He practiced at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova and won a scholarship to Siena Biringucci apprenticeship, and because of that he moved to France in 1773, studying at Montpellier and Paris, where he met Buffon, Lavoisier and other famous scientists.
In 1782 he returned to Florence, where the Grand Duke Peter Leopold gave him the post of professor in Pisa with the creation of a new chair of Natural Sciences and Chemistry.
His residence was in the Botanical Garden in Pisa, but he lived with his wife Anna Simonelli (married in 1790) in Pienza until he died on December 30, 1822.
He dedicated himself to the study of natural features of land, in particular the territory today corresponding to the provinces of Siena and Grosseto, and compiling interesting travel reports.
He was a founding father of Geology as an autonomous science and strove for the spread and adoption of new chemical theories in academia.