From 1539, he is attested at the private botanical gardens of Luca Ghini in Bologna and in 1544 in Pisa.
There he remained until 1561, when an argument with the botanists Ulisse Aldrovandi (Director of the Orto Botanico di Bologna) and Pietro Andrea Mattioli led him to depart for Ferrara, where he served as Botanist of the Duke of Ferrara and continued his travels.
Anguillara ranged widely over Greece, Italy, France, and Asia Minor and developed a very detailed knowledge of Mediterranean plants as a result.
The descriptions are clear enough that historians are able to identify most of the plants described by him.
The work drew on the De Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides and other ancient authors and is divided into fourteen chapters, each dedicated to a contemporary Italian doctor.