Hanno, the pope's elephant
A white elephant from India becomes the darling of Rome
In 1514 King Manuel I of Portugal gave Pope Leo X a white Indian elephant. Hanno danced for crowds, sprayed onlookers with water and joined processions; when he died two years later, the pope wrote his epitaph and Raphael reportedly designed a memorial fresco.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 16th century
Did you know
Raphael painted a memorial fresco for an elephant. Hanno, Pope Leo X’s white pet, lived in Rome for two years; when he died in 1516, the pope buried him in the Vatican and wrote his epitaph himself. Share →
After the elephant’s success, Portugal’s king decided to send the pope a rhinoceros too. But early in 1516 the ship sank off Italy and the chained rhino drowned: the very animal Dürer had immortalised. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
- 1526–1867 Atlantic slave trade — 12 years later
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1526 Battle of Mohács — 12 years later
Middle East
- 1501 Founding of Safavid Iran — 13 years earlier
- 1520–1566 Reign of Suleiman the Magnificent — 6 years later
Africa
- 1529–1543 Ahmad Gragn invades Ethiopia — 15 years later
Asia
- 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India — 16 years earlier
- 1511 Portuguese capture of Malacca — 3 years earlier
- 1526 First Battle of Panipat — 12 years later
Americas
- 1492 Columbus reaches the Americas — 22 years earlier
- 1519–1522 Magellan's circumnavigation — 5 years later
- 1521 Fall of Tenochtitlan — 7 years later
- 1532 Capture of Atahualpa at Cajamarca — 18 years later
Alive at the time
- Leonardo da Vinci (aged 62)
- Nicolaus Copernicus (aged 41)
- Michelangelo (aged 39)
- Martin Luther (aged 31)
- Maximilian I (aged 55)
- Moctezuma II (aged 48)
- Guru Nanak (aged 45)
- Vasco da Gama (aged 45)
- Selim I the Grim (aged 44)
- Vasily III (aged 35)