 The main evidence comes from anecdotes by Angelo Poliziano in his ""Detti piacevoli"", where he writes about Donatello surrounding himself with "handsome assistants" and chasing in search of one that had fled his workshop.This may not be surprising in the context of attitudes prevailing in the 15th- and 16th-century Florentine republic.However, little detail is known with certainty about his private life, and no mention of his sexuality has been found in the Florentine archives (in terms of denunciations) albeit which during this period are incomplete.