Famous rhinoceroses in Europe

This article is a list of the Rhinocéros which are alive parvenus in the basin the Mediterranean N and in Europe, of third century BC until the 18th century. From the scarcity of this animal and its terrifying aspect, the first appearances of the rhinoceros in the European world marked the memories.

Antiquity (IIIe front S.J. - C. - IIIe S. a. J. - C.)

The rhinoceros of Ptolémée Philadelphe (263 av. J. - C.)

African rhinoceros. Captured in Eastern Africa, this rhinoceros belonged to the dionysiaque procession organized with Alexandria by the king Ptolémée II Philadelphe, into 262 before J. - C. It is the first rhinoceros known to arrive alive at the edge of the Mediterranean.

Source: Callixène of Rhodos, History of Alexandria , delivers IV. This text is lost, but the description of the dionysiaque procession was recopied by Athénée of Naucratis ( the Banquet of the Sophists ). Callixene calls it rhinoceros ethiopic .

The rhinoceros of Artémidore d' Ephèse (fine of IIe front S.J. - C.)

African rhinoceros. It is probable that the kings lagides made come for their menagerie from Alexandria from other rhinoceroses during IIIe and IIe front S.J. - C., but there is not the proof of it. The only one which is attested is that, according to Strabon, Artémidore d' Ephèse (author of a Géographie towards 104-101 av. J. - C.) would have seen its eyes with Alexandria. It was most probably an rhinoceros of Africa.

The rhinoceros of Pumped (55 av. J. - C.?)

Indian rhinoceros. According to Pline Old the, the first rhinoceros seen in Rome is an rhinoceros with a horn (thus Indian?) product under Pumped at the time of the plays of 55 av. J. - C., for the inauguration of the new complex over Field-of-March. This information is contradicted by Dion Cassius which claims that the first rhinoceros seen in Rome arrived under Octave, in 29 av. J. - C. Cicéron, which attended the sets of 55 and a description in its correspondence left some, speaks about many elephants but not about rhinoceros.

The rhinoceros of Octave (ex-rhinoceros of Cléopâtre?) (29 av. J. - C.)

Indian rhinoceros. According to Dion Cassius, during the plays given by Octave in 29 av. J. - C. to celebrate its triumph on Egypt, an rhinoceros unicorne (thus Indian?) was spectacle. According to Suétone, this animal (or then) was initially exposed to the public in the Gantry of the Saepta, over Field-of-March.

This animal belonged to the spoils that Octave had paid of Egypt the previous year. At the time of a stopover with Corinth between Alexandria and Rome, this rhinoceros was exposed for the public; the geographer Strabon on the occasion to see it, and to write a detailed description of it.

What made this Indian rhinoceros with Alexandria? Undoubtedly it was about a diplomatic gift offered by an Indian kingdom to Cléopâtre. It is known that the latter maintained the relations with India (it will try after Actium to send her son Césarion to it, according to Plutarque) and little time after an Indian embassy was sent to its winner and successor Octave.

The rhinoceros of Auguste (8 a. J. - C.)

Unspecified species. According to Dion Cassius, during the plays given to Rome by Auguste in the name of Germanicus and of his/her brother in the year 8 a. J. - C., a combat was organized between an rhinoceros and an elephant. It is the elephant which gained it.

The rhinoceros of Domitien (86 or 88 a. J. - C.)

African rhinoceros. At the time of the Plays Capitolins of 86 or secular Plays of 87, an rhinoceros with two horns (thus African) was opposed to a bear. In fact the rhinoceros, initially undecided gained. The combat was immortalisé by an epigram of the poet Martial. Perhaps the rhinoceros it was also opposed to a bull, with the same result.

The image of this rhinoceros was reproduced on small copper coins called quadrantes , some gone back to Domitien, others without name of emperor. On these currencies with the rhinoceros are reproduced also sometimes of the emblems of the goddess Minerve.

