Maria Auditore da Firenze
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Maria Auditore da Firenze (1432 - 1504), born Maria de' Mozzi, was a Florentine noblewoman during the Renaissance, and a member of the Assassin Order. She was the mother of Ezio, who eventually became the Mentor of the Italian Assassins.
Born into the noble Mozzi family, Maria liked to blend with "real citizens" when she was younger, leading to her chance meeting with Giovanni Auditore, who later became her husband.
As a member of the Auditore family, Maria continued to fraternize with the lower classes, developing a working relationship with the artist Leonardo da Vinci.
Biography
Early life
She was born in Florence in 1432 as Maria de' Mozzi into a powerful and opulent family. Her parents strongly protected her from the outside world, which she grew tired of by the age of 16.[1]
Her parents allowed her to open up a bakery inside the family palazzo. A week later, while in the bakery, Maria met Giovanni Auditore. Wooed by Giovanni, the two developed a close relationship, and married in 1452.[1]
Life as an Auditore
Following their marriage, Maria went to live with Giovanni in his personal home, the Palazzo Auditore. Eventually, Maria gave birth to Federico, Ezio, Claudia, and Petruccio Auditore.[1]
Additionally, Giovanni became inducted into the Assassin Order, a secret which she helped him keep from their children. Maria herself became inducted into the Order sometime thereafter.[2][3]
In 1476, Giovanni, Federico, and Petruccio were arrested by the Florentine government for the crime of treason. When she attempted to stop the guards, Maria was raped, causing her to go into shock.[1]
The three were tried and hanged, despite Ezio's attempt to prevent their deaths. Maria, who had not spoken since the arrest, was brought to fellow Assassin Paola alongside Claudia. Maria remained there for a while, until Ezio came to bring them to the Villa Auditore in Monteriggioni.[1]
While there, Maria remained silently sitting in prayer beside her bed for several years, not speaking until Ezio brought her a hundred feathers. Thanking Ezio for not forgetting about her, Maria presented him with a cape bearing the Auditore family crest. Afterwards, Maria slowly started regaining her temperament.[1][3]
Later life in Rome
In January 1500, after Ezio had returned from Rome to discover "the Vault", Monteriggioni was besieged by the Borgia under the command of Cesare Borgia. Maria fled to the Sanctuary beneath the Villa, where she waited for Claudia and Ezio to join her.[3]
From there, they fled Monteriggioni via a secret passageway. Ezio instructed Maria and Claudia to go to Florence, where they would be safe, while Ezio went to Rome to take down the Borgia once and for all. As Ezio began to ride off, Maria gave him her "parting words," telling him to destroy the Borgia and remember who they (the Assassins) fought for (the people). Unknown to Ezio, Maria and Claudia secretly followed Ezio to Rome, wanting to help him.[3]
Traveling to the Assassins' hideout on Tiber Island, Maria and Claudia met with the Order's leader, Niccolò Machiavelli, who told them to go look for Ezio at the Rosa in Fiore, Rome's most popular brothel. When they arrived, Ezio was not there, thus they spoke to the resident courtesans as they waited for him.[3]
Shortly, Ezio arrived with news that the brothel's Madame, Madonna Solari, was dead. The courtesans needed someone to lead them, thus Claudia volunteered for the task. Maria helped her in controlling and managing the brothel, instructing her son to aid the girls wherever he could.[3]
Meanwhile, her health slowly grew worse due to a long term illness, until she inevitably died in 1504.[4]
Legacy
Maria became the most well known member of the Auditore family to historians, because her diaries she kept until 1476 were translated and put on display in the Uffizi gallery in Florence.[1]
Gallery
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Maria's database image.
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Maria Auditore in 1476.
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Maria in 1476. -
Maria with her son in the Palazzo Auditore. -
Maria Auditore.
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Maria sitting in her room in the Villa Auditore. -
Maria and Claudia in the Villa Auditore.
Trivia
- Maria seems to be a skilled surgeon, as she is seen stitching up Giovanni's near-fatal wound in Assassin's Creed: Lineage.
- Maria only speaks three times throughout Assassin's Creed II: during Ezio's birth, in the quest "Friend of the Family," and when given 100 feathers.
- Maria prays for 12-23 years, since all of the locations that have feathers are not unlocked until Sequence 9 of Assassin's Creed II.
- Maria would have been 72 years old when she died, another possible hint at the code for the Colosseum Vault.
References
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