The son of a wealthy family of merchants of Pescia, his elder brother was the Egyptologist Ippolito Rosellini.

In 1844, botanist Giuseppe De Notaris published a genus of fungi, in the family Xylariaceae, called Rosellinia in Ferdinando's honour.

[2] In 1846, three years after the death of his brother Ippolito, he married his widow and adopted his three sons: Eugenio, Angela and Giovanbattista.

[4] In 1921, botanist Edvard August Vainio published Roselliniella a genus of fungi, (in the Hypocreales order).

[6] Lastly, in 1990, Mario Matzer and Josef Hafellner published both Roselliniomyces and Roselliniopsis (two fungi genera from order Sordariales), also named in Ferdinando Pio Rosellini's honour.