The famous geologist and palaeontologist was awarded a degree in Surgery by the University of Padua, his native city, in 1834, where he was also appointed Master of Obstetrics and Ophthalmology. Until 1848 he was also engaged in teaching zoology and botany, taking a particular interest in the organography and physiology of algae, and publishing numerous original works. At the death of Leopoldo Pilla (1805-1848), he was called upon to occupy the Chair of Geology of the University di Pisa, where he trained some of the best Italian geologists and palaeontologists of the second half of the 19th century, among them Mario Canavari (1855-1928), Antonio D'Achiardi (1839-1902) and Arturo Issel (1842-1922). Meneghini won international fame thanks to his discoveries, in the field of palaeontology, on fossils from the Silurian period in Sardinia, illustrated for the first time in his Paleontologie de l'ile de Sardaigne, ou description des fossiles recueillis dans cette contree par le General Albert de La Marmora pour faire suite a la troisieme partie du Voyage en Sardaigne [Palaeontology of the Island of Sardinia, or description of the fossils collected in that territory by General Albert de La Marmora as sequel to the third part of the Voyage in Sardinia] (1857). In 1874, retaining for himself the teaching of Geology and Palaeontology, he entrusted to Antonio D'Achiardi the first Chair of Mineralogy at the University of Pisa. He died in that city on January 29, 1889.