Although the GINEVRA DE’ BENCI commission probably gave Leonardo only limited access to the Medici court during his first period in Florence, the success of the work firmly established his credentials as a portraitist and led to equally important projects: the Mona Lisa or La Gioconda, a portrait of the wife of the wealthy Florentine silk merchant and civic leader Francesco del Giocondo, as well as an elegant portrait of the noble Milanese lady, Cecilia Gallerani (fig. 46). From Vasari, we know that Leonardo also drew (much later) a portrait of the famous merchant-explorer Amerigo Vespucci, for whom America was named. The artist's relationship with Vespucci, who was portrayed, according to Vasari, at an advanced age, may have been long term. Both spent most of their youth and early adulthood in Florence. Vespucci (a cousin by marriage of the tragic beauty Simonetta) was only a year older than Leonardo, and his father, from a family of wine and silk merchants, was also a Medici notary. More significantly, the young men were kindred spirits – boldly inquisitive with strong interests in “natural philosophy” (science), geography, and cartography. Over time, they formed enough of a friendship that Vespucci gave Leonardo a book on geometry, a most extravagant present.