Paoluccio de' Trinci was a 14th-century Franciscan lay brother born into the noble Trinci family of Foligno. Entering the order at the age of fourteen, he eventually became a central figure in religious reform. In 1368, he established a monastery in Brugliano and organized his followers as the brothers of the Observance. This movement sought to reform the Franciscan order and eventually led to its formal division into two distinct branches in the sixteenth century.