parisi was born in taio. as a student at the university of innsbruck, he was involved in a 1904 revolt by italian students, who asked for an italian-speaking university in trieste, which was at that time under austrian sovereign. parisi was arrested, sentenced to three months in jail and then banned from all austrian universities. then he moved to turin, where he graduated in natural sciences in 1908. in 1910 he became assistant in the zoological department of the museo civico di storia naturale di milano, where he took over the management in 1921. in 1928, he was the successor of ettore artini (1866-1928) as the museum director, a post he held until his retirement in 1951.