Pellegrino Strobel was the fourth of the eight children of the Tyrolean nobleman Michael Ströbel, an official of the Habsburg government of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia.

[1] He was introduced to the study of natural history from a young age by his uncle Leonard Liebener, a well-known naturalist, and Alexander von Humboldt, a friend of the family.

[1] He collaborated with Luigi Pigorini to study the lake-dwelling Terramara in a work which included paleontology, botany, zoology, entomology, palynology, geology, anthropology and archaeology, to build a complete picture of these Bronze Age communities.

[3] He returned to Europe on the death of his father and resumed teaching at the University of Parma, of which he was elected rector in 1891.

[1] One of his two sons was Daniele de Strobel, a well-known painter, mostly known for his fresco work in Parma and Piacenza.