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Leonardo’s mother. An up-to-date summary103
While in Florence ser Piero married Albiera Amadori, Caterina went to live with
Accattabriga104 in Campo Zeppi, in the parish of San Pantaleo, in an old farmstead
(of historical standing since 1337)105 in the countryside a little more than 2 km from
Vinci.
The role and identity of Caterina are of fundamental importance in the life of the
artist-scientist.
After forty-seven years of research started by Vezzosi in the footsteps of Renzo
Cianchi, and then continued with Agnese Sabato,106 we are able to articulate the only
more than likely hypothesis, that is that Leonardo’s mother was the “slave Caterina”
of Vanni di Niccolò di ser Vanni. The identification also rests on compatibility and
exclusion: despite researches conducted by several scholars, no other Caterina that
could have been Leonardo’s mother has been located in or around Vinci. It has been
recently demonstrated that she could not be identified with Caterina di Bartolomeo
di Lippo, that is of Mattoni, because the latter did not marry Accattabriga but was
instead the wife of Taddeo di Domenico di Simone Tielli, a neighbor.107 So far other
Caterinas have proven improbable: for instance the one who in 1452 would have
been fourteen years old rather than twenty-five;108 or the orphan who was entrusted
as a ward to ser Piero in Pisa in 1449.109
The “slave Caterina” whom ser Piero wrote down in Vanni’s will of 1449 is to
date the only credible mother of Leonardo, without contraindications. Yet we lack
definitive proof and her origins remain obscure. On the basis of archival documents,
Caterina di Vanni is the only one whom Leonardo’s father certainly met and frequented
in the period preceding Leonardo’s conception and birth.110 Ser Piero could
have gotten Caterina pregnant in mid-July 1451 when he was stipulating deeds in
Florence. Vanni made a will which left to his wife Agnola the ownership of the
“slave Caterina” with “the freedom to have her at her disposal”. With the postscripts
of 29 November 1449 ser Piero included his rights to the usufruct of Vanni’s house
in via Ghibellina “in all respects as the said ser Piero will see fit”. He furthermore
had himself named executor of the will. Vanni died on 4 October 1451. At that time
there were in Florence over five-hundred slaves. A 1452 provision “contra deviantes
sclava” included the abuse of somebody else’s slave as a serious and prosecutable
misdemeanor.111 On 3 February 1452 (old style) a proxy was stipulated for the
grandfather Antonio, concerning a reserved agreement between his son ser Piero and
Vanni’s heirs; this was not made public, but it solved the dispute leaving to monna
Agnola the house in via Ghibellina for life.
In the Catasto entry of 1458, Antonio declared the “missing amount” from the
income from the house in via Ghibellina.
Agnola substituted the “slave Caterina” with a maid who was paid twelve florins a
year, the same wage of Lorenzo di Credi, Verrocchio’s collaborator together with
Leonardo.
To conclude, Agnola lost the slave, and ser Piero had to renounce the house until
Agnola’s death. Finally, in 1480 Leonardo’s father took possession of the house as
stipulated in Vanni’s testament, and here he spent the rest of his life, to then leave
it to his sons (Bartolomeo and his sculptor’s son Pierino da Vinci will live there).
As she was a slave she had no family and Leonardo was hence brought up in his
paternal grandparents’ house; it was futhermore impossible to know her patronymic.
Once she became a widow it seems natural that she reached her son in Milan. The
Anonimo Gaddiano states that Caterina was of “good blood” as was the case with
the most beautiful and defiant slaves. Leonardo was baptized in the presence of wellknown
witnesses (all neighbors in Vinci), who celebrated ser Piero’s first son even if
he was illegitimate. Caterina is not even mentioned in the recollection of the grandfather
Antonio.
She was deprived of any right; she was not a woman of good or even noble standing,
whose family would not have allowed a similar treatment; and she found herself
forced to marry Accattabriga. Antonio Da Vinci knew well the slave trade of the
Datini company from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Even considering the
Statutes and the customs of the time, the abuse of a respectable girl would have
caused a scandal with serious consequences. Other facts are in favor of Caterina having
originated in distant countries; from Leonardo’s being left-handed and writing in
reverse, to his interest in the East.112
The fact remains that we are not in a position to know if Caterina was from Caffa113
or Constantinople.
We further deem significant and fascinating the hypothesis that Leonardo was born
from a genetic interaction of two different haplotypes, that is from the characteristics
of two different populations: could this be the origin of Leonardo’s genius?
A story similar to that of “Caterina schiava” concerns the most prestigious son of
ser Piero and brother of Leonardo, ser Giuliano, who had an illegitimate daughter,
Margherita (b. 15-06-1513), with a famula (“maidservant”) named Sandra, whom he
did not marry. Instead, he got married with Alessandra di Giovanni di Antonio Dini,
from a good family, in August of the following year. Ser Giuliano kept his illegitimate
daughter at home with him and his wife; he gave her a part of his inheritance
(while appointing his legitimate daughter Violante, born in 1517, as universal heir)
and entrusted her post mortem protection to his brother Lorenzo.114
While in Florence ser Piero married Albiera Amadori, Caterina went to live with
Accattabriga104 in Campo Zeppi, in the parish of San Pantaleo, in an old farmstead
(of historical standing since 1337)105 in the countryside a little more than 2 km from
Vinci.
