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Leonardo Da Vinci's living relatives found: painter, engineer, Oscar nominee Leonardo da Vinci's descendants 'include director Franco Zeffirelli'
(about 13 hours later)
Italian researchers say they have discovered living relatives of the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci despite the loss of his body centuries ago. Nearly three dozen Italians, including the Oscar-nominated director Franco Zeffirelli, have received word they may be descendants of Leonardo da Vinci – a claim met with surprise and joy.
“How does it feel to be descended from Leonardo da Vinci? Obviously I’m surprised, but happy, happy also for my grandmother who is no more, who was proud to have the name Vinci,” Elena Calosi, an architect from Empoli told La Repubblica. “Who has not studied Leonardo or seen his paintings?”
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The historians Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato told a press conference in Florence they had uncovered modern-day relatives of the 15th-century painter, engineer and mathematician – among them a star on Italy’s contemporary art scene. The findings were unveiled in Florence this week by Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato, historians who claim to have reconstructed the genealogy of Leonardo – perhaps the most famous Renaissance painter, inventor and mathematician – and the lives and burial spots of some of his direct descendants.
Their research, which began in 1973, led them to track down some 35 indirect descendants of the man behind the Mona Lisa portrait, including Italian film, opera and television Academy-award nominee Franco Zeffirelli, according to media reports. The researchers said they had based their work on a study of documents in Italy, France and Spain, including estate papers, and did not have access to DNA evidence, because the body of the master who painted the Mona Lisa was lost in the 16th century.
Vezzosi, director of the Leonardo da Vinci museum and Sabato, president of the international Da Vinci association, told journalists they made the discovery after studying documents in Italy, France and Spain. Among the alleged descendants was Giovanni Calosi, who told La Stampa that his mother used to talk of having documents and letters that were written backwards and could only be read in a mirror, recalling Leonardo’s use of mirrored script.
There was no DNA to test as Da Vinci’s remains were lost in the 16th century during religious wars following his death in 1519, but the pair painstakingly trawled through church, council and estate papers to draw up a family tree. “We never gave any importance to those documents, which were lost and sold. What we thought was a legend passed down through generations turns out to be the truth,” said Calosi.
Da Vinci himself never had any children but had many siblings and it is their descendants who have been traced. The researchers said they would next try to trace Leonardo’s DNA through the descendants they believed they had identified.
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Previous attempts to trace Da Vinci’s line left out crucial documents on female relatives, the researchers said. The revelation may not have come out of the blue for Zeffirelli, who directed films of Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Zeffirelli is the son of Ottorino Corsi, who was born and raised in Vinci in Tuscany, before moving to Florence.
The news of blood ties to the Italian polymath, often credited with such inventions as the parachute and helicopter, came as a shock to locals in the town of Vinci in Tuscany, many of whom learnt of their connection just days before the press conference. In 2007, when he accepted the Leonardo award from the then Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, Zeffirelli is said to have quipped: “The Corsis, who are my family, were also descendants of Leonardo.” It was thought at the time to be a joke.
“My mother Dina was right – she told us about documents and letters written backwards that you could only read in the mirror,” Giovanni Calosi, one of the descendants, told La Stampa daily, in an apparent reference to Da Vinci’s penchant for writing in mirrored script.
“We never gave any importance to those documents, which were lost and sold. What we thought was a legend passed down through generations turns out to be the truth,” said Calosi, who began collaborating on the project with Vezzosi nine years ago.