In 1827 he resigned some of his professorial work, but continued in active duty until in the autumn of 1845 he was seized with a painful illness, which proved fatal on the 11th of March 1846.
In 1546 he accepted a professorial chair at Lucca, which he exchanged in 1555 for that of Greek and Latin literature at Milan.
In consequence of the freedom with which in this work he attacked the abuse of authority in philosophy, he lost his professorial chair.
The former are for the most part concerned with questions relating to the theory of light, arising out of his professorial lectures, among which may be specially mentioned his paper "On the Diffraction of an Object-Glass with Circular Aperture."
His Prolusioni alla Storia della Filosofia and Lezioni sulla Filosofia della Storia were connected with his professorial work, which was specially devoted to the history of philosophy and the philosophy of history.