Badia Fiorentina - The Da Vinci family tomb

In the Badia Fiorentina, an abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary, mention can be found of a tomb belonging to the Vinci family, with the date 1474: “S.S. PETRI ANTONI S. PETRI DE VINCIO ET SUORUM A.D. 1474”. Leonardo’s father, Ser Piero, was buried there in 1504. In total, twenty-one members of the Vinci family were buried in the abbey, the first being Ser Piero’s second wife, Francesca Lanfredini (1474), while the last was his great nephew, Giovanni di Piero di Guglielmo (1614). Two of Leonardo’s sisters who died just a few weeks after they were born were buried there in 1477 and 1490, and another sister in 1505. Ser Piero’s first wife, Albiera, and their daughter Antonia (who predeceased her) were instead buried in the Church of San Biagio (originally the Church of Santa Maria sopra Porta) in 1464 and 1463, respectively.
Ser Piero was one of the Badia’s notary lawyers, and began working for the monks in 1451. When renovation work was undertaken on the abbey church in the second half of the 17th century, many tombs had to be moved to allow for the replacement of the paving stones and all traces of the Vinci family’s burial place were lost.