In 1495, fifteen-year-old Lisa married Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobia del Gioconda, a silk and textile merchant.
On June 15, 1479, Lisa Gherardini was born, an Italian noblewoman believed to have been the model for the famous painting of the Mona Lisa performed by Leonardo da Vinci. She was born in Florence as the eldest of seven children. In 1495, fifteen-year-old Lisa married Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobia del Gioconda, a silk and textile merchant. He was already a double widower at the time, about thirty years old.
Francesco and Lisa had five children, and she also raised one of his sons from a previous marriage. Francesco was probably business and politically connected to the influential Florentine Medici family, whose ups and downs also affected the fate of his family. Lisa lived to be 64, and died in her native Florence in 1542. The word Mona or Monna, which was placed in front of Lisa’s name, originated by shortening the Italian title ma donna, and meant lady.
