[1] Born in Venice, Boni studied architecture at the Accademia di Belle Arti in his native city and later moved to Rome.

During World War I Boni participated as a soldier, and was elected senator in 1923, at which time he embraced fascism.

[3] In 1888 Boni went to Rome, where in 1898 the Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione G. Baccelli named him director of excavations in the Forum Romanum.

In 1907 Boni also worked on the slope of the Palatine Hill where he discovered the Mundus (tholos-cistern), a complex of tunnels leading to the Casa dei Grifi, the so-called Aula Isiaca, the so-called Baths of Tiberius and the base of a hut under the peristyle of the Domus Flavia.

Boni developed a strong interest in the ancient Roman religion and wished to see it revived and some of its rituals restored and adopted by the Italian state.