His father, who was a petty silk trader, sent him to Milan under the care of his great aunt: there he studied under the Barnabites in the Arcimboldi Academy, while earning a living by copying manuscripts.

The young lord is a ladies' man who projects the image of an aristocracy entirely occupied with its worldly pleasures, thinking of nothing but itself, and offering ritual sacrifice to those two deadly genii, ennui and punctiliousness in defending noble honor.

In 1771, he had composed the libretto of Mozart's Ascanio in Alba, written to celebrate the wedding of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, and in 1777 he had been elected a fellow of Rome's Accademia dell'Arcadia.

In 1791, he published the first edition of the Odi, which in addition to the earlier poems also contained occasional compositions, such as ‘In morte del Maestro Sacchini’; others reflected his more comfortable lifestyle, and his frank appreciation of female beauty.

Ugo Foscolo, who met Parini in Milan, portrayed him as a serious, dignified person in Ultime lettere di Jacopo Ortis and criticized the rich and corrupt town which had forgotten him, in Dei sepolcri.