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Ottaviano circa 1510,
when Pierina first met and fell for him |
Pierina was a great lover of men insomuch as she thought they were marvelous beings. She loved to reason and debate with them, to learn with them, and in the case of Ottaviano, to love with him.
Aside from her father, son, and husband, the two men who had the greatest impact on her were her godfather, polymath Leonardo da Vinci, and the friend she made later in life, playwright William Shakespeare.
Ottaviano de' Medici (11 July 1482 - 28 May 1546) was the love of Pierina's life. He was 32 when they married. She was 16. Not only was it not a forced marriage, but Pierina had been enamored of the handsome merchant from the time she was a little girl.
When their marriage was annulled and she moved out of Florence to avoid persecution as a witch, her family (the del Giocondos) along with the de' Medicis concocted a scheme to have Ottaviano marry again immediately in name only so as to be able to come up with a rational explanation for the existence of Pierina and Ottaviano's son.
Thus, in 1518 Ottaviano married Bartolomea Giugni in an arrangement that enabled her family to get out of considerable debt.
The scheme collapsed owing to the misery of Pierina's and Ottaviano's son living with a faux mother, away from his own mother. And so he was moved to Tuscany with Pieriena and given the new name Giovanni Bronzini. Pierina went by the name Signora Bronzini.
When Bartolomea passed away in 1530, Ottaviano's family pressured him to remarry. In 1533 he took his vows with his distant cousin, Francesca Salviati, age 32. They remained married throughout the rest of his life.
Ottaviano died in 1546 at age 62. He and Pierina remained close until the end, much to the dismay of Francesca who had been jealous of their relationship since childhood.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519)
Pierina was only 4 years old when she met da Vinci, at the time he painted the portrait of Pierina's mother Lisa. Da Vinci loved Pierina's inquisitive nature and unquenchable enthusiasm, and he let her run around wreaking havoc as he worked on her mother's portrait.
Ever wonder what Mona Lisa's hint of a smile is about? It was her trying not to laugh at the shenanigans of her daughter during model sittings.
Da Vinci was the first to give credence to Pierina's prediction abilities. He was so taken with the little girl, that when Pierina's godfather passed away (from natural causes), da Vinci begged to take over the position. When the parodia delle streghe (witch travesty) occurred, da Vinci stood by his goddaughter, ready to go up in flames with her in defending her innocence. Fortunately, it never came to that.
It was common knowledge at the time that Pierina was the inspiration—as well as conceiver—for many of da Vinci's inventions. They worked well as a team, and as Pierina got older, da Vinci encouraged her to record her thoughts and predictions, but to do so in a way that could not be used against her in a witch trial. He suggested writing backwards, as he did, but she found that method too easy to figure out. So he encouraged her to learn another language to use in writing her notes.
She initially chose Naturim, but feared the Renaissance scholars in Florence would be able to translate the ancient language that served as a precursor to the romance languages. Still, she and da Vinci communicated in broken Naturim when they wanted to say things that those around them would not understand. It was their secret code, so to speak.
The language Pierina ultimately chose for her carte di previsione was that of a language not used in Italy at the time—what is now called Middle English.
Da Vinci died a few weeks before Pierina's 20th birthday. She took it hard and was inconsolable. The only person who could get through to her to comfort her was da Vinci's faithful pupil, Francesco Melzi, with whom Pierina has always been close. Rumors flew at the time that the two were having an affair, which was poppycock. They were both grieving and turned to each other for solace as friends.
Melzi gave to Pierina some of da Vinci's works as keepsakes, Melzi having been entrusted with da Vinci's catalogue when the polymath passed.
William Shakespeare (c. 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)
Near the end of her long life, at age 86, Pierina met William Shakespeare while both were touring the Sistine Chapel in Rome.
For years, it's been speculated that Shakespeare visited Italy between 1585 and 1589. Pierina's own story confirms this.
The pair struck up a conversation when waiting for their tour guide at the chapel. 21-year-old Shakespeare was quite taken with the Florentine matriarch who spoke Middle English. It was he who introduced her to what we now know as Early Modern English. This would be the language into which she rewrote her cards in their final form, or rather, her take on the language, being as she was not fully fluent.
Shakespeare was not only fascinated by Pierina, but he couldn't get enough of her stories about Florence and the master artists there, especially da Vinci.
The fast friends spent several weeks together in Italy, and pledged to travel together to Athens one day to take breakfast on the steps of the Parthenon at sunrise. Sadly, they never got the chance. But Shakespeare immortalized Pierina in his play about Athens—A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which she served as the inspiration for fairy queen Titania (written 1594-1596).
