Giovio, Paolo (1483–1552)

Italian historian and biographer. He spent most of his life at the papal court, where he acquired an intimate knowledge of its workings. His major work, Historiae sui temporis/History of Our Times (1550–52), covers Italian affairs during the years 1494–1547. He also wrote biographies (of Pope Leo X and others), and encouraged Vasari to write his famous lives of artists.

Educated as a doctor, Giovio left his native Como to become a servant of the papacy under Leo X in 1513. In 1528 Pope Clement VII made him bishop of Nocera. He withdrew from Rome in 1549, having failed to become a cardinal under Paul III, and spent the last few years of his life in Florence. He also wrote a commentary on Turkish affairs in 1531, and a work on heraldry.