Mr Pallanti made his announcement at a packed press conference in the Renaissance city of Florence, he said that documents showed that Lisa Gherardini - or Mona Lisa - is buried in the rundown ruins of the former Convent of St Orsula in the heart of the city. He added that his research had wiped away all doubt about the identity of La Gioconda, as the Italians call the Mona Lisa, because of the surname of her husband, Giocondo.

Mr Pallanti explained: "It was her, Lisa, the wife of the merchant Francesco Del Giocondo - and she lived right opposite Leonardo in Via Ghibellina.'' Historians are certain that Lisa Gherardini was the model and records show that she married Francesco Del Giocondo in 1495 when she was 16 and he was 35.

It has frequently been suggested that Del Giocondo commissioned Leonardo to paint his Mona Lisa - "mona" is the standard Italian contraction for "madonna", or "my lady", to mark his wife's pregnancy or the recent birth of their second child in December 1502. LisaGherardini became the prime candidate for the Mona Lisa when it was discovered that Leonardo da Vinci's father and her husband knew each other well before the picture was painted.

Piero da Vinci lived not far from Francesco del Giocondo and the two men socialised together. Francesco's surname is close to the Italian name for the painting, La Gioconda, which means "the merry one", and he had a daughter called Lisa, who would have been about 24 when the painting is believed to have been started.

Italianalmanac