Prati was born in Tenno, County of Tyrol and educated in Salzburg, Innsbruck, Vienna and Landshut.
He practised law in Brescia and Trento but his clandestine activities came to the attention of the authorities and he fled to the safety of Switzerland in 1816.
There, he soon established a broad circle of exiled and radical friends including: Ugo Foscolo, Sir John Bowring, Thomas Campbell, Joseph Henry Green and Edward Craven Hawtrey.
[1] On his release from prison in 1830, he visited Philippe Buonarroti, an old friend, in Brussels then, after a brief return to England, rushed to France to join in the July Revolution.
He then took up the practice of medicine, contributing a medical column to the radical Penny Satirist from 1837 to 1840,[1] in addition to editing the magazine.