Several attempts have been made to identify the source, or source areas, for the sepulchral chapel which Johann Philip Franz von Schönborn, Prince Bishop of Würzburg, erected between 1719 and 1724 for himself and his family in the northern transept of his cathedral (completed 1729–36). (Pl. 38b). Christian Otto, in his recent book on Balthasar Neumann’s churches, considering the scheme of the circular chapel opening laterally into two ancillary spaces with oval ground plans (Pl. 35b) and surmounted by an externally visible dome (Pl. 40b), concluded that Neumann may have been inspired by ‘a number of buildings in Italy, France and Germany’, and that ‘although the list of possible sources reflects his broad acquaintance with European architecture, yet only the most generalized relations to any specific prototype can be ascertained. The chapel remains distinctive and personal’. This raises two questions. First, is it futile to search for an individual prototype for the Schönborn Chapel? And second, can Balthasar Neumann without any reservations whatever be considered its author?