Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project

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Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project Jul 7, 2021 5:37:06 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jul 7, 2021 5:37:06 GMT

Leonardo da Vinci — the great Renaissance artist, inventor and anatomist — has 14 living male relatives, a new analysis of his family tree reveals. The new family tree could one day help researchers determine if bones interred in a French chapel belong to the Italian genius.

Historians Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato have spent more than a decade tracing the genealogy of the famed "Mona Lisa" painter. Their map stretches across 690 years, 21 generations and five family branches, and will be vital in helping anthropologists sequence the DNA of da Vinci by sequencing the DNA of his descendants, the researchers say.

Beyond establishing the identity of his possible remains, sequencing the artist's DNA could also give scientists a better understanding of "his extraordinary talents — notably, his visual acuity, through genetic associations," claim representatives from the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project, an initiative that aims to use the genetic information to create 3D images of da Vinci through a process called DNA phenotyping.

Da Vinci was a painter, architect, inventor, anatomist, engineer and scientist. Primarily self-educated, he filled dozens of secret notebooks with fanciful inventions and anatomical observations. To accompany famous sketches such as the "Virtruvian Man", da Vinci would write messages coded into his own shorthand, mirrored back to front to hide his studies from prying eyes. Along with detailed drawings of human anatomy, taken from observations of dissected cadavers, his notebooks contain designs for bicycles, helicopters, tanks and airplanes.

In a new study, Vezzosi and Sabato used historical documents from archives alongside direct accounts from surviving descendants to trace the five branches of the da Vinci family tree. According to the historians, Leonardo was part of the sixth generation of da Vincis.

Researching da Vinci’s family history is difficult because only one of his parents can be properly traced. Born out of wedlock in the Tuscan town of Anchiano, Leonardo da Vinci was the son of Florentine lawyer Ser Piero da Vinci and a peasant woman named Caterina. Research by Martin Kemp, an art historian at Oxford University, suggests that Caterina was a 15-year-old orphan at the time of da Vinci's birth, Live Science previously reported. At age 5, the young da Vinci was taken to his family estate in the town of Vinci (from which his family took their surname ) to live with his grandparents.

When da Vinci died on May 2, 1519, at age 67, he had no known children, and his remains were lost, meaning there was no reliable DNA to analyze. As a result, parts of his ancestry have become shrouded in mystery.

Leonardo's original burial was recorded at the chapel of Saint-Florentin at the Chateau d'Amboise, a manor house in France's Loire Valley. The chapel was left to ruin after the French Revolution and later demolished. Contemporaneous accounts allege that a full skeleton was exhumed from the site and moved to the nearby Saint-Hubert chapel, but whether or not they are actually Leonardo’s bones remains a mystery.

The new family tree, which starts in 1331 with family patriarch Michele, revealed 14 living relatives with a wide variety of occupations, including office workers, a pastry chef, a blacksmith, an upholsterer, a porcelain seller and an artist.

The researchers will determine whether the human remains from the Loire Valley chapel belong to da Vinci by comparing the Y chromosome in those bones to the Y chromosome belonging to da Vinci’s male relatives. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son and remains virtually unchanged for as long as 25 generations, according to the researchers.

In addition, finding fragments of da Vinci's genetic code could help art historians verify the authenticity of artworks, notes and journal entries supposedly created by the Italian Renaissance man by comparing his discovered DNA with DNA traces found on the pieces.

The researchers published their findings July 4 in the journal Human Evolution.

