PAOLINO da VENEZIA. — Franciscan historian, bishop of Pozzuoli, b. in Venice c. 1274, d. in Pozzuoli in June 1344. Alongside his internal duties within the order (lector, custos, inquisitor), he soon took up diplomatic activity, successfully concluding in 1315 a negotiation between the Venetian Republic and Robert of Naples.
In 1321 he entered the papal Curia as chaplain and penitentiary under John XXII, who from 1322 to 1326 employed him in numerous and important legations, especially with the Republic of Venice, and in 1324 appointed him bishop of Pozzuoli. From his see he had the opportunity to frequent the court of Robert, who named him his counsellor, and he too was part of the circle of literati surrounding the king. He knew Boccaccio, who mentions him in the Genealogiae (XIV, 1). He also maintained epistolary relations with Marin Sanudo the Elder and other important figures of the time.
At the same time he wrote various works, still unpublished, the principal ones being the Historiarum Epitome, the Satyrica Historia (an expansion of the previous work), and the Chronologia Magna or Compendium, all chronicles from the origin of the world to his own times, of little value. Among his minor works should be noted a treatise De ludo saccorum, the vernacular opuscule Il Rettore (fully edited by A. Mussafia), and the highly important Provinciale Ordinis Minorum (ed. at Quaracchi, 1892, by Fr. C. Eubel).