Leonardo da Vinci’s mother was a slave, claims Italian novelist

Leonardo’s father notarised the record six months after the birth of the Renaissance genius, who went on to paint masterpieces including the Mona Lisa.

This picture made available by historian Carlo Vecce shows what he says is the original act of liberation of the slave Caterina, who he believes is the mother of Leonardo da Vinci and notarised by Leonardo’s father Piero da Vinci (Carlo Vecce via AP)

An Italian scholar and novelist has provided fresh fodder for an old debate over the identity of Leonardo da Vinci’s mother, proffering a recently unearthed document as evidence that she arrived on the Italian peninsula as a slave from the Caucasus region of Central Asia.

Carlo Vecce, an Italian literature professor at the University of Naples L’Orientale, has revealed his theory in a new novel, Il Sorriso di Caterina, or Caterina’s Smile.