Leonardo da Vinci scholar says discovered document shows artist’s mother was a slave
An Italian researcher working on the life of Leonardo da Vinci has discovered a document that suggests the artist’s mother, Caterina, may have been a slave who was taken from the North Caucasus region in Central Asia (now Russia) to Italy.
Da Vinci’s mother’s background has always been a source of debate amongst da Vinci scholars, but Carlo Vecce, a professor at the Orientale University in Naples, now claims to have finally cracked the problem.
The document had been written by Leonard da Vinci’s father, Piero, dated November 1452, just six months after his son was born. It details the freeing of a slave named Caterina, who Vecce thinks was Leonardo’s mother.
The historian told NBC News: “When I saw that document, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I never gave much credit to the theory that she was a slave from abroad. So, I spent months trying to prove that the Caterina in that notary act was not Leonardo’s mother, but in the end, all the documents I found went in that direction, and I surrendered to the evidence.”
He added: “At the time, many slaves were named Caterina, but this was the only liberation act of a slave named Caterina [that Piero da Vinci] wrote in all his long career. Moreover, the document is full of small mistakes and oversights, a sign that perhaps he was nervous when he drafted it because getting someone else’s slave pregnant was a crime.”
