[2][3] He was born into a family whose ancestry included the Baron of Villa Orlando Boscarini, and he descended from the Spanish general and statesman Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.

[2][3][4] He graduated in Catania with a degree in law and geology and in 1831 entered the office of the lawyer Antonio Agnetta in Palermo, where he met several patriots, including Michele Amari, Vincenzo Fardella di Torrearsa and Ruggero Settimo.

By decree he established that ecclesiastical goods and church silverware were to be pledged for loans to the state;[2] he also abolished the hated tax on ground coffee which particularly burdened the poorest sections of the population.

[4] The radical nature of his proposals, which aimed to transform Sicily’s great landed estates with the creation of many small landowners, was opposed by the nobles in the Sicilian parliament and by the clergy.

[4] To raise funds for the war against the Bourbons he proposed a forced mortgage, based on agreements made with a French bank by Michele Amari, stirring clear opposition from the nobles.

[2] In 1857 Cavour called him to direct the statistics office of the Ministry of Finance and he oversaw the drafting of the laws on the "Council of State", on the "Court of Auditors" and on "administrative litigation".

[2][3] After staying in Naples, Cordova returned to Piedmont and Cavour appointed him secretary of the Ministry of Finance in the first government of the Kingdom, with the task of unifying the budgets of the pre-unification states.