Birth and background
Birth and background
Photo of a building of rough stone with small windows, surrounded by olive trees
The possible birthplace and childhood home of Leonardo in Anchiano, Vinci, Italy
Leonardo da Vinci,[b] properly named Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (Leonardo, son of ser Piero from Vinci),[10][11][c] was born on 15 April 1452 in, or close to, the Tuscan hill town of Vinci; Florence was 20 miles away.[12][13][d] He was
born out of wedlock to Ser Piero da Vinci [fr] (Ser Piero di Antonio di Ser Piero di Ser Guido da Vinci; 1426–1504),[17] a Florentine legal notary,[12] and Caterina [it] (c. 1434 – 1494), from the lower-class.[18][19] It remains uncertain where Leonardo was born; the traditional account, from a local oral tradition recorded by the historian
Emanuele Repetti,[20] is that he was born in Anchiano, a country hamlet that would have offered sufficient privacy for the illegitimate birth, though, it is still possible he was born in a house in Florence, which Ser Piero almost
certainly had.[21][a] Leonardo’s parents both married separately the year after his birth. Caterina—who later appears in Leonardo’s notes as only “Caterina” or “Catelina”—is usually identified as the Caterina Buti del Vacca who married the local artisan Antonio di Piero Buti del Vacca, nicknamed “L’Accattabriga” (“the quarrelsome one”).[18][20]