Rhinoceroses of Antonin the Piles (towards 148)

African rhinoceroses. The Histoire Auguste announces that Antonin the Piles made appear rhinoceroses in the circus games which it organized (perhaps those which celebrated the 900e birthday of the foundation of Rome). This astonishing plural is confirmed by Pausanias, which says to have seen rhinoceroses, that it calls bulls ethiopic, in a menagerie of Rome. Description that it gives some is that of rhinoceros of Africa with two horns, and goes back it to its stay in Rome is located in years 140.

Convenient rhinoceroses of (181-192?)
Unspecified species. Dion Cassius says that Commode, occurring personally in the arena, killed a crowd of exotic animals, of which several rhinoceroses . There is not other information on this subject.

The rhinoceros of Caracalla (211-217)
Unspecified species. Dion Cassius mentions an rhinoceros (in the singular this time) among the animals which were produced during the plays given by Caracalla. There is not other information on this animal.

The rhinoceros of Héliogabale (218-222)
Unspecified species. The only source which mentions the presence of this animal in Rome is the Histoire Auguste, very late and not very reliable source, insofar as its author often invents completely fictitious facts.
For memory, therefore, according to the History Auguste, the emperor Héliogabale had organized a menagerie of Egyptian animals: “ It had in its possession in Rome of these small Egyptian snakes which one names over there “great geniuses”, as well as hippopotamuses, a crocodile, an rhinoceros and all the other animal species of Egypt which natural allowed them to show. ”. It will be noted that this rhinoceros was famous Egyptian (all the rhinoceroses arriving to Rome since the origin, that they were African or Indian, passed by the wearing of Alexandria). That of Héliogabale seems was the only one to escape the circus games.

The rhinoceros of the Millenium of Rome (248)
Unspecified species. The Histoire Auguste gives the list of the animals which were produced in the Amphitheater by the emperor Philippe the Arab during the secular Jeux of 248, marking the 1000e birthday of the Fondation of Rome. In this list an rhinoceros appears. The majority of these animals had been gathered several years before by Gordien III in preparation for its triumph on Persians, but Gordien was killed during this war and it is its successor who inherited the extraordinary menagerie. This rhinoceros was the last with being announced in Occident, before that of 1515.

Modern time (XVIe-XVIIIe S.)

The rhinoceros of 1515 (1515-1516)
Indian, known rhinoceros under the name of gomda , of the Indian term ganda . Offered by the king Muzaffar II of Cambaye, in India, to Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1514, this animal was sent to the king Emmanuel Ier from Portugal in Lisbon, where it unloaded on May 20th, 1515. At once identified as the rhinoceros about which the Old ones spoke, it became the high-speed motorboat of the royal menagerie, the center of interest of the scientists.
The rhinoceros became immediately a European celebrity. A letter describing it, accompanied by a rather good sketch, came from to Nuremberg where, according to this document now lost, Albrecht Dürer carried out initially a drawing entitled RHINOCERON 1515 , then a famous engraving on wood entitled RHINOCERVS 1515 . According to this same document, Hans Burgkmair carried out on her side a rather different engraving on wood, entitled RHINOCEROS MDXV , but which had much less success. According to a similar document arrived to Italy, Giovanni Giacomo Penni published in Rome on July 13rd, 1515 a poemetto on the animal: Formed & will natura & costumi lo rinocerothe stato condutto importogallo dal Capitanio of larmata LED Re & altre beautiful thimble condutte flagstone insule nouamente trouate .
In December, Emmanuel Ier, which had already offered to the Pope Leon X the Hannon elephant, decided to send the rhinoceros with a sumptuous embassy to him. The animal took again the sea, and the Portuguese nave which transported it slackened in January 1516 on the island of Yew, vis-a-vis Marseilles. January 24th, the king of France François Ier went on the island with his court in order to see the reynoceron ; then the nave set out again, but made shipwreck with broad Portovenere, close to Spezia. The poor rhinoceros perishes in this sea risk, and one precisely does not know what it occurred of its body: it would have been recovered and its skin offered to the Pope (but the Vatican always officially contradicts to have any skin of rhinoceros in its secret files).

References

See also: Rhinoceros To last

Abel Fontoura da Costa: ambulations of the Rhinoceros of Modofar, King de Cambaye, of 1514 to 1515 , Lisbon (Agencia Geral das Colónias) 1937.
Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making off Europe , vol. II, Chicago-London (University off Chicago Near) 1970, p. 161-168.

