Rocca was born in Barbaresco, a small village in the Langhe hills near Alba in Piemonte, and died in Genoa.
The circumstances are unknown what brought him, in a few years, to take up an apprenticeship in Giovanni Francesco Pressenda's Turin workshop.
Rocca moved to Genoa in pursuit of opportunities after the Guadagnini workshop became the clear favorite in Turin.
Rocca was found dead one night in January 1865 in a well in the gardens of Pila, Genoa, near the Bisagno river.
It's written: ‘Rocca Giuseppe violin maker, gives notice to gentlemen amateurs and professors of music that after exhaustive experiments, (he) was able to find the secret of the composition of the varnish used by the ancient (masters) Stradivarius and Guarnerius.’