(b Albissola [Savona], 5 Dec 1443; elected 1503; d Rome, 20–21 Feb 1513).
Nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. The great patron of the High Renaissance in Rome, he commissioned Donate Bramante to build the new St Peter’s, Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling and Raphael to decorate his private apartments, the stanze (all Rome, Vatican). He was born into a noble but impoverished family, the son of Raffaele della Rovere (d 1477) and Theodora Manerola.
Sabine Eiche