through several editions. Lettera di N. Daniel Carlo (the anagram of Carlo Denina), sopra il dovere del ministero evangelico di predicare colla istruzione, e collo esempio l'osservanza delle leggi civili, e specialmente in riguardo agli imposti, Luca, 1762, 8vo. Saggio sopra la Letteratura Italiana, con alcuni altri opuscoli, Luca, 1762. This work is a supplement to the first edition of his Revolutions of Literature. Della Lodi di Carlo Emmanuele III. re di Sardegna, 1771, 4to and 8vo. Panegirico primo alla Mostra di Vittorio Amadeo III., Turin, 1773, 4to and 8vo. Panegirico secondo alla Mostra di Vittorio Amadeo III., 1775, 4to and 8vo, with notes. In 1777 he composed a third panegyric on the same prince. Bibliografia Turina di corsi libri, Turin, 1776, 8vo. Dell' impiego delle persone, Firenze, 1777. This was the work which gave so much offence, and occasioned the displeasure of the author. It was reprinted at Turin, 1803, in 2 vols. small 8vo. Istoria politica e letteraria della Grecia, Turin, 1781-2, 4 vols. 8vo. Reprinted at Venice, 1783. Elogio storico di Mercurino di Gattinara, Turin, 1782, 8vo. Elogio del Cardinal Guada Bichiere, 1782, 8vo. Discours au Roi de Prusse sur les progrès des Arts, 1784, 12mo. Viaggio Germanico, primo quaderno delle lettere Brandeburghesi, Berlin, 1785, 8vo. A second series of these letters afterwards appeared. La Silsilà Teutonica, Berlin, 1786. Reprinted in the fourth volume of the Revolutions of Literature. Réponse à la question Que doit-on à l'Espagne? Berlin, 1786. This tract was translated into English, and was also printed at the end of the later editions of the Vicissitude. Lettres Critiques, a supplement to the preceding, 1786, 8vo. Apologie de Frédéric II. sur la préférence que le Roi parait donner à la Litterature Française, Dessau, 1787, 8vo. Diss. DENIS

Denis sur les Progrès de la Littérature dans le nord de l'Allemagne, Berlin, 1788. Essai sur la Vie et le Règne de Frédéric II., &c., Berlin, 1788, 8vo. La France Littéraire sous Frédéric II., &c., Berlin, 1790-1, 3 vols. Svo. This work may be considered as a supplement to the Life of Frederick. Guide Littéraire, 1790-1, Svo. The Rustic; a poem, 1799. It was translated into French by M. André in 1809, under the title of Pierre le Grand. The History of Piedmont, and of the other States of the King of Sardinia; translated into German by M. Frederic Strass, from the Italian manuscript of Demina, Berlin, 1800-5, 3 vols. Svo. In this history the narrative is brought down to the recovery of Turin, under the reign of Victor Amadeus II. Révolutions della Germania, Florence, 1804, 3 vols. Svo. La Clef des Langues, ou Observations sur l'Origine et la Formation de principales Langues qu'on parle et qu'on écrit en Europe, Berlin, 1804, 3 vols. Svo. Tableau Historique, Politique, et Morale de la Haute-Roussillon, &c., Paris, 1805, Svo. États de la tradition ancienne du caractère de la langue italienne, &c., 1807, Svo. Discorso istorico sopra l'origine della gerarchia e del concordato fra la podestà Ecclesiastica e la Sindaco, 1808, Svo. This work was afterwards suppressed. In the Mélanges de Philosophie, d'Histoire, de Morale, et de Littérature, No. 49, there is a long and severe article upon the Discorso Istorico. Istoria della Italia occidentale, 1809, 6 vols. Svo. Besides these works, Demina wrote some other tracts, which were inserted in various journals.

There is a biographical account of Demina in the Magasin Encyclopédique for January 1814, by M. Barbier. See also the Biographie Universelle.