Giordano Riccati was born in 1709 in Castelfranco Veneto, a small town about 30 km north of Padua.

He began his studies at the College of St. Francis Xavier in Bologna, under the guidance of Francesco Saverio Quadrio and Luigi Marchenti, a pupil of the French mathematician Pierre Varignon.

In 1727, he returned to Castelfranco, where his father taught him geometry, trigonometry, calculus, statics and dynamics.

He then moved to the University of Padua and attended Giovanni Poleni's lessons on hydraulics as well as the lectures of the famous physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri.

He made significant contributions in the field of physics and mathematics applied to music, publishing the Saggio sulle leggi del contrappunto [Essay on the laws of counterpoint], which tried to prove that music is not just an art, but it is a science as well, a Trattato delle corde, ovvero delle Fibre Elastiche [Treaty on chords; on elastic fibers], and some studies on the works of Tartini and Rameau.