The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti | Page 2

Lionardo.
Yet he preferred to call himself Michelangelo Buonarroti; and after his
lifetime Buonarroti became fixed for the posterity of his younger
brother. "The reason," says Condivi, "why the family in Florence
changed its name from Canossa to Buonarroti was this: Buonarroto
continued for many generations to be repeated in their house, down to
the time of Michelangelo, who had a brother of that name; and
inasmuch as several of these Buonarroti held rank in the supreme
magistracy of the republic, especially the brother I have just mentioned,
who filled the office of Prior during Pope Leo's visit to Florence, as

may be read in the annals of that city, this baptismal name, by force of
frequent repetition, became the cognomen of the whole family; the
more easily, because it is the custom at Florence, in elections and
nominations of officers, to add the Christian names of the father,
grandfather, great-grandfather, and sometimes even of remoter
ancestors, to that of each citizen. Consequently, through the many
Buonarroti who followed one another, and from the Simone who was
the first founder of the house in Florence, they gradually came to be
called Buonarroti Simoni, which is their present designation."
Excluding the legend about Simone da Canossa, this is a pretty accurate
account of what really happened. Italian patronymics were formed
indeed upon the same rule as those of many Norman families in Great
Britain. When the use of Di and Fitz expired, Simoni survived from Di
Simone, as did my surname Symonds from Fitz-Symond.
On the 6th of March 1475, according to our present computation,
Lodovico di Lionardo Buonarroti Simoni wrote as follows in his
private notebook: "I record that on this day, March 6, 1474, a male
child was born to me. I gave him the name of Michelangelo, and he
was born on a Monday morning four or five hours before daybreak, and
he was born while I was Podestà of Caprese, and he was born at
Caprese; and the godfathers were those I have named below. He was
baptized on the eighth of the same month in the Church of San
Giovanni at Caprese. These are the godfathers:--
DON DANIELLO DI SER BUONAGUIDA of Florence, Rector of San
Giovanni at Caprese; DON ANDREA DI .... of Poppi, Rector of the
Abbey of Diasiano (_i.e._, Dicciano); JACOPO DI FRANCESCO of
Casurio (?); MARCO DI GIORGIO of Caprese; GIOVANNI DI
BIAGIO of Caprese; ANDREA DI BIAGIO of Caprese; FRANCESCO
DI JACOPO DEL ANDUINO (?) of Caprese; SER BARTOLOMMEO
DI SANTI DEL LANSE (?), Notary."
Note that the date is March 6, 1474, according to Florentine usage _ab
incarnatione_, and according to the Roman usage, _a nativitate_, it is
1475.
Vasari tells us that the planets were propitious at the moment of

Michelangelo's nativity: "Mercury and Venus having entered with
benign aspect into the house of Jupiter, which indicated that marvellous
and extraordinary works, both of manual art and intellect, were to be
expected from him."
II
Caprese, from its beauty and remoteness, deserved to be the birthplace
of a great artist. It is not improbable that Lodovico Buonarroti and his
wife Francesca approached it from Pontassieve in Valdarno, crossing
the little pass of Consuma, descending on the famous battle-field of
Campaldino, and skirting the ancient castle of the Conti Guidi at Poppi.
Every step in the romantic journey leads over ground hallowed by old
historic memories. From Poppi the road descends the Arno to a richly
cultivated district, out of which emerges on its hill the prosperous little
town of Bibbiena. High up to eastward springs the broken crest of La
Vernia, a mass of hard millstone rock (_macigno_) jutting from
desolate beds of lime and shale at the height of some 3500 feet above
the sea. It was here, among the sombre groves of beech and pine which
wave along the ridge, that S. Francis came to found his infant Order,
composed the Hymn to the Sun, and received the supreme honour of
the stigmata. To this point Dante retired when the death of Henry VII.
extinguished his last hopes for Italy. At one extremity of the wedge-like
block which forms La Vernia, exactly on the watershed between Arno
and Tiber, stands the ruined castle of Chiusi in Casentino. This was one
of the two chief places of Lodovico Buonarroti's podesteria. It may be
said to crown the valley of the Arno; for the waters gathered here flow
downwards toward Arezzo, and eventually wash the city walls of
Florence. A few steps farther, travelling south, we pass into the valley
of the Tiber, and, after traversing a barren upland region for a couple of
hours, reach the verge of the descent upon Caprese. Here the landscape
assumes a softer character. Far away stretch blue Apennines, ridge
melting into ridge above Perugia