He was born in Fibiana and studied music at Livorno, later becoming a pupil of Giuseppe Tartini. As a violinist, he earned the admiration of Leopold Mozart. In 1770, he became Kapellmeister to the Grand Duke of Tuscany in Florence.
Nardini is mentioned in Hester Lynch Piozzi's Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey Through France, Italy, and Germany (1789) as playing a solo at a concert Mrs Piozzi and her husband, Gabriele Piozzi, gave in Florence in July 1785.