Giuseppe Pallanti, a teacher from Florence, has after 25 years
researching historical archives come to the conclusion that the
enigmatic Mona Lisa was Lisa Gherardin, a mother of five that was married to the silk
trader Francesco del Giocondo. She has been one of the known candidates
for centuries, but Pallanti's research has found the first clear
evidence that Leonardo da Vinci's family were close to the Giocondo
family.
"All the indications are that Leonardo's father and
Mona Lisa's husband knew each other before she was painted, and
socialised together," said Mr Pallanti. "The two lived almost round the
corner from each other.
"The portrait of Mona
Lisa, done when Lisa Gherardini was aged about 24, was probably
commissioned by Leonardo's father himself for his friends, as he is
known to have done on at least one other occasion.
"This
would have been Ser Piero's way of giving a helping hand to his son,
who was hopelessly vague when it came to money matters."
Mr
Pallanti also found the registration of the wedding on March 5, 1495,
between Lisa, then 16, and Ser Francesco, who was 14 years her senior.
I suspect, however, that this evidence will not conclusively settle the question.
A grenade exploding
in a busy shopping area of the historical Prague in the Czech Republic
has injured at least 16 people. The grenade rolled under a car, which
may have prevented more serious injuries. The authorities were quick to
emphasise that this was a criminal case, not terrorism.
Israeli police are investigating whether this was an attempted hit on casino owner Asi Abutbul, who is one of the leading figures in the Israeli underground.
Newspaper strikes back against Michael Moore's fraud
To prove his dubious theories about the '00 Florida election, Michael
Moore used a frontpage purporting to be from the newspaper Pantagraph in Bloomington, Illinois. The newspaper now demands an apology, since, in typical Moore fashion, the frontpage was a forgery.
A scene early in the movie that shows
newspaper headlines related to the legally contested presidential
election of 2000 included a shot of The Pantagraph's Dec. 19, 2001,
front page, with the prominent headline: "Latest Florida recount shows
Gore won election."
The paper says that headline never
appeared on that day. It appeared in a Dec. 5, 2001, edition, but the
headline was not used on the front page. Instead, it was found in much
smaller type above a letter to the editor, which the paper says
reflects "only the opinions of the letter writer."
The newspaper demands an apology and a symbolic compensation of $1.
PS: Shouldn't "2001" in the articles be "2000", the year of the actual election?
