Born in Macerata, which was then part of the Papal States, and educated by a French priest in Rome, he entered the Jesuits' college of his native town, where he produced a tragedy on the story of Darius, and versified the Pharsalia.

[1] The study of Vincenzo Filicaja and Niccolò Leonico having convinced him that he and all his contemporaries were working in the wrong direction, he resolved to attempt a general reform.

The academy was most successful; branch societies were opened in all the principal cities of Italy; and the influence of Giambattista Marino, opposed by the simplicity and elegance of such models as Angelo di Costanzo, soon died away.

In 1705 he was made canon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin; in 1715 he obtained the chief curacy attached to the same church; and about two months before he died (1728) he was admitted a member of the Society of Jesus.

His principal work is the Istoria della volgar poesia (1698), an estimate of all the poets of Italy, past and contemporary, which may yet be consulted with advantage.