The Pope's White Elephant



(Hanno:  In Memoriam)

Although white elephants have been called frivolous expenditures with upkeeps far exceeding their values, Pope Leo X certainly didn’t agree.  His beloved Hanno, the (relatively) small white elephant given to him by the Portugese monarch, brought joy to him and Rome as only a papal bull can.

Hanno, originally from India, came to Rome by ship in 1514 CE.  This was not just any Rome.  It was Rome at the height of the Italian Renaissance – the Rome of  Michelangelo, Leonardo, and Raphael – a Rome in which the arts, sciences, and just about anything else abounded.  Hanno therefore became the symbol of all that was right – and all that was wrong – with the papacy of Pope Leo X.

On the bright side, Pope Leo X maintained good relations with the Jews and the Poles.  He, like many of the other Medicis, was a great patron of the arts and sciences.  He employed numerous literati and artists, and restored the Roman university.  Wikipedia quotes this 1517 statement from Venetian Ambassador Marino Giorgi:  The pope is a good-natured and extremely free-hearted man, who avoids every difficult situation and above all wants peace; he would not undertake a war himself unless forced into it by his advisors; he loves learning; of canon law and literature he possesses remarkable knowledge; he is, moreover, a very excellent musician.

The down side?  His charitable and personal excesses led him to exhaust the papacy coffers within two years.  He then resorted to such things as “indulgences, jubilees, and special fees” - plus borrowing large sums of money.  When all that didn’t suffice, he pawned “palace furniture…  jewels, even statues of the apostates.”

He never, however, abandoned Hanno.  When this trained elephant – who spent two years dancing, kneeling, bellowing and parading for Pope Leo X took ill and died – the pope was right there by his side.  He then personally composed an epitaph which partially reads:  Under this great hill I lie buried, Mighty

elephant…  Fate envied me my residence in the blessed Latium, And had not the patience to let me serve my master a full three years, But I wish, oh gods, that the time which Nature would have assigned to me, and Destiny stole away, You will add to the life of the great Leo.  

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_X

http://www.amazon.com/Popes-Elephant-Silvio-Bedini/dp/product-description/0140288627

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanno_(elephant)

Copyright September 22, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved