THE CELEBRATED ‘MONA LISA’ WAS AN ANCESTOR OF THE GUICCIARDINI STROZZI FAMILY, THE FAMOUS PRODUCERS OF VERNACCIA DI SAN GIMIGNANO. THE IDENTITY OF DA VINCI’S PAINTING CONFIRMED BY A NOTE DISCOVERED IN AN INCUNABULUM AT THE LIBRARY OF HEIDELBERG

It is now almost certain that the identity of the celebrated ‘Gioconda’ by Leonardo da Vinci has been confirmed: Mona Lisa was no other than a distant ancestor of the Guicciardini Strozzi family, the famous producers of Vernaccia di San Gimignano and one of the oldest and most important noble families of Tuscany.

According to the notation that was discovered in an incunabulum written by Agostino Vespucci and held at the university library of Heidelberg (Germany), the woman who was painted by Da Vinci was Lisa Gherardini, the wife of merchant Francesco Del Giocondo. The woman lived between Florence and the Chianti area, sometime between the end of the 1400’s and the beginning of the 1500’s. Apart from Florence, the locations of the Gioconda were Greve, Panzano, San Donato in Poggio, Castellina, and even the Siennese part of the Chianti region.