Leonardo da Vinci’s mother was kidnapped and enslaved in the Caucasus when she was young and taken to Italy, according to a new analysis of nearly 600-year-old documents. It has been reported live science.
At this time, the only reliably known fact about Leonardo da Vinci’s family was that his parents were not married and his mother’s name was Katerina. It is believed that she was a peasant woman and that after Leonardo’s birth, his father, Piero da Vinci, married another woman.
Carlo Vecce, a document seeker and professor of Italian literature at the University of Naples, announced at a press conference that Leonardo da Vinci’s mother could be a slave of Circassian origin. According to Vecce, it was taken from its home in the Caucasus Mountains and then resold several times in Constantinople and Venice before coming to Florence. There he met Leonardo’s father, the young notary Piero da Vinci.
Vecce discovered previously unknown documents while researching the Florence State Archives. Among them was a Latin charter signed by Piero and dated 2 November 1452. According to him, Pierrot freed a certain Katerina from slavery.
If the scientist’s conclusions are confirmed, it may turn out that da Vinci was only half-Italian. However, results are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.