DOI chapter:
Chapter II: Biographical
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0043
CHAPTER II
BIOGRAPHICAL
Andrea di Michele di Francesco Cioni, surnamed
Verrocchio after his earliest master, was born in 1435.
With the exception of a few trifling notices we possess no
information as to his youth and early manhood, and even
Vasari gives but a slight record. A few facts of his
private life are revealed by the depositions of his father
and himself to the Catasto,* and from these we gather a
general idea of his circumstances.
His father Michele, born in 1382, carried on the trade
of a brick and tile maker, and was entered in the Guild of
Stone workers. Later in life he obtained a situation as
tax collector. He seems to have have been fairly well off,
owning a house in the Via dell1 Agnolo in the parish of
S. Ambrogio, as well as other property in the neighbour-
hood of Florence. He was already over fifty years of age
when Andrea was born, the youngest child of his first
wife Gemma. She died shortly after his birth, and his
father married again, a woman named Nannina. The
family by the first w'ife consisted of six, four sons, Andrea,
Cioni, Giovanni, and Tommaso, and two daughters,
* In 1427 a law was passed by which every Florentine citizen was
required to make a declaration of his property for the regulation of
the income tax.
BIOGRAPHICAL
Andrea di Michele di Francesco Cioni, surnamed
Verrocchio after his earliest master, was born in 1435.
With the exception of a few trifling notices we possess no
information as to his youth and early manhood, and even
Vasari gives but a slight record. A few facts of his
private life are revealed by the depositions of his father
and himself to the Catasto,* and from these we gather a
general idea of his circumstances.
His father Michele, born in 1382, carried on the trade
of a brick and tile maker, and was entered in the Guild of
Stone workers. Later in life he obtained a situation as
tax collector. He seems to have have been fairly well off,
owning a house in the Via dell1 Agnolo in the parish of
S. Ambrogio, as well as other property in the neighbour-
hood of Florence. He was already over fifty years of age
when Andrea was born, the youngest child of his first
wife Gemma. She died shortly after his birth, and his
father married again, a woman named Nannina. The
family by the first w'ife consisted of six, four sons, Andrea,
Cioni, Giovanni, and Tommaso, and two daughters,
* In 1427 a law was passed by which every Florentine citizen was
required to make a declaration of his property for the regulation of
the income tax.