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Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project Jul 9, 2021 20:15:30 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2021 20:15:30 GMT

The New Genealogical Tree of the Da Vinci Family for Leonardo’s DNA.
Ancestors and descendants in direct male line down to the present XXI generation*
This research demonstrates in a documented manner the continuity in the direct male line, from father to son, of the Da Vinci family starting with Michele (XIV century) to fourteen living descendants through twenty-one generations and four different branches, which from the XV generation (Tommaso), in turn generate other line branches. Such results are eagerly awaited from an historical viewpoint, with the correction of the previous Da Vinci trees (especially Uzielli, 1872, and Smiraglia Scognamiglio, 1900) which reached down to and hinted at the XVI generation (with several errors and omissions), and an update on the living.
Like the surname, male heredity connects the history of registry records with biological history along separate lineages. Because of this, the present genealogy, which spans almost seven hundred years, can be used to verify, by means of the most innovative technologies of molecular biology, the unbroken transmission of the Y chromosome (through the living descendants and ancient tombs, even if with some small variations due to time) with a view to confirming the recovery of Leonardo’s Y marker. This will make available useful elements to scientifically explore the roots of his genius, to find information on his physical prowess and on his possibly precocious ageing, on his being left-handed and his health and possible hereditary sicknesses, and to explain certain peculiar sensory perceptions, like his extraordinary visual quality and synesthesia.

PART I
Foreword

This study presents a synthesis of decades-long research1 aimed at reconstructing the complete and up-to-date genealogy of the Da Vinci family, and pursues new objectives consistent with tradition, both in terms of methodology and in terms of potentiality and goals.
Historic enquiry crosses centuries and places, heterogeneous documents and personal events, in a dialogue with other disciplines and technologies, in order to reconstruct all the pieces of the long history of Leonardo’s family, with extraordinary results for a lineage which was considered extinguished.2
We furthermore aim to contribute to the researches of the international group
“The Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project”3 to understand unknown aspects of Leonardo
as a man and an artist, and to try and explain, through the most advanced innovations
in biology and genetics, some peculiarities of his numerous talents, beside putting at
the service of art history ever more advanced technologies which are able to compare
certain biological data with those detectable through non-invasive analysis of paintings
and manuscripts.4
The up-to-date reconstruction of the Da Vinci genealogy and the individuation
of the direct male lines with living descendants, is the first essential tool to identify
the biological traces (from tombs and living persons) necessary to establish a reliable
genetic signature of the Y chromosome, in which the indelible profile of Leonardo’s
personal and family identity is stamped.

The new tree and the database
The new tree which we summarize here corrects and integrates all preceding
works.
In this research we have documented four direct male lines (with a fork from
Dionisio Vinci, XVII.B.) originating with Domenico9 and reaching to the XX century.
On Domenico’s crucial figure we draw attention to unpublished data (relative
to his children and to his burial) drawn from his 1544 donatio mortis causa (a gift in
prospect of death) and from his 1549 testament (already quoted in other studies on
Leonardo’s family but not fully understood).
For each direct line we present the scheme of a genealogical tree.
From the XV generation onwards we have gathered data on over 225 indivuals.
The living descendants so far identified are fourteen; many of them have collaborated,
together with their relatives, to the collection and verification of information
with great passion and sensibility, helping enthusiastically to contact other family
members and to retrieve new documents and images.10
In light of the richness of personal stories, as Leonardo Da Vinci Heritage11
different nuclei making up the large mosaic of the Vincis’ genealogy will be more
extensively related. Another important goal is to make known and protect (as far as
possible) the places inhabited by the Da Vincis before they finally fall into oblivion
and ruin.
In order to make accessible to scholars and the general public, at different levels,
the wealth of discovered materials on hundreds of individuals, it has been necessary
to envisage a database (“GeniaDaVinci”) for the thousands of documents, images,
transciptions, sources, localizations, audio records… in order to preserve and share
all the information in a sort of memory casket to be accessed both horizontally and
vertically.
The database in progress will be organized according to a relational model, which
will allow detailed presentation of information concerning the whole of the Da Vincis’
genealogical tree, starting with the first generation all the way down to the living descendants
(XXI generation), with the possibility of new entries in the future. The data
model is guided by widespread international standards for the management of information
in this semantic field; the software tools developed for the archive are structured
in web modules devised for the comprehensive and simple managing of contents, their
visualization and/or retrieval. The data organization will furthermore allow the automatic
and complete generation of the corresponding genealogical tree in graphic
form. Both the archive and the software tools will be specifically developed keeping in
mind the peculiarities of the data and the level of detail, and they will be organized by
historical-analytic criteria as comprehensive as possible.
It wil thus be a lot easier to conduct for instance quantitative analysis searches
on age, number of children, causes of death, professions, schooling, dwellings, recurrent
names, burials, etc.

