Author of Vite dei pittori ed artefici bolognesi, (1841-3), modernist revision of Bolognese artists dictionary.

Wrote a history of painting in Bologna through biographies of Bolognese artists in 1678. Malvasia was born to an aristocratic Bolognese family. He gained early fame for his poetry and dabbled in painting as an aristocratic pursuit under Giacinto Campana (b. 1600) and Giacomo Cavedone and the literary academy dei Gelati.

Renaissance scholar; Università di Bologna professor of art history from 1907 to 1933.