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Dear Listmembers, I have come across a problem in my researching the death/tomb of Pope Alexander VI (p. 1492-1503), and was hoping someone could help me. All of my many, many books on the Borgias and Popes state that Alexander's tomb was moved in the early seventeenth century from the Grottoes of St. Peter's to the Spanish National Church in Rome, Sta. Maria di Monserrato. However, in rereading one of my rare Boriga texts, "In the Pillory" by John Bond, European Correspondent for the Fellowship Forum, c. 1927 by The Fellowship Forum, Bond shows a picture of a tomb proposed to be Alexander's...that is in the grottoes of St. Peter's. It has a full stone effigy on the sarcophagus of a pope, which bears a resemblance to the tomb of my good friend Pope Boniface VIII--and it's only with careful attention to detail that one can tell they're different...at first glance I thought it was Boniface's coffin. I have never seen an effigy like this in Panofsky or Gardner, and the nose looks much to small to be Alexander's *he sported quite a shnoz*. However, due to the rapid deterioration, discoloration, and bloating of the body and face almost immediately after his death, it can be safe to assume they used a standard death mask,if they used a death mask at all. The caption under the picture reads, "Tomb of Alexander VI in the Grottoes of the Vatican, photograph by Alinari". I have been to the Sta. Maria di Monserrato and saw what I believed to be his chapel *but my brother just HAD to change the film in the camera just then, and we got booted out before I could get a picture of it, though I got a picture of the memorial to both Alexander and his uncle Callistus III, which is on the opposite side of the church. There was no sarcophagus in the chapel, however. So...does anyone know if his body lay in the Vatican Grottoes or Sta. Maria di MOnserrato? Has anyone been in the grottoes, yet been allowed to wander off the beaten tourist path and see ALL the tombs, and if so, did you see one of Alexander VI? Or is anyone planning to go to Rome soon and go to the grottoes who could tell me if he's there or not? Any help would be great...this is for my forthcoming book. Thanks in Advance, Wendy Reardon