A native of Lanzo, he studied Human Anatomy, Comparative Anatomy and Physiology in Pisa, and was awarded a degree in Natural History by the University of Turin (1860). In 1861 he was named Professor of Comparative Anatomy at the University di Bologna, where he also taught Zoology. At the death of Paolo Savi (1798-1871), the famous naturalist who was responsible for enriching the zoological collections of the Pisa Museum of Natural History housed today at the Certosa di Calci, Richiardi was appointed to the Chair of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy of the University of Pisa. In the thirty years that elapsed between his nomination and the end of his career, Richiardi devoted himself to continuing the work of Savi, rearranging and enlarging the museum's already rich naturalist heritage. It is to his initiative that we owe the "gallery of whales", one of the most important collections of whale skeletons in Europe. In addition to a Monografia della famiglia dei Pennatulari [Monograph on the family of the Pennatularians], he wrote various articles on comparative anatomy and contributed to identifying new species of crustaceans, to which he dedicated part of his Catalogo sistematico dei Crostacei che vivono sul corpo degli animali acquatici d’Italia [Systematic catalogue of the crustaceans that live on the bodies of the aquatic animals of Italy] (1880) and some subsequent studies. He died at Marina di Pisa on August 1, 1904.