PAULUS**, a celebrated historical and biographical writer of Italy, was a scion of a noble family of Como, and was born in that town in 1483. His own name was Paolo Giovio, but as his most important works are written in Latin, he is better known under the Latinized form of that name. Choosing medicine as his profession, he studied at the universities of Padua and Pavia; but, in the course of his studies, being seized with the idea of becoming the historian of his age, he abandoned his first choice and devoted himself to the career of letters. His first care was to master the Latin classics chiefly with the view of forming a good Latin style for himself. His success was decisive, and gained him the favour of Leo X., who, on reading some of Giovio's compositions, declared that "after Titus Livius there was no writer more elegant or more eloquent." Honours and rewards soon poured in upon the lucky historian, who was sent upon various important missions to different countries in the train of Giulio de Medici. When this patron afterwards became pope, under the name of Clement VII., he rewarded Giovio's services with the bishopric of Nocera. The historian, however, was too fond of the literary society and other attractions of the capital to exchange them for a see in the country, and accordingly entrusted the duties of his diocese to a deputy. In 1530, when the Emperor Charles V. met the pope in the famous conference of Bologna, Giovio was present, and heard from that monarch's own lips the details of his recent expedition against the Algerian pirates, intending to incorporate them in the historical work on which he was then engaged. After the death of his patron, Giovio was regarded with very little favour by the new pope, Paul III. He lived freely, talked freely, and wrote freely, and was therefore a fair match for the satirists of that day to shoot their arrows at. In religious matters he was described as a latitudinarian, and even as an infidel or an atheist; and it is certain that his morals were very far from being such as those of a bishop ought to be. On the accession of the austere Paul III., Giovio found it convenient to withdraw from the papal court altogether. He retired to his native town where he built himself a delightful villa, and gratified his luxurious tastes with the ample means he had amassed at Rome. The formation of a picture gallery and a museum was the business and the amusement of his later years. But he was too much of a courtier both by habit and disposition to endure the unbroken quiet of a country life. His humorous conversation and genial bonhomnie made him a welcome guest at most of the Italian courts, and there he continued to spend a considerable part of each year. In the course of one of these periodical visits at Florence, he was seized with a violent attack of gout which carried him off in December 1552. He was buried in the church of St Lorenzo, where a monument records his virtues, his piety, and his learning. Giovio's works are of very different degrees of excellence and value. His *Historia sui Temporis*, 2 vols., 1550, though it contains much interesting information, is nearly valueless from not being trustworthy. Quite reckless as to the accuracy of any statement, he was too lazy and careless to verify it; and as he picked up a great deal from the gossip of the papal court and the strangers who visited it from all parts of the world, he could not but incorporate much in his history that was false with what was true. The *Historia* is, besides, characterized by so strong a spirit of partiality towards its author's friends and patrons, that it is practically useless as a historical guide. Charles V. detected this weakness of the historian, whom he discarded as a flatterer, and condemned as "writing with the golden pen of history." Giovio had warmly praised Charles' liberality; but when he found that all his arts could not wile a single ducat out of the stingy monarch, he denounced him (though not till after his death), as a man of the most niggardly parsimony. Greatly superior in literary finish as well as moral tone are his *Illustrium Virorum Vite*, a series of biographical sketches of his most eminent contemporaries. This work, with some small deductions for defects, like those of the *History*, throws a useful side light on the annals of these stirring times. His only other work in Latin was that which first made him; it was entitled *De Piscibus Romanis*, and was dedicated to the Cardinal Louis de Bourbon. Of his vernacular compositions his *Lettere Volgare*, published after his death, are alone worthy of notice. Many of them are in a style of jovial humour that makes them well worth reading even in the present day.