Ripamonti was born of humble parents in
Colle Brianza. A protégé of Cardinal Federico Borromeo (cousin of St Charles Borromeo) he completed his humanistic education at the Archiepiscopal seminary in Milan. Ripamonti became a Doctor of the
Biblioteca Ambrosiana in September 1607. Ripamonti was a quarrelsome sort who had a sharp tongue and consequently many enemies. In 1622 Ripamonti was sentenced to five years of imprisonment, but Cardinal Borromeo commuted the sentence to confinement within the archbishop's palace, thus allowing him to finish the second and the third volumes of his
Historia relating to the recently bygone era of
Charles Borromeo. In 1630, still thanks to the indulgence of Federico Borromeo, Ripamonti was re-admitted to the Ambrosiana. On 23 December 1635, the Council of Seventy Decurioni awarded him the title of State Historian (a title never before used in Milan) with an attached salary. Ripamonti thus assumed the responsibility of taking forward the
Historia patria from the year 1313, that is from the final year covered in the
Historia of Tristano Calco that had been recently published (1628). The release, in 1641, of the first volume of Ripamonti's
Historia patria, in a splendid edition by the Malatesta family, was of significant importance. This volume covered Milanese history from 1313 to 1558, that is, until the era of
Charles V; in 1641
De peste was also released, a fundamentally important record of that recent painful tragedy. In December 1643, the second volume of the
Historia patria was released, depicting the history of Milan from 1559 to 1584, that is, the era of
Charles Borromeo. Ripamonti died at
Rovagnate in that same year. However he left the material ready for the continuation of the work: three other printed volumes followed between 1646 and 1648, the first two edited by Stefano Sclatter, and the third by Orazio Landi. This third and final volume is of particular importance, covering the era of
Federico Borromeo, and this volume went up to the most recent past, that is until 1641, thus establishing itself as the greatest work of historiography of the time. == Scholarship and correspondence ==