In June 1859, at the age of 15, he fought with Giuseppe Garibaldi alongside Piedmontese troops at the Battle of Solferino during the Second Italian War of Independence.

[1] Reinserted in the ranks of the regular army after an amnesty, he defected again to rejoin Garibaldi in the 1862 expedition to Rome with the intent of liberating the city and annexing it to the Kingdom of Italy.

[2] After joining the First International in 1867, Cipriani participated in the defence of the Paris Commune in 1871 for which he was condemned to death but was instead exiled to the French penal colony of New Caledonia along with 7,000 others.

[5] Arrested in Italy in January 1881 for "conspiracies", he served 7 years of a 20-year sentence before a popular campaign secured his release in 1888.

[6] At the Zürich Congress of the Second International in 1893, Cipriani resigned his mandate in solidarity with Rosa Luxemburg and the anarchists who were excluded from the proceedings.