The role and identity of Caterina are of fundamental importance in the life of the
artist-scientist.
After forty-seven years of research started by Vezzosi in the footsteps of Renzo
Cianchi, and then continued with Agnese Sabato,106 we are able to articulate the only
more than likely hypothesis, that is that Leonardo’s mother was the “slave Caterina”
of Vanni di Niccolò di ser Vanni. The identification also rests on compatibility and
exclusion: despite researches conducted by several scholars, no other Caterina that
could have been Leonardo’s mother has been located in or around Vinci. It has been
recently demonstrated that she could not be identified with Caterina di Bartolomeo
di Lippo, that is of Mattoni, because the latter did not marry Accattabriga but was
instead the wife of Taddeo di Domenico di Simone Tielli, a neighbor.107 So far other
Caterinas have proven improbable: for instance the one who in 1452 would have
been fourteen years old rather than twenty-five;108 or the orphan who was entrusted
as a ward to ser Piero in Pisa in 1449.109
The “slave Caterina” whom ser Piero wrote down in Vanni’s will of 1449 is to
date the only credible mother of Leonardo, without contraindications. Yet we lack
definitive proof and her origins remain obscure. On the basis of archival documents,
Caterina di Vanni is the only one whom Leonardo’s father certainly met and frequented
in the period preceding Leonardo’s conception and birth.110 Ser Piero could
have gotten Caterina pregnant in mid-July 1451 when he was stipulating deeds in
Florence. Vanni made a will which left to his wife Agnola the ownership of the
“slave Caterina” with “the freedom to have her at her disposal”. With the postscripts
of 29 November 1449 ser Piero included his rights to the usufruct of Vanni’s house
in via Ghibellina “in all respects as the said ser Piero will see fit”. He furthermore
had himself named executor of the will. Vanni died on 4 October 1451. At that time
there were in Florence over five-hundred slaves. A 1452 provision “contra deviantes
sclava” included the abuse of somebody else’s slave as a serious and prosecutable
misdemeanor.111 On 3 February 1452 (old style) a proxy was stipulated for the
grandfather Antonio, concerning a reserved agreement between his son ser Piero and
Vanni’s heirs; this was not made public, but it solved the dispute leaving to monna
Agnola the house in via Ghibellina for life.
In the Catasto entry of 1458, Antonio declared the “missing amount” from the
income from the house in via Ghibellina.
Agnola substituted the “slave Caterina” with a maid who was paid twelve florins a
year, the same wage of Lorenzo di Credi, Verrocchio’s collaborator together with
Leonardo.
To conclude, Agnola lost the slave, and ser Piero had to renounce the house until
Agnola’s death. Finally, in 1480 Leonardo’s father took possession of the house as
stipulated in Vanni’s testament, and here he spent the rest of his life, to then leave
it to his sons (Bartolomeo and his sculptor’s son Pierino da Vinci will live there).
As she was a slave she had no family and Leonardo was hence brought up in his
paternal grandparents’ house; it was futhermore impossible to know her patronymic.
Once she became a widow it seems natural that she reached her son in Milan. The
Anonimo Gaddiano states that Caterina was of “good blood” as was the case with
the most beautiful and defiant slaves. Leonardo was baptized in the presence of wellknown
witnesses (all neighbors in Vinci), who celebrated ser Piero’s first son even if
he was illegitimate. Caterina is not even mentioned in the recollection of the grandfather
Antonio.
She was deprived of any right; she was not a woman of good or even noble standing,
whose family would not have allowed a similar treatment; and she found herself
forced to marry Accattabriga. Antonio Da Vinci knew well the slave trade of the
Datini company from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Even considering the
Statutes and the customs of the time, the abuse of a respectable girl would have
caused a scandal with serious consequences. Other facts are in favor of Caterina having
originated in distant countries; from Leonardo’s being left-handed and writing in
reverse, to his interest in the East.112
The fact remains that we are not in a position to know if Caterina was from Caffa113
or Constantinople.
We further deem significant and fascinating the hypothesis that Leonardo was born
from a genetic interaction of two different haplotypes, that is from the characteristics
of two different populations: could this be the origin of Leonardo’s genius?
A story similar to that of “Caterina schiava” concerns the most prestigious son of
ser Piero and brother of Leonardo, ser Giuliano, who had an illegitimate daughter,
Margherita (b. 15-06-1513), with a famula (“maidservant”) named Sandra, whom he
did not marry. Instead, he got married with Alessandra di Giovanni di Antonio Dini,
from a good family, in August of the following year. Ser Giuliano kept his illegitimate
daughter at home with him and his wife; he gave her a part of his inheritance
(while appointing his legitimate daughter Violante, born in 1517, as universal heir)
and entrusted her post mortem protection to his brother Lorenzo.114