The rhinoceros of Philippe II of Spain (1577 - after 1586)
Indian rhinoceros. It was undoubtedly a female, known under the name of lbada or abada , according to the name Malayan of the animal. In 1577, this other rhinoceros unloaded in Lisbon with the menagerie of the insane king Sebastien Ier of Portugal, which Henri Ier succeeded the following year. It is the second rhinoceros of modern Europe. By security measure, one sawed to him the horn (which undoubtedly pushed back thereafter).
When, in 1582, the king Philippe II of Spain collected the succession of Henri 1st and joins together the crowns of Spain and Portugal, he inherited the rhinoceros which he initially made transport in his menagerie of the Casa of Campo, close to Madrid. October 16th, 1583 Philippe II made it transfer in its menagerie from the Escorial. The transfer did not occur without incident: one wanted to refresh the poor animal by aspergeant it of water buckets, which irritated it and the " abada" all reversed on its passage. It was then exposed to the public with the Escorial and was presented to the Japanese ambassadors in 1584. Undoubtedly she died before 1588. A street of Madrid near to the Puerta LED Ground, the Hold of Abada, always bears its name.
Its image was preserved to us by an engraving of Philippe Galle carried out in 1586.
Ref.: J. Puerto, the leyenda verde. Naturaleza, sanidad there ciencia in the corte of Felipe II (1527-1598) . Valladolid: Castilla there Leon. consejeria of Educacion there Cultura, 2003, p. 186.

The London rhinoceros of 1684 (1684-1686)
Indian rhinoceros. It is the third of modern Europe, one century after the death of the second. This rhinoceros, coming says one Court of Golconde, was brought back by the captain Henry Udall to edge of the Herbert , a ship of the English Compagnie of the Eastern Indies. It unloaded in London in January 1684 and was sold at once for 2000 pounds to a contractor deprived to be exposed with the Bartholomew Fair , or the inn of the Belle Savage of Ludgate Hill. The public pays 1 shilling to see it, 2 shillings to have the right to overlap it. The Belle Savage boxed up to 15 pounds per day. It is the first rhinoceros privatized (and undoubtedly profitable) of the history: since that of Ptolémée II Philadelphe, while passing through all the Roman Emperors, until that of Philippe II of Spain, the possession of an rhinoceros had always been in Occident royal or imperial monopoly. This rhinoceros lived in London nearly two years and half, and died in 1686.

The London rhinoceros of 1739 (1739-1741)
Male Indian rhinoceros. It was a small rhinoceros of less than two years acquired in 1738 by Humphrey Cole, directing of a factorie of the Company of the British Indies with Patna on the Gange, and brought back by the Acton Captain to edge of the Lyell . It unloaded in London on June 1st, 1739 accompanied by its Indian guard, and was exposed to the public starting from June 15th with Eagle Street, close to Red Lion Public garden.
This rhinoceros caused the curiosity of the British erudite world. James Douglas about it made two communications in 1739 in front of the Royal Society, and James Parsons made of it the another on June 9th 1743, accompanied by sketch, communication which constitutes the first scientific study of this animal. Meanwhile the poor rhinoceros had died in 1741. Parsons used its sketches to carry out two large tables representing the animal; one disappeared since the XVIIIe century, the other, an oil on fabric of 122 X 147 cm representing the rhinoceros in an imaginary landscape, is visible in Natural History Museum of London.

References
Parsons J., " With letter from Dr. Parsons to Martin Folkes, Esq., President off the Royal Society, containing the natural history off the Rhinoceros" , Philosophical Transactions (Royal Society) 42 (1742-43), pp. 523-541, pls.1-3.

