The template type Ia supernova 1996X

UBVRIJ photometry and optical spectra of the type Ia SN 1996X obtained at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) during a 1-yr-long observational campaign are presented, and supplemented by late-time Hubble Space Telescope (HST) photometry. Spectroscopically, SN 1996X appears to be a 'normal' SN Ia. The apparent magnitude at maximum was B = 13.24 +/- 0.02, and the colour B - V = 0.00 +/- 0.03, The luminosity decline rate, Deltam(B)(15) = 1.31 +/- 0.08, is close to average for a SN Ia. The best estimate of the galactic extinction is A(B) 0.30 +/- 0.05, and there is evidence that reddening within the parent galaxy is negligible. Detailed comparison of the light and colour curves of various 'normal' SNe Ia shows that the assumption that multicolour light curves can be described simply as a one-parameter family is not perfect. Together with problems in the calibration of the templates, this may explain the discrepancies in the distance modulus derived adopting different calibrations of the absolute magnitude versus light-curve shape relations. Indeed, we found that MB ranges from - 19.08 to - 19.48 and mu ranges from 32.02 to 32.48 depending on the method used. Computations of model light-curve and synthetic spectra for both early and late times confirm that 1996X is a normal type Ia SN and that a satisfactory fit can be obtained using a W7 progenitor structure only if we adopt the short distance. A larger distance would imply too large a Ni mass for this fainter than average SN Ia.