May 2, 2007 — The woman behind Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa painting was born in an old Florentine house that was no beauty, according to newly discovered archival documents.

Originally used as a workshop by wool artisans, the house stood a few hundred feet from the Medieval bridge Ponte Vecchio, in a dark alley known as Via Sguazza.

According to historian Giuseppe Pallanti, it was right in Via Sguazza, where the woman Leonardo began painting in 1503 was born, on June 15, 1479.

"It wasn't a really nice place to live. Rain water and sewage stagnated just in front of the house," Pallanti told Discovery News.

The author of the book "Mona Lisa's Story," Pallanti has identified her as Lisa Gherardini, a member of a minor noble family of rural origins. She later married a wealthy Florentine silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo.