The Medici Giraffe [Hardcover]

Marina Belozerskaya (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2006

A fascinating exploration, spanning two thousand years, ofthe central role exotic animals have played in war, diplomacy, and thepomp of rulers and luminaries.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The title of this masterful and beguiling book is misleading. In Belozersakya's adept hands, exotic animals are mere jumping off points for marvelous adventures through worlds ranging from bustling, heroic Alexandria, Egypt, circa 300 B.C., to the creepy confines of William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon in the mid-20th century. While each of the seven sections revolves around exotic animals—a giraffe in Medici Florence, menageries in 16th-century Prague and Napoleonic France—it's the story that Belozersakya weaves around these beasts that draws the reader on. A common thread is the obsession caused by these fanciful beasts. Rudolf II, spent so much of his kingdom's fortune on collecting animals that there wasn't always enough money to feed his voracious lions. . "This might explain why on several occasions the Emperor had to recompense servants and subjects mauled by his felines." A meticulous researcher, the Russian-born Belozersakya, an art historian who has taught at Harvard and Tufts, uses these tales to consider how exotic animals have served as diplomatic gifts, as "symbols of power and learning," as mirrors of the cultures that prized them. This is a sumptuous read—smart, funny and utterly compelling. 8 illus. not seen by PW. (Aug.)
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From Booklist

Exotic animals have always been symbols of power, and the gift of exotic animals was a common way for rulers to cement alliances. Belozerskaya focuses on the rich and powerful whose interest in the animals, and what they later did with them, was a good mirror of the philosophy of their eras. The early Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, in the aftermath of the breakup of Alexander the Great's empire, needed elephants for their armies. The Roman Empire used the exotic animals sent as tribute to Rome, or captured from conquered territories, pitted against each other or against humans in the famous circuses. The Medici prince Lorenzo the Magnificent consolidated his power in Florence by working behind the scenes, but proof of his power came in the form of the gift of a giraffe from an Egyptian sultan. And in the final tale, pandas are given to Richard Nixon after his wife commented to Mao Zedong on how much she liked them. Although academically wordy, this look at the role of animals in international politics will interest both history and animal lovers. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (August 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316525650
• ISBN-13: 978-0316525657
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #794,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I've always read books to travel to other places. Growing up in Moscow, in the Brezhnev era, I dove into books to escape the drabness and oppression of Soviet life. After emigrating to America and enrolling in high school in Boston, I read novels during math classes because I never like that subject, could get away with avoiding it in the more lenient American school, and sought greater excitement of the written word. Dispirited by academic politics as a graduate student and an aspiring professor, I found in reading and writing safe harbors of refuge and joy.

A Bunting Fellowship (administered by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard) gave me an idea to devote myself to these forms of indulgence full-time. I did not think of myself as a born writer, not like people who begin constructing stories at age 5 and never stop. I was astonished when one day, chancing upon a tattered notebook I had brought with me from Russia, I opened its cover and read on its opening page: "Chapter 1 - How I began to write." My best friend and I spent countless afternoons creating an elaborate fictional world in which we were captains of a pirate ship, sailing across stormy seas and lording it over a motley crew that included Dumas' Three Musketeers, popular Russian bards, and other heroes of our youth. We embarked on these adventures first with the help of dolls, then paper cut-outs, then notebooks in which we feverishly scribbled our stories, inspired by all sorts of books we read, but especially those set in the past. I guess the desire to read and write about history has been with me since my childhood after all.

History remains the subject of endless fascination for me, a driving motor behind my books, a lens through which I view the world around me. It might be my Russian roots, my emigrant's deracination, or just innate curiosity that always makes me wonder how things came about, and why.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Lions, Tigers and Bears to Tapirs, Kangaroos and Giraffes, August 22, 2006

By 

Wantz Upon A Time Reviews (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medici Giraffe (Hardcover)

Animals have played critical roles throughout history. Especially intriguing have been exotic fauna from distant lands. Ancient rulers saw the value of possessing everything from lions, tigers and bears, to tapirs, kangaroos and giraffes. Obtaining such specimens was--and still is--proof of a ruler's or government's power. This in-depth history chronicles seven major points in history, which could not have taken place without the animals.

Elephants in ancient Egypt helped influence a precarious rule. Exotic animal fighters in Rome both helped and hindered a war hero's determination to maintain the trust of the people. A Medici merchant used a giraffe to secure a princedom. New World animals and deformed and albino people from Montezuma's menagerie became Cortés's symbol of triumph in Europe. A seventeenth-century ruler/recluse marveled in his study of exotic flora and fauna. Napoleon Bonaparte's wife created her menagerie to prove her worth and power in a society that saw her as too silly for her position. Finally, meet the media magnate who, known for his strange ways, created a private zoo that both entertained and terrorized the rich and famous.

Marina Belozerskaya introduces readers to an ancient phenomenon that continues to this day. In each tale of power and loss, she fuses painstaking research with a gift for storytelling, giving life to each of the chronicled leaders. In order to provide context for each tale, she delivers in-depth details of the socio-political climate at the time. Then she blended what she could learn of the leader's personality, allowing the reader as complete a picture as possible.

For anyone interested in political history, animals, or history in general, I highly recommend this for your library. Some readers will find the extensive detailing overwhelming or a bit dry at times, but they will discover it is with purpose. Other readers, especially those sensitive to violence--toward humans and/or animals--should be prepared for rough passages, but don't let that stop you from marveling at the importance of exotic animals throughout history.

Pick up this historical narrative, for it is as exotic as the animals it portrays.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer

8/22/2006

4½-BOOKS for WUAT; 5-STARS for Amazon

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly entertaining and informative, October 23, 2006

By 

J. A. Bartle - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Medici Giraffe (Hardcover)

This beautifully produced, well-written and well edited book would make a perfect Christmas present for those in search of stimulation as well as entertainment. The chapters are introduced by interesting illustrations as well as by amusing and provocative quotations. Although the book is based on thorough research and wide reading, the author carries her scholarship lightly. Sources are listed for each chapter rather than as single bibliography, which makes tracking down the information used relatively easy. Superscripts would, however, have made this even easier and the work more useful as a reference source.

However, The Medici Giraffe does not set out to be a comprehensive history of private zoos. The author's vision of linking the acquisition of great and extraordinary animals to human power frames the book in an interesting way and she brings it right up to date with some interesting reflections on pandas, and on conservation.

An excellent book for the general reader. Strongly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fine, lively pick any library should have., October 15, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medici Giraffe (Hardcover)

Exotic animals have long inspired humans who marvel at them, and THE MEDICI GIRAFFE: AND OTHER TALES OF EXOTIC ANIMALS AND POWER explores this fascination throughout history, from Roman times on up. How did the introduction of such animals and knowledge of their existence change empires and perceptions? THE MEDICI GIRAFFE follows these accompanying changes, bringing to life stories from around the world and blending natural and human history. A fine, lively pick any library should have.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch