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 Podesta 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