Born at Taurisano, Vanini studied philosophy in Rome. He studied law in Padua, where he was also ordained a priest. When around thirty years of age, he was accused of atheism, which, in order to clear his name, led him to France. He looks to have avoided prosecution by publishing Amphitheatrum Aeternae Providentiae Divino-Magicum (1615). A year later, however, he published De Admirandis Naturae Reginae Deaeque Mortalium Arcanis (1616), which resurrected the accusation of atheism. He was arrested in 1618, tried, and condemned to be burned at the stake. He was executed February 9, 1619, at Toulouse.

Vanini's work does not appear to have had any influence on Descartes’. Even so, Descartes mentions Vanini in private correspondence; for instance, in a letter to Isaac Beeckman (AT I 158, CSMK 27), and again in a letter to Gysbertus Voetius (AT VIIIB 175, CSMK 223). In the letter to Beeckman, Descartes appears to cast Vanini in a negative light, listing him among certain philosophers and “innovators,” a list on which Descartes refuses to be cast as a member. In the letter to Voetius, Descartes addresses the former's comparison of him to Vanini. As Descartes read Voetius, the comparison was supposed to suggest that his work, like Vanini's, could lead readers to atheism.