# Leo X appoints Raphael architect of St Peter’s after Bramante’s death

Date: 1514

## The fact

In 1514 [Raphael](/people/raphael) received the brief as architect of New St Peter’s, a fabbrica funded by indulgences that later fed Reformation polemic. He did not invent the sale of indulgences. He took the job.

## Context

Papal building at this scale is both a craft peak and a fiscal-spiritual extraction. Split later UNESCO conservation.

Raphael is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

## Evidence and sources

Museum or basilica pages and an independent publisher independently describe this instrument.

Official or archival record: St Peter’s Basilica (https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en.html; Reverenda Fabbrica di San Pietro).

## Significance

A named architect of an indulgence-funded basilica is a corruption-adjacent path. Medium confidence on his share of the fabbrica’s harm.

A named architect of an indulgence-funded basilica is a corruption-adjacent path. Medium confidence on his share of the fabbrica’s harm.

## What is established and what is not

Established as a dated public record of this instrument.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.
Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is [institutional-corruption](/drivers/institutional-corruption). The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. The attached driver is institutional-corruption. The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

## People

- Raphael: https://factrail.ai/people/raphael

## Drivers

- Institutional Corruption: https://factrail.ai/drivers/institutional-corruption

## Sources

- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Donato-Bramante
- https://www.basilicasanpietro.va/en.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/ra-st-peters-architect-1514