Michelangelo lived inside St Peter's Basilica
Basilica of St Peter's during the last 17 years of his life, according to a report Friday in daily La Repubblica. The report cites a recently discovered receipt dating back to March 1557, in which an engraver was paid "10 scudi" for making a key
for a chest "in the room in St Peter's where Master Michelangelo retires to."
Historians had always suspected that the great Renaissance artist spent his last years inside the Vatican. But this is the first time that evidence has been found to corroborate their theory and pinpoint its exact location.
"Michelangelo lived inside the basilica. No one before had been able to verify it. This document casts new light on a theory that until yesterday we could only imagine," art historian Maria Cristina Carlo-Stella told La Repubblica.
Michelangelo's alleged room is now a library inside the basilica's Historic Archive, which is positioned behind the church's dome. Researchers use it to study its documents and commonly refer to it as "Michelangelo's room."
Michelangelo is thought to have lived there from January 1547 until his death, which took place on February 18, 1564. The basilica was still under construction at the time.
The artist had previously worked on his famous Last Judgment fresco in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel, between 1534 and 1541.