Born at Sant'Elpidio a Mare, in the Piceno area, he entered the medical profession at Serra San Quirico, around 1551. Upon moving to Rome, he was introduced to Roman high society by Cardinal Ascanio Colonna, and in 1567 he was appointed to the Chair of Botany at the Sapienza University of Rome. Appointed archiater by Pope Sixtus V in 1587, he died in Rome on October 24, 1600. A brilliant scholar and naturalist, he wrote works on hydrology, pharmacology, zoology, mineralogy and enology. His fame remains linked, however, to De Thermis...Libri VII (1571), an erudite treatise on the history and therapeutic properties of thermal waters, reprinted several times during the following centuries.