Lucrezia was the daughter of Manno Donati and Caterina Bardi, a Florentine dame[9] who belonged to an extinct family tree, being the last descendant. From 1461 was the mistress of Lorenzo il Magnifico,[9] a platonic love,[10] until Lorenzo later married the Italian noble Clarice Orsini.[11] In 1486 Lorenzo remembered the poems he had written for her when he was 16 in the poem Corinto.