PAUL, an Italian poet, was born at Rome in 1687. He was the son of an architect, and a pupil of the celebrated Gravina, who inspired him with a taste for learning and poetry. An intelligent and learned English peer, having brought him to London, introduced him to the royal family as a master of the Tuscan language. Rolli remained in England till the death of Queen Caroline his protectress, and the patroness of literature in general. He returned to Italy in 1747, where he died in 1767, in the eightieth year of his age, leaving behind him a very curious collection in natural history, with a valuable and well-chosen library. His principal works first appeared in London in 1735 in 8vo. They consist of odes in blank verse, elegies, songs, and other poems, after the manner of Catullus. A collection of his epigrams was printed at Florence in 1776, in 8vo, to which is prefixed an account of his life by Fondini. What Martial said of his own collection may be said of this, "that there are few good, but many indifferent or bad pieces in it." Rolli, however, bore the character of one of the best Italian poets of his age. During his stay in London he procured editions of several authors of his own country. The principal of these were the Satires of Ariosto, the burlesque works of Berni, Varchi, &c., two vols., in 8vo; the Decameron of Boccaccio, 1727, in 4to and folio, in which he has faithfully copied the celebrated and valuable edition published by the Juntas in 1527; and, lastly, of the elegant Lucrezia of Marchetti, which was printed at London in 1717, in 8vo, through the influence and attention of Rolli. This edition is beautiful; but the work is thought to be of a pernicious tendency. He likewise translated into Italian verse the Paradise Lost of Milton, printed at London in folio in 1735; and the Odes of Anacreon, London, 1739, in 8vo.