Last Edit: Jul 9, 2021 22:43:23 GMT by Admin

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Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project Jul 9, 2021 22:06:25 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jul 9, 2021 22:06:25 GMT

VINCI FAMILY FOR LEONARDO’S DNA

PART II

Origins
The name of the stream Vincio and of Leonardo’s birthplace and hence that of
his family derive from the Salix viminalis or purpurea: in late Latin the vincus, vinci.
In the XIII century, “da Vinci” was a surname typically derived from the toponym
of provenance or residence; but for Leonardo’s ancestors, and therefore for the descendants
of that Michele which is considered to be the progenitor of this genealogy,
it transformed itself into a patronymic.12
We write it with a capital D to differentiate it from that of other inhabitants of
the hamlet itself, some of whom were also notaries (see for instance ser Ranieri “di
Vincio”, active from 1261, or ser Lippo di ser Cambio de Vincio.13)
Giovan Battista Dei, drawing up a chronology of events relative to the Da Vinci
family, already pointed out that in 1564 Piero di Guglielmo di ser Piero Da Vinci
(VII generation) “stated that he descended from Lippo da Vinci, who was Gonfaloniere
di Giustizia in 1301”.14
Frequent cases of homonymy were one of the causes of the spread of surnames,
which begin to be frequent in Tuscany in the XII century, at least for the most important
families. Our “Da Vincis” kept this surname despite being born and living
in Florence and being recognized as citizens of Florence (cives florentini). Luigi
Passerini noted: “I do not know if [the family of the famous painter] belonged to
that Lippo da Vinci […] who had as coat of arms a golden pole placed between two
golden stars on an azure background. It is however certain that ser Piero di ser Guido
di ser Michele da Vinci, Leonardo’s great-grandfather, had already acquired Florentine
citizenship in 1381, when he was elected to the Priorato”.15
The simplification in “Vinci” starts progressively with ser Piero’s descendants.
Ser Anton Giuseppe Da Vinci (1726-1803) will however proudly revive the original
surname. As late as the period between 1747 and 1840, the family tomb in the church
of Santa

Croce in Vinci was also denominated “Da Vinci”, and so were called Valentino
and his son Paolo (XIII and XIV generation) in the Libro della Compagnia
della buona morte.16
It is interesting to notice that, between 1580 and 1595, in the Piante di popoli e
strade of the Capitani di parte Guelfa (ASF), some of the Da Vincis’ properties are
indicated as “Guglielmi” (that is “of Guglielmo”) at the Costareccia, in the Popoli
of Santa

Croce, San Bartolomeo a Streda, San Pantaleo, and in Anchiano di Santa

Lucia in Paterno.17
We finally point out that on 3 September 1911, when Leonardo di Tommaso
(XVI generation, branch A) is in Florence following the theft of the Monna Lisa to
release a statement to the daily “La Nazione”, he clarifies that “the da has by now
disappeared” and that he, “who considers this suppression a mangling by his countrymen,
has urgently reinstated it for the occasion”. 18
As Massimo Livi Bacci writes, “fixed surnames are also a sort of genetic marker
which has allowed scholars to pursue interesting genetic analysis of populations”.19
The direct branches of the descendants of ser Piero, Leonardo’s father, and DNA
tests, could make it possible in the future to also ascertain how many of those who
bear the surname Vinci20 belong (through family branches which are still being researched)
to the new genealogical tree of the Da Vinci family, and to eventually
locate further places, memories and documents.
In the period 1498-1510 Leonardo established between Milan and Vaprio the
Achademia Leonardi Vinci, where diverse activities, from painting to philosophy to
the applied arts, were pursued. He had designed six cartelle (“plates”), first engraved
by a collaborator of his and then by Albrecht Dürer: referring back to his origins,
they gave life to “Da Vinci knots” which played with notions of circularity, infinity,
and the interpenetration of the arts, knowledge and cultures. They expressed for
Leonardo a conceptual signature in the shape of a symbol of emblematic identity.

