Mass in the Sistine Chapel

This view of a mass in the ‘cappella papalis’ (papal chapel) of the Sistine Chapel was made after �tienne Dup�rac’s engraving of 1578.

The chapel served the curia as a ceremonial and liturgical centre. The head of the church and the cardinals, bishops, and other clerics, leading figures in the administrations of the curia and the city, the Roman nobility, and the ambassadors of the great Christian powers assembled here for holy mass on most feast days of the year.