What Was Leonardos Real Name

In The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon refers to Leonardo as Da Vinci. Right away, beginning with this books title, I began to squirm. If fictional Harvard professors like Robert Langdon—who certainly, being Harvard professors, should know better—were to begin calling the artist Da Vinci, I feared there was little hope for the rest of us mere mortals. Sure enough, since the novels publication, one sees reporter after author after blogger referring to Leonardo as Da Vinci. Lets get this straight. Leonardos full name at birth was simply Leonardo. As an illegitimate child, he was fortunate that his father, Ser Piero, acknowledged him and let him be known as Leonardo di ser Piero. (Ser Piero was a bit of ladies man, it seems. Leonardo was his eldest child, begat of Caterina, a servant girl. Ser Piero went on to become a notary, marry four times and sire nine more sons and two daughters.) Leonardo was born in Anchiano, a tiny hamlet near the slightly-larger hamlet of Vinci. Ser Pieros family, however, were big fish in the little Vinci pond, and so tagged da Vinci (of or from Vinci) after their names. When he became an apprentice, in order to distinguish himself from other various Tuscan Leonardos in 15th-century Florence, and because he had his fathers blessing to do so, Leonardo was known as Leonardo da Vinci. When he traveled beyond the Republic of Florence to Milan, he often referred to himself as Leonardo the Florentine. But Leonardo da Vinci continued to stick with him, whether he wanted it to or not. Now, we all know what happened after this. Eventually, Leonardo became very famous. As famous as he was in his lifetime, his fame kept snowballing after his death in 1519. He became so famous, in fact, that for the past 500 years he has had no need of a last name (as with Cher or Madonna), let alone any indication of his fathers home town. In art historic circles he is simply, as he started out in this world, Leonardo. The Le- part is pronounced Lay-. Any other Leonardo needs a surname slapped on, up to and including DiCaprio. There is but one Leonardo, though—and I have yet to hear of his being referred to by name as Da Vinci in any art historic publication, course syllabus or textbook. Da Vinci, then as now, indicates from Vinci—a distinction shared by many thousands of people born and raised in Vinci. If one felt utterly compelled, say, at gunpoint, to use Da Vinci, he or she would need to be certain to write da (the d is not capitalized) and Vinci as two separate words. This all being said, it must be acknowledged that The Leonardo Code hasnt gotten nearly as snappy a ring to it as the books real title.