Pubblici was born in Florence and is former professor of Eastern European History at the University of Florence. He is currently a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, Florence Program as well as at Santa Reparata International School of Art. His specialization is in the Middle Ages and in particular on the relationship between Western Europe and the Slavic world during the Turkish–Mongolian invasions. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in Medieval History with a thesis entitled Italians in the South of Russia from XXII to the XVI Century.
In 2005 he received his Doctorate in Medieval History and is the author of various books, essays and articles as well as book reviews on subjects such as Eurasian nomadic cultures, the interaction between the nomadic model of society and those of the sedentary societies of the Western world, and on the formation of the nomadic societies in West Central Asia from Late Antiquity to the Medieval era.
He is an active collaborator with Reti Medievali and SISMEL- International Society of Latin Medieval Studies. Pubblici was a scholar at the University of Moscow “Lomonosov,” Columbia University (NY) and the Summer School on Religions. He is a member of the Istoricheskaja Biblioteka of Moscow since 2003 and scientific director of the Center of Studies on Eastern and Central Europe in the Middle Ages.