The authorship of an anonymous work, Squitinio della libertà Veneta, published at Mirandola in 1612, has been attributed to him.
According to the note on folio 319 the manuscript was written in Mirandola in 1515 (or 1516) for the wish Giovanni Francesco Picus of Mirandola by Michael Damascenus from Crete.
He adopted a style influenced by Caravaggio, and by age 19, was working in the household of Mirandola in Cento.
About the year 1514 he removed to Rome, where, under Clement VII, he held the office of apostolic protonotary; but having in the sack of that city (1527), which almost coincided with the death of his patron Cardinal Rangone, lost all his property, he returned in poverty once more to Mirandola, whence again he was driven by the troubles consequent on the assassination of the reigning prince in 1533.