A student of Luigi Poletti, he was highly interested in classical architecture, becoming one of Roman neoclassical's main figures.
To graduate, he helped illustrate in collaboration with the engraver and architect Rossini a work on the Antiquities of Pompei and on The Seven Hills of Rome.
The monastery of San Lorenzo in Vineis was suppressed in the 19th-century, but the church was likely spared destruction by the allocation of the adjacent site for the civic cemetery, designed by Vespignani in 1867.
He was responsible for organizing pyrotechnic spectacles and stagepieces for festivals in Castel Sant' Angelo He worked on the restoration of San Lorenzo in Damaso.
He received the Order of the Guadalupe of Mexico, a medal from Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, Charles the third of Spain.