Paolino da Venezia

PAOLINO da VENEZIA. - Franciscan historian, bishop of Pozzuoli, b. in Venice around 1274, d. in Pozzuoli in June 1344. To the internal offices of the order (lector, custos, inquisitor) he soon added diplomatic activity, bringing a negotiation between the Venetian Republic and Robert of Naples to a brilliant conclusion in 1315.

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 counselor, and he too was part of the circle of men of letters that surrounded the King. He knew Boccaccio, who speaks of him in the Genealogiae (XIV, 1). He also had epistolary relations with Marin Sanudo the Elder and other important figures of the time.

At the same time he wrote various works, still unpublished, of which the principal ones are the Historiarum Epitome, the Satyrica Historia (a development of the former) and the Chronologia Magna or Compendium, all chronicles from the origin of the world to his own times, of little value. Among the short works mention should be made of a treatise De ludo scacorum, the pamphlet in the Venetian vernacular Il Rettore (edited in full by A. Mussafia) and the very important Provinciale Ordinis Minorum (ed. at Quaracchi, 1892, by Fr. C. Eubel).

Alberto Ghinato