Gherardini Family
Pelliccia Gherardini da Vignamaggio (dates unknown), convicted of treason for plotting to overthrow the Florentine government in 1360, sentenced to death and forced into exile; eventually had the charges against him dropped.
Dianora Gherardini Bandini, daughter of Pelliccia Gherardini; wife of Domenico Bandini, who was executed as a traitor in 1360; mother of seven, including her youngest daughter, Margherita.
Margherita Bandini Datini (1360–1423), Dianora Gherardini’s daughter; married Francesco di Marco Datini, the successful “merchant of Prato,” in 1376. Her letters provide the most comprehensive account of the lives of women of her time.
Noldo Gherardini (1402–1479), Lisa’s grandfather, moved the family to Florence from Chianti.
Antonmaria Gherardini (1444–c. 1525), Noldo’s son and father of Lisa, married three times (in 1465, 1473, and 1476) and arranged her marriage to Francesco del Giocondo.
Lisa Gherardini (1479–1542), daughter of Antonmaria, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, mother of six biological children and a stepson, model for the famous portrait by Leonardo.
Camilla Gherardini, Lisa’s younger sister, forced to enter a convent for lack of a dowry.
del Giocondo Family
Iacopo (nicknamed Giocondo), born around 1357, a jovial barrelmaker who invested in real estate and earned enough to catapult the family out of the working class.
Bartolomeo del Giocondo, grandson of Iacopo and father of Francesco, a successful silkmaker who moved out of the family homestead into a house on Via della Stufa.
Francesco del Giocondo (1465–1538), who worked in his family’s silk business and pursued other entrepreneurial ventures; married twice (to Camilla Rucellai in 1491 and Lisa Gherardini in 1495); fathered seven children; served in various government councils in Florence; and is believed to have commissioned Leonardo’s portrait of his wife.
Medici Family
Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–1492), called Il Magnifico, took power as Florence’s untitled prince in 1469 and ushered in a period of prosperity and civic celebration.
Piero de’ Medici (1472–1503), Lorenzo’s oldest son, who succeeded his father but was forced to flee Florence in 1494.
Giovanni de’ Medici (1475–1521), Lorenzo’s second son, who was appointed a cardinal at age thirteen and became Pope Leo X in 1513.
Giuliano de’ Medici (1479–1516), youngest son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, politically allied with Francesco del Giocondo, and patron of Leonardo da Vinci from 1513 to 1516.
Giulio de’ Medici (1478–1534), illegitimate son of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s slain brother, Giuliano, who became Pope Clement VII in 1523 and headed the Church during the calamitous Sack of Rome in 1527 and the Siege of Florence in 1530.
da Vinci Family and Entourage
Ser Piero da Vinci (1427–1504), father of Leonardo (illegitimate) and eleven other children, a well-connected legal professional in Florence.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), an incomparable artist trained in Florence who spent a third of his life working in Milan; creator of masterpieces such as The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa; spent his final years in France under the patronage of King Francis I.
Salaì (Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno) (1480–1524), a mischievous beautiful boy who joined Leonardo’s household at age ten and remained a part of it until the end of the artist’s life.
Francesco Melzi (1491–1570), another handsome young man who came into Leonardo’s household in 1507 and remained his lifelong assistant and secretary.
Others
Duke Ludovico Sforza (1452–1508), seized control of Milan from the legitimate heir and assembled a glittering court of artists and scholars, including Leonardo; ousted in 1499 and later imprisoned by the French.
Cesare Borgia (1475–1507), illegitimate son of the Spaniard Pope Alexander VI, a ruthless commander who set out to conquer central Italy in his father’s name and who hired Leonardo as a military engineer in 1502.
Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), a career bureaucrat in the Florentine government; collaborated with Leonardo on a project for rerouting the Arno River; best known as author of The Prince.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), a Florentine considered the preeminent sculptor of his time, earned early fame for his statue David, commissioned to create a mural in the same hall as Leonardo in the Palazzo Vecchio.
King Charles VIII of France (1470–1498), invaded Italy in 1494 and briefly occupied Florence in his march to claim the throne of Naples.
King Louis XII of France (1462–1515), invaded Italy in 1499 to seize control of Milan, later became one of Leonardo’s patrons.
King Francis I of France (1494–1547), a dynamic young monarch who became Leonardo’s patron and settled the artist in a château in the Loire Valley for the last years of his life.