Clara the rhinoceros (1741 - 1758)
Indian rhinoceros female. It is the fifth rhinoceros to be arrived alive in modern Europe, and the second to gain an international celebrity who compares only with that of the rhinoceros of 1515.
One year old, Clara (of which the mother it to be published killed by Indian hunters) had been adopted by Jan Albert Sichterman, director in Bengal of the Compagnie Dutchwoman of the Eastern Indies (VOC). It called it Clara. She was perfectly tamed and freely circulated in the residence of her Master. In 1740, Sichterman gave it or sold it to the captain Douwe Mout van der Meer, ordering Knappenhof which turned over to Holland. Clara unloaded with Rotterdam on July 22nd 1741 and, like had been to it the English rhinoceroses of 1684 and 1739, was immediately exposed to the public. The success met by these exposures encouraged Douwe Mout van der Meer to leave the VOC in 1744 and to undertake a European round with its rhinoceros. One built to him a special vehicle adapted at the long terrestrial stages, and the round met an extraordinary success. Clara had been exposed to Brussels as of 1743, then with Hamburg in 1744.
The round begins truly in spring 1746: Hanover, then Berlin, in Spittelmarkt. April 26th, the king Frederic II of Prussia comes to see it. Then it is Frankfurt-on-the Oder, Breslau (Wrocław), finally Vienna, where it makes an escorted triumphal entry of eight empanachés guards. November 5th, the Emperor François I {{er}}, the Empress Marie-Therese and the Empress dowager come to see it. In 1747, it passes to Munich, Ratisbon, Freiberg, on April 5th with Dresden (where it poses for Johann Joachim Kaendler of the Porcelain factory of Meissen, and where it receives on April 19th the visit of Auguste III, Électeur of Saxony and king de Pologne), the 23 it are with Leipzig for the Fair of Easter, in a hut of Petersthor. In July it is lodged with the orangery of the castle of Kassel, invited by the Landgrave Frederic II of Hesse. In November, it is with Mannheim, the Inn of the Peacock (Gasthof zum Pfau) where it receives the visit of the Elector Palatine Carl-Theodor and his family; in December it is with Strasbourg for the Fair of Christmas. In 1748, it passes to Bern, Zurich, Basle, Schaffhouse, Stuttgart, Augsburg, Nuremberg and Würzburg.
After a probable return to Leyde, it takes the road of France. In December 1748, it passes to Rheims, and is received in January 1749 by the king Louis XV with the royal Menagerie of Versailles. As from February, it spends five months to Paris in a hut of the fair Saint-Germain, street of the Four-Winds. Success is extraordinary and confines with is delirious, one about it publishes books, epigrams, even a cantatille ; one launches the fashion of the wigs or the ornaments to the rhinoceros . Clara is examined by Buffon, poses for the painter Jean-Baptiste Oudry (its Rhinocéros life size will be one of the high-speed motorboats of the Living room of 1750, and will be used as model for engravings of the Natural history of Buffon); one will baptize even Rhinocéros a vessel of the Royal Navy launched with Rochefort in 1751. End 1749, Clara embarks with Marseilles and undertakes an Italian round: Naples, in a hut close to Castelnuovo, Rome in March 1750, with the Thermal baths of Dioclétien (finally an rhinoceros is of return to Rome, 1500 years after that of Philippe the Arab!). It is with Rome that, for safety reasons undoubtedly, one saws his horn to him. It spends then in August to Bologna then in October to Milan, in a hut of Piazza Mercanti. In January 1751 it arrives at Venice where it is one of major attractions of the carnival the next month, posing for the painter Pietro Longhi. It would have brought back 4000 ducats to Venice, whose its Master Douwe Mout van der Meer would have reperdu a great part with the tables of play of Ridotto. Then, while passing by Vérone, Clara returns to Vienna, to gain London with the end of the year, where the king and the royal family come to admire it.
One less knows in detail his round in the years 1752 - 1758. One announces his passage to Prague, in 1754 with Warsaw, Cracow and again with Breslau (Wrocław), in 1755 with Copenhagen. In 1758 it is of return to London, visible for 6 pence or 1 shilling with the Horse and Groom in Lambeth Market. She dies 20 years old there on April 14th 1758.
As of 1748 Douwe Mout van der Meer proposed with the public, in addition to of course the paying spectacle (with several classes), a whole product range derived adapted to all the purses: engravings of various formats, medals memories manufactured with silver Nuremberg or bronze, (at the beginning of the round at least) of the flasks of supposed urine of Clara to even have healing virtues.

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