baby’s mother rushed out to the yard, waving her arms. A hawk was perched on her child’s cradle. “Shoo!” she cried. The bird lifted its wings and flew off. For a moment she thought it would grasp the baby in its claws to carry him away over the hills— but the child was safe. When she reached down to pick him up, he was following the hawk’s flight with his eyes and smiling.
The child, Leonardo, was born on April 15, 1452, in a mountainous region of Italy called Tuscany, near the small village of Vinci. His mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman, beautiful and poor. His father, Ser Piero, was an ambitious young man from a wealthy family, who was just beginning his career as a notary. Leonardo’s parents did not marry each other. As a baby, Leonardo stayed with his mother. When he was almost two years old he was taken from her home and raised on his father’s estate. Ser Piero was often away on business, traveling to neighboring towns. Eventually he met and married a young, wealthy woman, Albiera di Giovanni Amadori, and they settled in her home in the city of Florence. It was decided that Leonardo would remain in Vinci, and he was raised by his grandparents and his uncle Francesco. Uncle Francesco was only sixteen years older than Leonardo. Though he was young, he ran the family estate. He supervised the work in the fields, where they raised olives, grapes, and wheat.
