For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in Florence, the bank had failed and his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took a government post in Caprese, where Michelangelo was born.
Družina obsega več kot 300 vrst, ki živijo v Afriki, Aziji, Avstraliji, nekatere tudi v Južni Evropi.