Caterina's Smile — Leonardo da Vinci's Mother

The historian author discovered a deed of liberation for Caterina, a slave from the Caucasus, at the Florence National Archives. The drafter was the notary Piero, Leonardo da Vinci's father.

A Circassian slave girl, stripped of everything—her body, her freedom, her future. Was she Leonardo's mother? This epic historical novel unravels the mystery by drawing upon all relevant historical sources.

In the 15th century, in the Mediterranean world where light and shadow intertwined, the girl was captured on the Caucasus plateau and taken to Tana, an ancient city at the mouth of the Don River. From Constantinople, with its glittering golden domes, to Venice, the center of the slave trade, and then to Renaissance Florence, finally to the village of Vinci. The narrators of each chapter are people who actually lived through history: a merchant who dreamed of the East, a galley captain, a Russian slave girl, a knight who collected books, and a businessman who experienced the brink of ruin.

Leonardo spent his childhood with Caterina. His view of nature and the universe, his love for all living things, his appreciation of tribal myths and legends, and his image of faces possessing angelic beauty—all of these were inherited from his mother. After a long separation, Caterina, sensing her end was near, joined a pilgrimage group, heading for Milan where her son Leonardo was.

The 21st-century Caterina—a refugee, a child laborer, living at the bottom of society—is everywhere. Therefore, the author chose to write his new discoveries not as an academic paper, but as a novel for a wider audience.

Table of Contents

1. Jacob 2. Josafa 3. Telmo 4. Giacomo 5. Maria 6. Donato 7. Ginevra 8. Francesco 9. Antonio 10. Piero, Donato Again 11. Another Antonio 12. Leonardo 13. I