Her family was part of the Jewish community which has played an important role in Ferrara, continuously since the Middle Ages.
[1] She graduated from the University of Florence in natural sciences on 1 July 1914 with a thesis on the hedgehog, Sul comportamento del condrioma nel pancreas e nelle ghiandole salivari del riccio durante il letargo invernale e l’attività estiva [On the Behavior of the Chondriome in the Pancreas and in the Salivary Glands of the Hedgehog during Winter Hibernation and Summer Activity].
She taught sciences there from 1939 to 1943, but in January 1944 she was arrested by Nazi forces and held in the Santuario di Santa Verdiana, a former convent converted to a prison.
[1] Knowing that she was to be deported from there to the Auschwitz extermination camp, she committed suicide by swallowing poison that she had been carrying with her for some time.
[2] Ironically, Gans & Laurent recognized her for her being the “author of the earliest modern reviews of the Somali herpetofauna”, but spelled her name as "Enrico".