The best known of the Italian improvisational poets, Sgricci performed to large audiences and great acclaim. His method was to memorize prefabricated sentences, which he put together quickly to achieve the effect of spontaneity, dazzling huge audiences and gaining him wealth, prizes, fame, and eventually a place among the nobility. His celebrity enabled him to live semi-openly as a homosexual, protected in part by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had also granted Sgricci a pension after witnessing him improvise a full-length verse tragedy on Mary, Queen of Scots.