Notary and notary signs
Several notaries “from Vinci” were active from the XIII century, but the most
ancient ancestor of Leonardo documented to date with certainty is Michele Da Vinci:
it does not appear that he was a notary; a posteriori he will be mentioned as “ser”
Michele, presumably to confer dignity and value to the family tradition and to its lineage.
No act stipulated by him is known. Not even his son, ser Guido, ever indicates
him as “ser”. Uzielli drew attention to the mention of “Ser Michele” in a contract
dating from 1339, which he affirms, referring to the Carte Dei (f. 15v) and to the
entry in the 1339 Fiscal Chamber (unidentified), to be “the most ancient memory of
the Da Vinci family”21; Dei instead mentions explicitely the 1464 document in which
Leonardo’s uncle, Francesco the “cobbler”, appears as “son of the late Antonio di
Ser Piero di Ser Guido di Ser Michele”. He does not however use the epithet “ser”
in his genealogical tree sketch, even if it appears in the version held in the Biblioteca
dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei for the above-mentioned encomiastic reasons.
Notary signs, including those of the Da Vinci family, often represented, at least
in part, a monstrance topped by a cross. The 1360 signum (“seal”) of ser Piero di ser
Guido was practically identical to that of his father ser Guido (in 1331-32), but different
from that of his brother ser Giovanni.
The seal of ser Piero d’Antonio, Leonardo’s father, featured in the upper part a
sort of pine cone alternating black and white: it is the same which reappears in his
son ser Giuliano’s extraordinary sign, a highly original, creative and symbolic one,
placed on the frontispiece of his Notary books held in the Archivio di Stato of Florence.
The lower part is exceptional in that it highlights the symbolism of the act of
binding, alluding to the vincire of the purple willow: three intertwined rings with a
diamond introduce a Medicean iconography which recurs from Botticelli to the ring
with an octagonal empty pyramid drawn by Leonardo in the Codex Atlanticus toward
1515. The three tree stumps arranged in a semicircle refer to the Medici’s broncone
(“branch”) and relate to Leonardo’s emblematic sketch dated to about 1494,22
which we also find in his plans for Medici architecture from 1515. Both symbols,
which date back to Cosimo the Elder and Lorenzo the Magnificent, can be traced
back to Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Compagnia del Diamante and to Lorenzo
di Piero di Lorenzo’s Compagnia del Broncone.

Last Edit: Jul 9, 2021 22:42:59 GMT by Admin

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Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project Jul 10, 2021 5:48:44 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jul 10, 2021 5:48:44 GMT

PROFILES*

1)
I. Michele Da Vinci (d. before 1331)
First generation documented to date.
Birth: XIII century or beginning of the XIV century.
Documented: 15 November 1331.
Documented sons one:
Guido (see II generation).
Professional status: does not appear to be a notary despite the 1464 citation.24
Death: before 15 November 133125.
Historical genealogical trees: Carte Dei: “Michele”; BANL (1746): “Ser Michele”;26
Manzi (1859): “Ser Michele, notaro”;27 Uzielli (1872): “Ser Michele da Vinci,
notaio”; Smiraglia Scognamiglio (1900): “ser Michele notaio”; Monti (1909):
“Michele”.

