Michelangelo
Michelangelo was born on 6 March 1475 in Caprese, known today as Caprese Michelangelo, a small town situated in Valtiberina, near Arezzo, Tuscany. For several generations, his family had been small-scale bankers in Florence; but the bank failed, and his father, Ludovico di Leonardo Buonarroti Simoni, briefly took a government post in Caprese, where Michelangelo was born. At the time of Michelangelo's birth, his father was the town's Judicial administrator and "podestà" or local administrator of Chiusi della Verna. Michelangelo's mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato di Siena. The Buonarrotis claimed to descend from the Countess Mathilde of Canossa—a claim that remains unproven, but which Michelangelo believed.
Nanni di Baccio Bigio
Nanni was born in Florence. He is described as a "versatile" architect, who had originally set out to be a sculptor working under Raffaello da Montelupo. After arriving in Rome, he made a good copy of Michelangelo's Pietà. Michelangelo disliked him while Nanni worked to supplant Michelangelo. Nanni also took over the reconstruction of the Bridge of Santa Maria from Michelangelo in 1551, but his work proved to be inadequate and the bridge was destroyed in the 1557 flood.