Sala was the son of the spinner Bernardino Sala. He probably first learned the profession of pharmacy in Venice. A Calvinist, he left Italy and his career as a doctor without academic studies led him to Dresden (1602), Sondrio (1604), Nuremberg (1606), Frauenfeld (1607) and settled in Geneva (1609). From 1607 to 1609 he was a city doctor in Winterthur.