He was educated at local institutions in Genoa where he studied humanities and then at the La Sapienza University in Rome where he received a doctorate in utroque iuris (both civil and canon law) in 1835.

After being ordained as a priest he was appointed Vice-legate in Ferrara and later Vicar of the patriarchal Lateran Basilica in Rome.

He was elected titular archbishop of Nazianzo in and was consecrated in 1830, Rome, by Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Franzoni and was appointed Treasurer General of the Apostolic Chamber in 1833.

In 1851 he was appointed Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals, a position he held, as was convention at the time, for a year until 1852.

Pope Pius IX participated in his funeral and he was finally buried, according to his will, in the church of St Cecilia.