2)
II. Guido di Michele (documented 1331 – d. before 1360)
Second generation.
Son of Michele Da Vinci.
Documented from 1331 as Guido son of Michele Da Vinci (“Guido olim Micchaelis
de Vincio”).28
Documented sons two:
Giovanni (doc. from 1357 – d. 1406);29
Piero (doc. 1360 – d. 1417) (see III generation).
Professional status: honorary judge and notary (“iudex ordinarius atque notarius
publicus”).
Appointments: Official of the Commune of Empoli.30
Other information: Deed stipulated in Vinci, 15 September 1332.31 On 6 April 1348
ser Guido stipulated in the Castle of Vinci the will of the rector of the church of Santa

Maria a Faltognano, which will be subsequently copied by his son ser Piero.32
Death: no later than 1360.
Historical genealogical tree: Giusdicenti 2024 (1700)33: the ancestor Guido (the father
Michele does not appear); Carte Dei: “ser Guido di Michele 1339”; BANL
(1746): indicated as the son of Ser Michele and “Florentine notary 1339”; Uzielli
(1872) and Smiraglia Scognamiglio (1900): son of Ser Michele / “Florentine notary
who stipulated in 1339”.

3)
III. Piero di Guido (doc. 1360 – d. 1417)
Third generation.
Son of ser Guido Da Vinci.
Documented from 1360.34
Wife: Bartolomea di Francesco Dini, documented in a Spoglio della Gabella dated
1406.35 Her son Antonio mentions her in Catasto entries (1427, 1431, 1451) among
the adjoining owners of his estate in Campagliana: “Monna Bartolomea widow of
ser Piero di ser Ghuido”.36
Documented sons one:
Antonio (b. ca. 1371/72 – d. 1460/62) (see IV generation).
Undocumented daughter: Paola.37
Professional status: ordinary judge, notary.38 His brother Giovanni, also a notary,39
collaborated with Piero: one stipulated and the other one copied fideliter.40
Appointments: Florentine Ambassador in Sassoferrato in 1361;41 scrutineer for the
Uffici Maggiori in 1381;42 notary for the election of the Potestà in Florence in 1392
and notary to the Signoria in 1413.43
Further information: Deeds of power of attorney to ser Piero on behalf of Lottiera
Beccanugi, his sister-in-law (wife of his brother Giovanni) and of her son Frosino44:
6 June 1403, 29 April 1404.45
Other documents: Registry of notary protocols of ser Piero son of ser Guido, which
opens with a deed dated 30-10-1391 (stipulated in Vinci) and closes with the by now
famous personal note which was added by his son Antonio concerning the birth of
his four children and of his grandson Leonardo.46
Houses: Florence: Popolo of San Frediano, Quarter of Santo Spirito, Gonfalone Drago;
Popolo of San Michele Berteldi (today the church of San Michele and Gaetano
in piazza Antinori), Quarter of Santa

Maria Novella, Gonfalone Leon Bianco; Vinci?
Place of work: Santa

Maria a Monte, Empoli, Firenze, Uzzano, Vitolini, Vinci.
Will: in favor of his son Antonio (?).47
Death: 11-8-1417.
Burial: Florence? Vinci?

4)
IV. Antonio di Piero (b. ca. 1371/72 – d. 1460/1462)
Fourth generation.
Son of ser Piero di ser Guido Da Vinci and Bartolomea di Francesco Dini.
Birth: ca. 1371/1372 (based on the age declared in the portate al Catasto).48
Documented: 1 May 1402 in Alcudia (Morocco); 10 March 1404, Barcelona;49 9
December 1414: appears for the first time in Vinci;50 portate al Catasto from 1427
to 1458.
Wife: Lucia di ser Piero di Zoso da Bacchereto, Florentine notary. She belonged to a
family of notaries and landowners, also dedicated to ceramics. Lucia, born between
1393 and 1396, dies between 1469 and 1480. The properties of the Zosos at Bacchereto
(house and jug kiln) will pass on to ser Piero, Leonardo’s father.51
Documented children four:
Piero Frosino (born 1426 – died 1504) (see V generation);
Giuliano (b. 31-05-1428; d. before 143152)
Violante Elena (b. 31-05-1432);53
Francesco Guido (b. 14-08-1436 – doc. 1504/5).54
Professional status: merchant in Morocco (Alcudia, 1402) and in Spain (Barcelona,
1404);55 small landowner, farmer;56 procurator in legal disputes;57 stipulated con-
tracts even if he wasn’t a notary.58
Offices: Procurator of Frosino di ser Giovanni Da Vinci59 in Barcelona. In the Catasto
of 1431 he writes: “I said Antonio am 59 years of age without any training and I have
never held office”.60 In the genealogical tree published by Manzi in 185961 (and in
the manuscript one from Uzielli62) we read (though the information is not verified):
“Antonio. Among the squittini in 1433”.
Houses: Firenze (Popolo of San Michele Berteldi, Quarter of Santa

