Born in Brescia, Gambara moved to Rome as a young man and spent his entire professional life there at the papal court. Gambara was a particularly well-known and respected author by his contemporaries, as demonstrated by both the large number of editions that his works had , both the numerous texts that remember him or that are dedicated to him. Thanks to the link with Orsini, he was able to meet and frequent writers of different nationalities who were guests of the great scholar in Rome. He was the author of poetic collections and various second-hand poems. The best known work remains the De navigatione Christophori Columbi, published in Rome in 1581 by F. Zanetti (rest. ibid. 1583 and 1585).