Caterina di Meo Lippi was an orphan, gave birth to six children and died in Milan
Art historians have finally revealed the secret of the mother of the great Leonardo. It was believed that she was a slave from Africa or even China. However, everything turned out to be simpler. Her name was Caterina di Meo Lippi, according to the British historian Martin Kemp from Oxford in the book "Mona Lisa: People and a Picture". She was an orphan and lived with her grandmother in the hills a couple of kilometers from Vinci.
Scientists have established that Catherine was 15 years old when she was seduced by 25-year-old lawyer Ser Piero da Vinci, who worked in Florence. In July 1451, he decided to take a break from life in a big city and work and came to Vinci for a few weeks, where he met Katerina. On April 14, 1452, she gave birth to Leonardo. Ser Pierrot, who was making a career in Florence, was disturbed by the child. The boy was apparently raised in the home of his father, a local notary and landowner. All this Kemp found out in the archives after careful study of tax and other documents.
Leonardo had no complaints about his grandfather. He came to Florence under the name Leonardo di Ser Piero da Vinci.
As for Caterina, over time she married a local peasant named Antonio di Piero Buti and bore him a son and four daughters.
More than forty years later, Katerina came to live out her life with Leonardo in Milan, where she died about a year later, writes the Daily Mail. Scientists have found a note written by Leonardo's hand, in which he promises to pay for her funeral, and a record in the archives of Milan about the death of a certain Catherine from Florence.
Zakhar RADOV