CESENA (anc. Caesena)  , a town and episcopal see of Emilia, Italy, in the province of Forli, 12 M . S.E. by rail from the town of Forli, on the line between Bologna and Rimini, 144 ft. above sea-level . Pop . (1905) 12,245 (town); 43,468 (commune) . The town is picturesquely situated at the foot of the slopes of the Apennines, and is crowned by a medieval fortress (Rocca), begun by the emperor Frederick I . (Barbarossa) probably, but altered and added to later . The cathedral has two fine marble altars by the Lombardi of Venice (or their school) . The library, built for Domenico Malatesta in 1452 by Matteo Nuzio, is a fine early Renaissance building, and its internal arrangements, with the original desks to which the books are still chained, are especially well preserved (see J . W . Clark, The Care of Books, Cambridge, 1901,p.199) . In it are valuable MSS., many of which were used by Aldus Manutius . It also contains a picture gallery with a good " Presentation in the Temple " by Francesco Francia .

There are some fine palaces in the town . Three-quarters of a mile

south-east on the hill stands the handsome church of S . Maria del Monte, after the style of Bramante, with carved stalls of the 16th century . Wine, hemp and silk are the main articles of trade . About the ancient Caesena little is said in classical authors: it is mentioned as a station on the Via Aemilia and as a fortress in the wars of Theodoric and Narses . During the middle ages it was at first independent . In 1357 it was unsuccessfully defended by the wife of Francesco Ordelaffi, lord of Foil, against the papal troops under Albornoz . In 1377 it was sacked by Cardinal Robert of Geneva (afterwards Clement VII., antipope) . It was then held by the Malatesta of Rimini until 1465, when it came under the dominion of the church . Both Pius VI . (1717) and Pius VII . (1742) were born at Cesena .

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