The only official documents about her which still exist are the record of her marriage contract with Marco Vespucci in August of 1468 and the annotation of her death… Simonetta has gone down in legend as a model of Sandro Botticelli, and most scholarly discussions of her significance are principally concerned with either proving or disproving this theory. Born around 1453 to Gaspare Cattaneo and Cattochia Spinola de Candia, either in Portovenere or Genoa, she and her family were exiled to Piombino, where it is believed that her marriage to the well-established Florentine Marco Vespucci was arranged. Born Simonetta Cattaneo in Genoa, Italy, in 1453; died on April 26, 1476, in Florence; daughter of Gasparo Cattaneo; married Marco Vespucci, in 1469; no children. Name variations: Simonetta de' Vespucci; Simonetta de Vespucci; Simonetta Cattaneo.

Simonetta Vespucci is a name commonly associated with both the Medici family of Florence and the artist Sandro Botticelli.

He was the third son of Ser Nastagio (Anastasio), a Florentine notary, and Lisabetta Mini. When, in 1469, the 16-year-old bride moved to Florence, she did not go unnoticed. Piero di Cosimo, Portrait of a woman, said to be of Simonetta Vespucci (circa 1490).

The following year the wedding was celebrated in the church of S. Torpete in Genova before the couple made their way to Florence.
She descended from a great Ligurian dynasty and was married to the powerful Marco Vespucci – a distant cousin of the famous explorer Amerigo, who named the American continent – .

Artist's Model, Folk Figure. Marco was accepted by Simonetta’s father immediately. She was admired by all of Florence for her beauty, which later became a legend after her premature death in 1476 at the age of 23. Marco Vespucci was a cousin of Amerigo Vespucci (after whom, in 1507, Waldseemüller named the new continent "America"). Amerigo Vespucci married Born to a noble family she married Marco Vespucci at around 15 and thru his family met … Vespucci, Simonetta (d. 1476)Italian beauty who was the inspiration for Botticelli's The Birth of Venus. They met in April 1469; she was with her parents at the church when she met Marco, who had been sent to Genoa by his father to study at the Banco di San Giorgio. Called La bella Simonetta, she was a celebrated beauty who served as a model for the leading painters of her day, most notably Sandro Botticelli. My point of departure, rather, is the series Amerigo Vespucci, merchant and explorer-navigator who took part in early voyages to the New World (1499–1500, 1501–02) and occupied the influential post of piloto mayor (‘master navigator’) in Sevilla (1508–12).

Piero di Cosimo, Portrait of a woman, said to be of Simonetta Vespucci (circa 1490).