Milanese, he completed his legal studies in Pavia and then spent his life as a wealthy landowner and meticulous scholar, often called upon to act as peacemaker in the quarrelsome clique of nobles. Authoritative and esteemed by his contemporaries, his expertise - often invoked in practical life - was rather aimed at resolving conflicts in the peace of mutual and bloodless satisfaction. Contemporaries looked with respect at the breadth of real and literary documentation with which Birago supported his theses, contrasting the new chivalry, somewhat more conciliatory, with the rigid and conservative one of Olevano. He was one of Manzoni's sources for The Betrothed , who adopted his point of view to criticize him even harshly.