Silvio A. Bedini (1917–2007)

In 1514, King Manuel I of Portugal sent a menagerie of animals and presents in an effort to please and gain favor with the newly-crowned pope Leo X. Among the animals was a white Indian elephant. It was named Annone, or Hanno, and quickly became the pope’s favorite pet. Bedini traces the travels of the elephant and its impact on the art and culture of the time. One of the distracting elements of the book, however, is the tracking of every single depiction of an elephant in sixteenth and seventeenth century art throughout Europe and even Africa. That aside, the interplay between papal culture and European history is nonetheless interesting.… (mehr)