Maria Novella,
Gonfalone Leon Bianco; and Borgo San Frediano, Parish of the Quarter of Santo
Spirito, Gonfalone Drago); Barcelona; Vinci.63
Documented work places: Alcudia (Morocco); Barcelona; Vinci.
Estate: In 1427 he already owned, among others, the house at the Costareccia and
resided in Vinci, where he did not yet have a house and lived in that of a creditor of
his.64 Only in the Catasto entry of 1433 he declares the “small house where I live
located in the hamlet of Vinci with a small orchard”.
Heirs: Piero Frosino, Francesco Guido.65
Death: between December 1460 and September 1462.66
Burial: Vinci ( Santa

Croce) or Florence (“in the church of Santo Spirito”67)?

Last Edit: Jul 10, 2021 5:52:56 GMT by Admin

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Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project Jul 10, 2021 20:39:02 GMT

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Post by Admin on Jul 10, 2021 20:39:02 GMT

5)
V. Piero Frosino di Antonio (b. 1426 – d. 1504)
Fifth generation.
Son of Antonio di ser Piero Da Vinci and Lucia di ser Piero di Zoso from Bacchereto.
Birth and Baptism: Vinci, 19 April 1426.68 More than likely his second name was an
homage to his father’s cousin, a merchant in Barcelona.
Extramarital affair: Caterina (b. ca. 1427 – d. 1494, Milan?69)
Documented sons one: (1)70 Leonardo (b. 15-04-1452 – d. 02-05-1519) (see VI.A.
generation).
First marriage: 1453.71 Wife: Albiera di Giovanni Zanobi Amadori (b. 1433/37 – d.
1464; sister of Alessandra, wife of Francesco di Antonio Da Vinci, Leonardo’s favorite
uncle. Albiera died “of child birth” on 15-6-1464, a year after she had given
called Santa

