The Pope's Elephant [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In early 16th century Rome, at the height of the Italian Renaissance, when artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo thrived in the Holy City, the decadent court of Pope Leo X was a place where visitors could find pleasures and entertainment more exotic than anything they had previously imagined. Among the Pope's great joys was his menagerie of exotic animals, and the prize of his collection was an Indian elephant named Hanno, presented to him by the King of Portugal. The Pope's Elephant by Silvio A. Bedini, historian emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution, describes Hanno's powerful effect on the Papal Court and on the Roman citizenry. This elephant--trained to kneel, dance, weep, and trumpet on command--led parades and entertained at public festivals and was commemorated in paintings, poetry, and sculpture. For Romans, Hanno became the preeminent symbol of the alluring Orient; for Pope Leo's detractors, the elephant became a symbol of Roman corruption. Bedini's rigorous research and eager enthusiasm for his subject and his judicious selection of whimsical illustrations make reading The Pope's Elephant a quirky and delightful pastime. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Library Journal

Deep within this mountain of meticulous research lies the story of a Medici pope's fondness for a small albino elephant, gift of Portugal's King Manuel I to the papal court. Son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, Leo X (1451-1521) became pope at age 37, determined to enjoy the papacy, bring artists and poets to Rome, and restore the city as a center of Western culture. The book chronicles the diminutive pachyderm Hanno and his journey from India to Portugal to Rome, where for two years he was beloved and enjoyed by the people of the Vatican and used in processions. Writers and artists, including Raphael, memorialized Hanno in his lifetime and after his death in 1516; his remains were identified at the Vatican in the 1960s. Bedini, historian emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, presents Hanno's story as an illuminating footnote on the end of Europe's Golden Age, on local customs and celebrations, on the human side of the mighty, and on the barbarity of the times. Suitable for comprehensive natural history and religion collections.?Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); illustrated edition edition (April 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140288627
• ISBN-13: 978-0140288629
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #447,815 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Pope's Elephant: Prize of the Vatican's Menagerie, April 5, 2000

By A Customer

"Rome produces its monkeys and wild goats And every type of wild beast, more even than India and Africa. And now that Leo has become their king, All the animals, even the very elephant, Must hold him in honour."

A verse of Pasquino heralds the arrival of the great elephant Hanno to Rome, where it is presented to Pope Leo X. And so begins Silvio Bedini's delightful story of the pope's elephant. Bedini, whose work has covered a range of topics in the past, began exploring the rumors of a Vatican rhinoceros and elephant, only to find them not only true, but part of a fantastic story of imperial representations of power, patronage, gift-giving, and ceremony.

Brought to Leo X 1514, Hanno the elephant was a symbol of Portuguese power and dominance in the far east, and particularly from India, where the elephant's journey began. Bedini details the long voyage from Lisbon to Porto Ecole, during which the elephant was anchored between the two masts of the boat. From there, the travel to Rome via dirt roads is complicated both by wear on the elephant's tender feet and the throngs of people who crowd the entourage, trying to get a look at the most spectacular gift. In Rome, the elephant is finally, and formally, handed over to the pope, and Bedini shows his remarkable descriptive skill in sketching out every aspect of the ceremony. Those interested in the rituals of such religious, nationalistic and political events (all bundled into one) will be satisfied with Bedini's work here. Once in Rome and rested, Hanno becomes a living symbol of the period, captured by poets, playwrights, and artists. Oddly, the elephant shared a small amount of fame with a rhinoceros, another gift from the Portuguese. The fate of this beast, however, is less well known, and while it appears in several commissioned paintings from the period, its fate remains unclear.

The book closes with the death of Leo X, and the changes which ensued, both religiously and culturally, after his passing. Bedini thoughtfully examines the influence of this pope and his large beast on the belles lettres of the period. Beautiful plates show the extent to which the elephant--as a symbol of the Church's strength, of the Pope's magnificence, and of the animal's own divine purpose--captivated people, and the reader is given a new perspective on the 16th century, simply by focusing on an elephant.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS is how historiography is done, June 10, 2002

By	Jessica Donohoe "(peacedividend.com)" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you've even a passing interest in historiography - supplementing the historical record with artifacts and peripherally supporting documentary evidence to glean a substantial picture of the world represented by written history - you will find this book a treasure.

At times shocking, at others moving, often repellant and even more frequently laugh-out-loud audacious, it is always illuminating.

This is high scholarship, but only very rarely is it dry. Good for the gothic audience: never again will you dream of living in romantic 16th C Europe, not after the smells and sounds and horrific displays of human behavior brought to life by Bedini and the story of the elephant/s.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Short, Strange Life of a Very Large Animal (Pope Leo X), December 1, 2000

By	Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Pope's Elephant by Silvio A. Bedini is a fun book although it does not quite deliver the promise of the subtitle on the cover. It is not really about the journey of an elephant from deep in India to the heart of Rome. It is really about the strange workings of Rome and the Papacy in the early 1500's and their dealings with other nations, such as Portugal from which the ill-fated elephant, Hanno, arrives. The author uses a great variety of sources for this journey, particulary interesting being the use made of contemporary artists to provide proof of events. This book could have used the Pope's elephant for a much wider glimpse of the world at this point in time, but the more narrow version presented here is fascinating and illuminating in its own right. An interesting footnote into history (and, truly, how many interesting footnotes does one run across).