Roncalli was born in Pomarance, a town near Volterra. His training occurred in Tuscany, and around 1578, he relocated to Rome, Italy where he worked for Niccolò Circignani (also known as il Pomarancio).

Most of his fresco work was in Rome, though he worked for a decade in Loreto (1605–1615), where he decorated the New Sacristy. In Rome he decorated the cupola of the church of Santa Maria di Loreto and of San Silvestro in Capite. He helped decorate Santa Maria in Vallicella for the Oratory of San Filippo Neri. He also painted for the Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso, the Baptism of Constantine and St. Simon in the transept of San Giovanni in Laterano, and designed the mosaics in the Cappella Clementina in the St. Peter's Basilica. One of his pupils from Siena was Alessandro Casolano, and his son Ilario Casolano.

Roncalli was named a Cavaliere of Christ in 1607. He died in Rome in 1626.

• Madonna and Child with Saints Anthony and Agatha (1576), Museo del Duomo, Siena
• Frescoes at Palazzo Agostini (1576), Siena
• Life of St Francis de Paula (c. 1579-84), Trinità dei Monti, Rome
• Metamorphoses, Palazzo Bindi, Siena
• Ciclo degli avvenimenti della confraternita del Crocefisso (1583 - 1584), San Marcello al Corso church
• Passion of Christ, (1585 - 1590) Rome, Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome
• Life of St Paul (1585 - 1590) Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Rome
• Life of St Philip of Neri (1596 - 1599), Santa Maria in Vallicella, Rome
• St Domitilla with Saints Nereus and Achilles (1599), Santi Nereo e Achilleo, Rome
• Baptism of Constantine the Great (1600), San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome
• Eterno Benedicente, Chapel of the Sacraments, San Giovanni in Laterano, Rome
• St Simon (1599), Santa Maria della Scala, Rome
• Madonna with Child Jesus blessing 123 x 97 cm, 1600 circa, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
• Madonna and Child, St Augustine, St Mary Magdalen and Angels 253 x 166 cm, 1610-1615, Brera Gallery, Milan
• The Presentation of the Temple, Recanati, San Vito church
• Saints Clare and Margaret of Cortona, attributed, Cappuccini Church, Recanati
• Frescoes at Basilica della Santa Casa, Loreto
• Life of the Virgin, (1606-1610) Treasure Hall (Sala del Tesoro), Basilica della Santa Casa, Loreto
• Ceiling of Palazzo Gallo, Osimo, Palazzo Gallo.
• St Joseph frees souls from Purgatory, (attributed) Potenza Picena, communal gallery
• Crucifixion, Potenza Picena, communal gallery
• Madonna della Misericordia, Chiesa della Misericordia, San Severino Marche
• Madonna del Carmelo, (attributed) communal gallery, Corridonia
• Enthroned Madonna with Child and Saints (1595) (communal gallery) Mapello (BG), Carvisi-Cabanetti with Oratorio Maria Annunziata
• Santi Nursini, (early 17th-century) Norcia, Concattedrale di Santa Maria Argentea^[2]
• Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Maria Gallo, private collection

• "Macerata e il suo territorio: la Pittura" by Giuseppe Vitalini Sacconi
• Romano Cordella, "Norcia e territorio" (Norcia and the Surrounding Area).

• Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, a fully digitized exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, which contains material on Cristoforo Roncalli (see index)
• Pomarancio
• Cristoforo Roncalli on Artcyclopedia