Piave was born in Murano, an island in Venice. At first, he studied to be a Catholic priest. He stopped studying to be a priest and went to Rome. In Rome, he studied philosophy and writing. He wrote poems and stories for newspapers but he is most famous for his opera librettos. He wrote more than 60 librettos. The first one was for Giovanni Pacini's opera, ' in 1842. In 1844, he wrote the libretto for Verdi's opera "Ernani". Piave and Verdi became very good friends, For twenty years, they wrote many letters to each other. Piave wrote nine more opera librettos for Verdi. The last libretto he wrote for him was '.