She married in her teens to a cloth and silk merchant who later became a local official; she was a mother to six children and led what is thought to have been a comfortable and ordinary life.

[5] Antonmaria di Noldo Gherardini, Lisa's father, came from a family who had lived on properties near San Donato in Poggio and only recently moved to the city.

[6] Gherardini at one time owned or rented six farms in Chianti that produced wheat, wine, and olive oil and where livestock was raised.

[12] The family lived in Florence, originally near Santa Trinita and later in rented space near Santo Spirito, likely because they were unable to afford repairs when their first house was damaged.

Lisa's family moved to what today is called Via dei Pepi, and then near Santa Croce, where they lived near Ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo's father.

[14] Noldo, Gherardini's father and Lisa's grandfather, had bequeathed a farm in Chianti to the Santa Maria Nuova hospital.

[15] On March 5, 1495, 15-year-old Lisa married 29-year-old Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo,[16] an ambitious cloth and silk merchant, becoming his second wife.

[20] Because her father had not participated in the custom of saving cash at a daughter's birth that compounded interest for dowries,[21] Lisa's dowry was land: her father's most valuable property in Chianti,[22] the San Silvestro farm near her family's country home,[23] which lies between Castellina and San Donato in Poggio, near two farms later owned by Michelangelo.

Art historian Frank Zöllner says the dowry's small size lends reason to think Francesco may have had true affection for Lisa.

[27] They lived in shared accommodation until March 5, 1503, when Francesco was able to buy a house next door to his family's old home in the Via della Stufa.

[31] Lastly, she raised Bartolomeo, the son of Francesco and his first wife Camilla di Mariotto Rucellai, who died shortly after the birth.

[33] Adopting roles of a customer and supplier, Lisa developed a relationship with Sant'Orsola, a convent held in high regard in Florence.

[34] Kemp and Pallanti say on another occasion, the nuns purchased from Lisa 30 pounds (14 kg) of cheese made on her family's lands.

[38] He had joined the family business, a respected source of fine textiles, where he had done well, but the promise of higher profits tempted him into other enterprises.

[40] As members of the Silk Guild, Francesco's family was eligible for the highest offices of Florence, and eighty of his relatives occupied such roles over a span of fifty years.

[33][43] In June 1537, by his last will and testament, Francesco returned Lisa's dowry to her, gave her personal clothing and jewelry and provided for her future.

"[44] Martin Kemp and Giuseppe Pallanti remark in their history that Francesco—who provided for an eternal flame on his own grave—willed all of his possessions to his children and not to his wife, and did not guarantee Lisa an annuity, which would have been fairly commonplace.

[48] Francesco's grandson was similarly unprepared to save the business, declared bankruptcy, and found work as a scribe in the convent of Santissima Annunziata.

[53][54] Later that year, he most likely had to delay his work on Mona Lisa when he received payment for starting The Battle of Anghiari, which was a more valuable commission and one he was contracted to complete by February 1505.

"[59] (Italian: Prese Lionardo a fare per Francesco del Giocondo il ritratto di mona Lisa sua moglie.