CENA, Giovanni. – Poet, journalist, and critic, born at Montanaro Canavese on 12 January 1870, died at Rome on 7 December 1917. He studied in Turin under A. Graf.
Coming to Rome, he became chief editor of La nuova antologia and there carried out his principal activity.
He was concerned to elevate morally the poor of the Roman countryside. Though of weak health, he devoted himself to his purely philanthropic work, and, starting from nothing, overcoming every kind of difficulty, he established 70 rural schools with dispensaries for both children and adults, seeking out doctors to combat disease and teachers to fight ignorance and poverty. He was the author of poetry (his most substantial work, of a pathetic tone, is the short poem Madre), critical essays, and a novel, Gli ammonitori, of bold social vision, collected by the publisher "L'Impronta" in the complete edition of his works in 5 vols. (Turin 1929). C.’s message is that of the humble, of the dispossessed for whom life is too painful.