Piero Cironi was born in Prato, on the 11th of January 1819. He was born into a rich Pratese family, of which his father Clemente was a land owner. He began his studies in Prato under the tuition of Jacopo Martellini, and in 1843 he obtained an honour degree in Mathematics at Pisa. During his stay in Pisa (where he attended University at his father's request), his intense patriotic activity, made him a prominent figure (he had republican ideals and was promoting the revolution). In Pisa he discovered the ideas behind "Revolutionary Romanticism" (Saint Simon, whose ideas had been maintained by Giuseppe Montanelli since 1832). Back in Prato, he taught himself, mainly by reading Alfieri, and inspired by those readings, he elaborated his own political thoughts. After the five day rebellion in Milan, Cironi was by Mazzini's side. In Florence he worked as the chief editor of the democratic journal "Il Popolano", and later worked in Rome as an envoy for the Florentine Circolo del Popolo. After the restoration of power on the 12th of April, he was arrested and sentenced to eight months in prison, which was partly spent in the "Forte di Piombino" prison. He was arrested again in 1851 and was compelled to exile from Tuscany. He moved to Genova and collaborated with Francesco Bartolomeo Savi to edit the Mazzinian journal "Italia e Popolo". However after July 1853 he had to leave Italy, and travelled through Switzerland (Zurig, Basil, Lucerna, and Lugano). In 1857, he returned to Italy and decided to stay in his father's house, collecting documents and literature about Mazzini (Bibliografia di Giuseppe Mazzini). He returned to politics, following the pacific revolution on the 27th of April 1859, and was thinking of collaborating with the moderate Piemontesi, who wanted Italian unity, and defeat over the Austrians. During this period he wrote his vivacious brochures of the serious Italian Unity (Unità italiana), which were notably the first examples of electoral propaganda amongst the people. After the unity (1860), Piero continued the republican propaganda. In his journal "Unità italiana" he supported Garibaldi and his feats in the South of Italy. Cironi was amongst the promoters of the "Unity Societies" in Prato and Florence, inspired by Mazzini's politics, there were occasional arguments with the radical democratic party: Giuseppe Mazzoni, Giuseppe Dolfi and Antonio Martinati. However, by joining together with them, he created the "Fratellanza Artigiana" which was the first step towards the national working class association. In this association he believed there existed the democratic basis of the new country. His main work concentrated on "La stampa nazionale italiana - 1828-1860" printed in Prato by Tipografia Alberghetti in 1862; this can be considered the first in the history of Italian democratic journalism. After a visit to Garibaldi in La Spezia, Cironi was in a poor state of health. A few days later, on the 1st of December 1862, Piero died in Prato, in the arms of his friend Martellini. His death was probably the result of a heart attack following the defeat by Garibaldi in Aspromonte and because of the strong contrasts he had with the political party in government.