Maria Sopra Porta).
Documented children one: (2) Antonia Francesca (b. 16-06-1463 – d. 21-07-1463).72
Second marriage: ca. 1466 (between 1465 and 1467).73 Wife: Francesca Nicolosa
di ser Giuliano Lanfredini (b. 5-12-1449 – buried 21-02-1474). She is the first to be
buried in the new family tomb in the Badia Fiorentina.74
Third marriage: 25-05-1475. Wife: Margherita Innocenzia di Francesco di Jacopo
Giulli75 (b. 30-12-1457 – buried 26-08-1485 in the Badia Fiorentina.76)
Documented children seven:
(3) Antonio Matteo (b. 26-02-1476 – d. before May 1532); marries Nanna di Giovanni
Luperelli (doc. 1509, 1522);
(4) Maddalena Maria (b. 4-11-1477 – buried 27 or 29 November 147777 in the Badia
Fiorentina);
(5) ser Giuliano Salvestro (b. 31-12-1478 – buried in the Badia on 03-05-1525);78
marries Alessandra di Giovanni di Antonio Dini;
(6) Lorenzo Miniato (b. 24-10-1480 – buried 30-12-1544 in the Badia79);
(7) Violante Caterina (b. 27-11-1481); marries Francesco di Domenico Buonamici
on 23 July 1503;80
(8) Domenico [Matteo] (b. 21-2-1483 – [d. before 20 March 1485]);
(9) Domenico [Benedetto] (b. 20-3-1485, baptized the following day – d. 1563) (see
generation VI.B.).
Another son of ser Piero: (10) Bartolomeo Paolo (b. 29-6-1485, baptized on 1 July;
buried in the Badia Fiorentina on 15 or 19 December 148581): his mother could
not be Margherita, who less than three months earlier had given birth to Domenico
Benedetto. This notwithstanding he is buried in the Da Vinci family tomb.
Fourth marriage: 12 November 1485.82 Wife: Lucrezia Alessandra di Guglielmo di
Gherardo Cortigiani (baptism: 5-3-1459, buried in the Badia Fiorentina on 16-12-
1531.)
Documented children nine:
(11) Guglielmo Francesco Romolo, named after his paternal and maternal uncles (b.
21-10-1486, bapt. 25-10, d. 1486, buried in the Badia Fiorentina on 5-12 of the same
year83);
(12) Margherita Romola (b. 16-12-1487);84
(13) Benedetto Francesco Romolo (b. 18-3-1489 – d. at Vinci in 1530);85
(14) A small girl “daughter of Ser Piero and carried to the Badia” on 5 May 1490;86
(15) Pandolfo Vittorio (b. 28-7-1490 – d. 1506/1520);87
(16) Guglielmo Francesco Romolo (b. 06-06-1492 – d. before 02-06-155188);
(17) Bartolomeo Vittorio (b. 30-7-1493, bapt. 02-08, d. 1532/34);89
(18) Giovanni Francesco Romolo (b. 9-1-1499 – d. 1549);90
(19) A small girl, Lucrezia (b. 14-3-1505). 91
Other children of ser Piero:
(20) Pierfilippo, buried in the Badia on 10 April 1516.92 It is interesting to note that
ser Piero (after Leonardo and Antonia) had sixteen children, besides at least two probably
illegitimate ones, starting only at the age of fifty with his third and fourth wives.
Professional status: Notary from 144993 to 1504;94 land-owner and entrepreneur
(houses, farmland, mill, kilns). He had his notary study in Florence in a plot owned
by the Badia Fiorentina in via del Palagio del Podestà95 (via Ghibellina, opposite
today’s Museo del Bargello.)
Among his offices: 1474: notary for the wine tax (gabella del vino);96 3 May 1478:
elected among the three officials and procurators of the Commune of Vinci;97 1485:
notary to the Signoria of Florence.98
Main houses99: Vinci; Florence: (from 1457) Borgo dei Greci, with his first wife
Albiera Amadori; (1462-1467) Piazza del Palagio di Parte Guelfa (where the church
of Santa

Maria sopra Porta or Sopr’Arno, or San Biagio, stood. He lives together
with his brother Francesco who had married Alessandra Amadori, sister of Albiera);
(beginning of 1467) between Piazza della Signoria and Chiasso dei Baroncelli or of
“Messer Bivigliano”; (late October 1467-1480100) at the corner between via delle
Prestanze (now via dei Gondi) and Piazza San Firenze; (from 1 March 1480 until his
death) via Ghibellina (toward the Canto alla Briga), in the house which had been
owned by Vanni di Niccolò di ser Vanni and where he had met “the slave Caterina”
before Leonardo’s birth; here he lives with his wife Lucrezia.
Inheritance: The sequence of events surrounding ser Piero’s inheritance, which was
to be divided among the four sons from his third wife Margherita (Antonio, Giuliano,
Lorenzo and Domenico) and the fourth, Lucrezia, with her five sons (Benedetto,
Pandolfo, Guglielmo, Bartolomeo and Giovanni), is very complex.101
Burial: Florence, Badia Fiorentina, 11 July 1504.102