 He was sent to Bruges whilst still technically a child, as the first record of him is a letter from his father Nicolao in Lucca to his agent in Bruges in 1419 empowering the agent to "emancipate" Giovanni - that is, to declare him adult.Since there was no fixed age for this, it gives no real clue as to his date of birth.In the next few years Giovanni di Nicolao worked with a very successful Italian merchant, Marco Guidiccioni, another Lucchese who was connected to him by marriage.