Brignole aimed to renovate the structures of the republic, promote foreign trade and separate the destiny of Genoa from that of the crumbling Spanish Empire.

[5] After the death of his wife Paola Adorno, Anton Giulio resigned from the Great Council, took holy orders, and entered the Society of Jesus on March 11, 1652,[6] leaving his unmarried children in the care of his mother.

[5] Maria Maddalena peccatrice convertita is considered the masterpiece of the 17th-century religious novel, depicting Mary Magdalene's tormented journey to repentance convincingly and with psychological subtlety.

[3] His Tacito Abburrattato (Tacitus sifted) collects Brignole's political and moral speeches held before the Academy of the Addormentati in the winter of 1635 and the following spring.

Brignole rejects the authority of the Ancients, in particular Tacitus, whose influence on early modern political thought and moral philosophy was paramount, and promotes a renewal of culture and society.

[10] He pretends to have discovered an ancient manuscript containing Greek epigrams on subjects "profitable to human customs", which were then translated into Latin by Paolo Domenico Chiesa, a Genoese lawyer.