Giovan Battista Pacichelli was born in Rome, probably in 1641, of Pistoian parents.

He undertook four official trips to Puglia, with the city of Altamura as a destination on behalf of Ranuccio II Farnese, VI Duke of Parma and Piacenza. The accounts of these trips were published in Memories of travels for Christiana Europe (1685) and in Short memories of travels through Christian Europe (1690), works of pleasant reading, rich in scholarly information and interesting observations on local customs and habits.

The result of these journeys are four accounts of extreme importance since they are first-hand sources, introduced and commented on by Michele Paone. The first report is entirely dedicated to the provinces of Capitanata and the Terra di Bari. Shorter and less adventurous than the previous one was the journey undertaken in the spring of 1684, which allowed him to reach the Terra d'Otranto for the first time. In 1686 he traveled the Terre della Daunia up to Capo d'Otranto where he returned the following year for his fourth and last Apulian trip.