Director Zeffirelli related with Da Vinci family

FLORENCE, ITALY – Leonardo Da Vinci has 35 living relatives in Tuscany,  an Italian research revealed Thursday April 14, 2016 in the Da Vinci theater, just a few kilometers from Florence.

Historians Agnese Sabato and Alessandro Vezzosi, director of the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, tracked down the direct living descendants from Leonardo’s father, a Florentine legal notary named Ser Piero Da Vinci.

Among the Leonardo Da Vinci’s living relatives found a painter, an engineer, and a Oscar nominee. He is the Florentine director Franco Zeffirelli, whose real name is Gianfranco Corsi. He comes from one of the most famous families in Vinci.

Some descendants of Leonardo Da Vinci participated directly at the conference, organized in collaboration with the Municipality of Vinci.

According to the authors of the research, the Corsis related with the Da Vincis in 1794 thanks to the marriage between Michelangelo di Tommaso Corsi and Teresa Alessandra Giovanna di Ser Antonio Giuseppe Da Vinci, direct descendant of Leonardo’s father Ser Piero. That reconstructing Da Vinci’s family tree is the first step of a broader scientific study.

Reserchers will try to isolate Da Vinci’s DNA, 15 generations later and a two-day international conference on this issue will take place in May.

Franco Zeffirelli, born in February 12, 1923, is an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He is also a former senator (1994–2001) for the Italian centre-right party.

Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics. He is also known for several of the movies he has directed, especially the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

His 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best-known film adaptation of that play as well. His miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) won acclaim and is still shown on Christmas and Easter in many countries.

A Grande Ufficiale OMRI of the Italian Republic since 1977, Zeffirelli also received an honorary knighthood from the British government in 2004 when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.