He is known for a bitter literary feud with Giambattista Marino, carried out "with sonnets, invectives, and pistol shots,"[3] and for references he makes in his poetry to art works by Caravaggio.

Afterwards, being in Turin, Murtola attracted the attention of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and was made his secretary.

[5] While at the Court of Savoy, he published his poem on the Creation: Della Creazione del Mondo, Poema Sacro, Giorni Sette, Canti Sedici (Venice, 1608).

Finally, when Marino appeared to be getting the better of the affair, Murtola waited for his enemy one day in a street of Turin with an arquebus.

It is related that Paul V once questioned him on his attack on Marino, and received from the poet the ambiguous reply: 'È vero, ho fallito.'