Born at Castelfranco di Sotto (PI), he studied under Lorenzo Bellini (1643-1704) and Alessandro Marchetti (1633-1714) at the University di Pisa, where he was awarded a degree in medicine in 1679. Having gone to the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence to acquire medical experience, he met Francesco Redi (1626-1697), the famous scientist and man of letters from Arezzo, under whose patronage he published, in 1680, the Esperienze intorno a diverse viscere tagliate a diversi animali viventi [Experiments on various internal organs cut from various living animals], a real treatise in experimental physiology born of observations he had conducted on the vivisection of animals. Temporary reader at the University of Pisa from 1681, he became full physician in 1689 through the intercession of Francesco Redi, going in the following year to teach anatomy at the university alongside Lorenzo Bellini. In 1704 he succeeded the latter in the Chair at Pisa. In the following years he became interested in the thermal waters of Bagni di Lucca and San Giuliano, publishing a brief treatise on them dated 1712. He died in Pisa in 1729.