Giovio, Paolo

(1483-1552)

   Italian historian and biographer. Born into the ruling patriciate of Como and educated under the direction of his humanist brother Benedetto, he studied at Padua, where he took a doctorate in arts and medicine in 1511, and then migrated to Rome. There he began as a lecturer on philosophy but soon became personal physician to Cardinal Giulio de'Medici, the future Pope Clement VII, who made him bishop of Nocera in 1527. His position at the papal curia facilitated his decision to make himself the historian of his own times. His major historical work, Historiae suae temporis /History of His Own Times (1550-1552), covered events from 1494 to 1547. Much of this work depends on his own observations and his discussions with contemporary participants. Giovio also wrote biographies of Popes Leo X and Adrian VI and a number of military figures. Also influential was his Elogia (1546, 1551), a collection of gossipy character-sketches of famous people, each accompanied by an engraved portrait of the subject.