 A well known geographer by profession, he created numerous maps of Africa.As a journalist, he was part of a wave of philosophically positivist and politically progressive writers who carried the mantle of Mazzini's republican nationalism in the late 19th century.From 1887 to 1890 he founded and edited the review 'Cuore e Critica' which, together with the journals "La rivista repubblicana" and "L'educazione politica", was important in defining the republican ideology of the times.