"In the document, Francesco asked his younger daughter, Marietta, to take care of his "beloved wife," Lisa. Marietta, who had become a nun, brought her ill mother to the nearby convent of Sant'Orsola," Pallanti said.
Lisa died four years after her husband's death, at the age of 63, according to an archive known as a "Book of the Dead," found by Pallanti in a church archive.
"Lisa di Francesco Del Giocondo died on 15 July 1542 and was buried in Sant'Orsola," the document states.
The record notes that the whole parish turned out for her funeral, showing that she was rather famous among Florentine society.
According to Carlo Pedretti, director of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, the discovery could provide conclusive evidence of Mona Lisa's identity.
"It will be important to find Lisa's remains. Since modern technologies allow to reconstruct the facial features, it will be possible to see if her face matches that portrayed by Leonardo," Pedretti told reporters.
