Born in a wealthy urban family. From 1719 he studied at the Jesuit college in Perugia, then in Rimini, from where he escaped with travelling actors. He studied law in Pavia, but was expelled in 1725 for his poems on the ugliness of Pavia's girls. He graduated in law in Padua in 1731. From 1744 to 1748 he worked as a lawyer. He wrote comedies for the theatres of Sant'Angelo, 1748-1753, and San Luca, 1753-1756, in Venice. He was in controversy with Goethe, who accused his theatre of being a violation of public morality. In 1762 he left for Paris. He taught Italian to the daughters of Louis XV.
Based on the commedia dell'une, he reformed the theatre by bringing it closer to reality. He set out his comedic principles in his play Il teatro comico 1750-1751 (The Comic Theatre). He abandoned improvised text and masks and introduced drama with a fixed text, realistic complex characters, concrete domestic details and situations; his plays reflected the aspirations and values of the bourgeoisie. He wrote 267 plays, most of them comedies. Between 1760 and 1762 he wrote his best comedies. He wrote Mémoires in French (1787). His work influenced the development of European theatre.
