Enlarge / Presumed self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1510) on the Royal Library of Turin, Italy. (credit score: Public area)

Might Leonardo da Vinci’s mom, Caterina, have been a slave kidnapped from the mountainous Caucasus area of Central Asia? That is the newest speculation re-igniting a long-running debate concerning the identification of this mysterious girl largely misplaced to historical past. Historian Carlo Vecce of the College of Naples advised reporters at a Tuesday press convention that he found a beforehand unknown doc supporting the declare. He is additionally written a historic novel about Caterina’s life (Il Sorriso di Caterina or Caterina’s Smile) primarily based on his analysis.

It is well-established that Leonardo was born in 1452, the illegitimate son of a Florentine notary named Ser Piero d’Antonio and a girl named Caterina. Ser Piero went on to marry a girl named Albiera Amadori, adopted by three subsequent marriages after her 1464 dying. His varied unions produced 16 youngsters (11 of whom survived their early years), along with Leonardo, who grew up in his father’s family and acquired a stable schooling.

As for Caterina, many historians have recognized her as an area peasant woman and eventual spouse of a kiln employee named Antonio di Piero del Vacca (nicknamed “L’Accattabriga” or “the quarrelsome one”). However that is all we all know of her. So naturally, through the years, varied different identifications have been prompt. Maybe essentially the most controversial, proposed in 2014 by Italian historian Angelo Paratico, is that Caterina had been a Chinese language home slave imported from Crimea by Venetian merchants and bought to a Florentine banker.