He studied pharmacy at the University of Genoa, and following graduation traveled to Egypt, where he found work in Alexandria.
In Cairo, he also taught classes in botany at the medical school and from 1833 was director of its laboratories.
In the meantime, he collected natural history material in Egypt, sending botanical specimens from his excursions to Domenico Viviani in Italy.
[1] From 1844 to 1849, by way of requests from Muhammad Ali and Abbas I, he conducted exploratory investigations for marble and coal in Egypt, Anatolia and the Arabian Desert.
[2] With Giuseppe De Notaris, he was the binomial co-author of a number of species from the grass family Poaceae.