Born in Milan into an aristocratic family, as a young man he participated in the Accademia dei Pugni [Wikidata], founded together with his brother Pietro Verri and their friends Cesare Beccaria, Alfonso Longo, Pietro Secchi, Giambattista Biffi and Luigi Lambertenghi.

In this period he wrote the Saggio sulla Storia d'Italia ("Essay on Italian History", 1761–1766).

He wrote two tragedies: Pantea and La congiura di Milano ("The Conspiracy of Milan"), both published in 1779.

In 1782 he wrote the novel Le avventure di Saffo poetessa di Mitilene ("The adventures of Sappho, poet of Mitilene"), but his most famous work is the Notti romane al sepolcro degli Scipioni ("Roman Nights at the Sepulchre of the Scipios"), published in two parts in 1792 and 1804, in which the ghosts of illustrious men of the past (Cicero, Caesar and others) evoke the ancient Roman civilizations, stressing its violent background in contrast with the peaceful Christian civilization.

His other works include a translation of Daphnis and Chloe (1812), the novel La vita di Erostrato ("Life of Herostratus", 1815) and Vicende memorabili de' suoi tempi dal 1789 al 1801 ("Memorable happenings of His Times from 1789 to 1801", 1858).