In 1433 Leonardo's grandfather, Antonio di Ser Piero, declared that he lived in a casetta (small house) "located in the village of Vinci, with a little bit of a vegetable garden." He lived there with his parents, his wife, and children: his father Piero, who was also a notary, but not yet at a professional level allowing him to exercise permanently in the city; his wife Lucia, originally from Bacchereto, with the first-born Piero, seven years old, who would become Leonardo’s father, Giuliano, five years, and Violante, just one year; and finally the youngest, Francesco, who would be born only three years later. Although the da Vinci family had possessed Florentine citizenship since the 14th century, they continued, in fact, to live in the Valdarno village. Leonardo was born in 1452, when Piero was 26 and already a notary. Unlike his namesake grandfather, Piero had a long and fruitful professional life that led him often to reside in Florence. For this reason we imagine that Leonardo lived his childhood and early youth in the little house of the village of Vinci described by his grandfather Antonio in the 1433 property registry. Archival research by Renzo Cianchi allows us to identify today the part of the ancient castle village where the house where Leonardo lived was located. The papers, in fact, allow a rather detailed reconstruction of the mercatale, the piazza onto which the famous little house with a little bit of a vegetable garden overlooked. As can be seen clearly in the late 16th century plan of the castle, drawn up by the Capitani di parte Guelfa, the mercatale corresponded to the current Piazza Leonardo da Vinci. The buildings lining the west side delimited the piazza, which was occupied, on the short south side, by a building with loggias and the public well. The da Vinci family house was located right on the south side, probably behind the loggia that, until the last century, occupied the space between Piazza Guazzesi and Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, meaning quite close to the building at the corner of Piazza Guazzesi. The simple village building was enlarged between 1468 and 1469, when Ser Piero, now well established in his career as a notary, and practicing between Pisa and Florence, bought a building next to the first village house, increasing its size. In those same years, Leonardo was moving to Florence, to "go into the workshop" with Verrocchio.
