Latest / Ridiculous History / An Elephant in the Vatican, Part 1: The Discovery of Hanno

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An Elephant in the Vatican, Part 1: The Discovery of Hanno · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you so much for
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Speaker 1: tuning in. Uh, we have an elephant in the zoom
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Speaker 1: call today, or I would say several elephants as we
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Speaker 1: record this on a beautiful Friday here in the fair
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Speaker 1: metropolis of Atlanta, Georgia. Uh. And that's fitting for us
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Speaker 1: to have a lot of elephants in today's conversation, because
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Speaker 1: today's conversation is in fact about an elephant. Hi, I'm Ben, Ben,
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Speaker 1: I'm Noel. I have to say, I feel as though
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Speaker 1: you missed a golden opportunity. Why not just an elephant
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Speaker 1: in the zoom baby, That's what I said. But you
1:02
Speaker 1: said the zoom call. Oh yeah, well earlier I did
1:06
Speaker 1: you heard me do this joke earlier? I don't know
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Speaker 1: what you're talking and I did say, oh man, this
1:15
Speaker 1: is you guys are getting us at our absolute best lately. Uh.
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Speaker 1: The end of the day Friday, you know, election time,
1:23
Speaker 1: very tense, you know, tensions running high. Not gonna get
1:27
Speaker 1: into any of that, but I think we're probably both
1:29
Speaker 1: on the extra punchy side for today's recordings. But that's
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Speaker 1: really the best version of ourselves. You're gonna get folks. Hey,
1:36
Speaker 1: I did a little self care. I took a power
1:38
Speaker 1: nap in my car. I'm bunker down in the office today.
1:43
Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, we're We're enjoying it. We're in a
1:45
Speaker 1: good mood. The weekends on the way are super Producer
1:48
Speaker 1: Casey Pagro has what I what I think of as
1:53
Speaker 1: his um For some reason, case I think of this
1:56
Speaker 1: as your second most optimistic backgrounds. I still the Eats background,
2:00
Speaker 1: and still I think takes has a place in my heart.
2:02
Speaker 1: Eats is a mainstay local meeting three situation here in Atlanta.
2:07
Speaker 1: Any visitors passing through, they are doing pick up or
2:11
Speaker 1: some some form of yes, tell us all about Eats. Yeah,
2:14
Speaker 1: I've been fortunate to um have seen Eats in person
2:17
Speaker 1: again after several months of of not so um uh. Yeah.
2:21
Speaker 1: If you're ever in Atlanta on PONSTI Leon, go by
2:24
Speaker 1: checkout Eats. Get the jerk chicken. It's very good. I
2:26
Speaker 1: hear they did away with the pasta bar though, or
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Speaker 1: maybe that's only temporary. But yeah, I wouldn't you know
2:32
Speaker 1: about that. I get literally the same thing every time,
2:35
Speaker 1: jerk chicken, mac and cheese and sweet potato. You don't
2:38
Speaker 1: do the broccoli cast role cast role, No, no, how
2:45
Speaker 1: dare you this is going to be I can't even
2:51
Speaker 1: look at you anymore. Yeah, next time you find yourself
2:53
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, do try out Eats. The menu is literally
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Speaker 1: not changed in decades until the Pande where they halted
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Speaker 1: the pasta bar. But you always felt sorry for the
3:03
Speaker 1: people working the pasta bar. There's always this huge line
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Speaker 1: for everything else. It's true, it's so what about us? Hey,
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Speaker 1: you know what else hasn't changed much in decades? The Vatican.
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Speaker 1: There we go segue, so uh yeah, today's episode is
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Speaker 1: not just about elephants. It's about white elephants in very
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Speaker 1: literal sense, and it's about the Vaticans. So this is weird.
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Speaker 1: If you go to the Vatican, you're gonna see a
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Speaker 1: lot of unique things, right, we're talking off air. You'll
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Speaker 1: see the only place in the world where the A T.
3:37
Speaker 1: M s are also available in latin um. You'll see
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Speaker 1: some of the most influential architecture in European history. Uh
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Speaker 1: nol You and I haven't been to the Vatican, but
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Speaker 1: but Casey, you have right. Yeah, I was there in
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Speaker 1: twenty eleven and I did not know about the thing
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Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about in today's show. When I was there,
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Speaker 1: I wish I had known, But um, yeah, I mean
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Speaker 1: it's a very very impressive place. You don't really have
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Speaker 1: to be remotely religious to to still find it. The
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Speaker 1: opulence of it and and just the I don't know,
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Speaker 1: it's a it's an overwhelming place. Everywhere you go, it's
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Speaker 1: like impressive. And I hung out in Vatican Square for
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Speaker 1: a while, got very lucky somehow I managed to like
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Speaker 1: skip the huge line because I just glombed onto some
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Speaker 1: weird tour group and like went right in there. There's
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Speaker 1: there's not much you can say like that. The Sistine
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Speaker 1: chap bowl and and everything is just pretty pretty mind
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Speaker 1: blowing place. Did you hav to come across any elephant
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Speaker 1: bones while you were wandering around Vatican City? You know?
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Speaker 1: I saw some and I didn't think anything of it
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Speaker 1: at the time, And now you're doing this episode, I'm like, oh,
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Speaker 1: I should have probably, Uh, it's been a little more
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Speaker 1: time there. You should have carbon carbon dated those bad boys.
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Speaker 1: At the very least, you carry that kid around with
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Speaker 1: you at all times. We all do that, and you
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Speaker 1: gotta I think you were telling me one of your
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Speaker 1: main regrets is not understanding the hierarchy of hats in
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Speaker 1: the Vatican, which are very important, very true. Yeah, a
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Speaker 1: lot of a lot of potential faux pads you can
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Speaker 1: make there if you're not on top of it. Doesn't
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Speaker 1: the hierarchy literally have to do with the height of
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Speaker 1: your hat? Or what are you talking about here? That's
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Speaker 1: a good that's a good question. I think maybe that's
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Speaker 1: an episode if we could dig up enough stuff on that.
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Speaker 1: On the weird, uh, the weird hierarchy of hats, maybe
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Speaker 1: we shouldn't call it weird. It's it's just unique to itself.
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Speaker 1: But we're dancing around. We're dancing around like elephants scared
5:21
Speaker 1: of proverbial mice. The story starts here. It goes all
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Speaker 1: the way back to sixteenth century. There's a guy named
5:27
Speaker 1: Giovanni de Lorenzo de Medici. He becomes Pope Leo the tenth.
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Speaker 1: Do you know how when you're famous you get all
5:36
Speaker 1: kinds of weird swag from people who kind of like
5:40
Speaker 1: want stuff from you, or they want you to do
5:42
Speaker 1: something and they want you to think kindly of them.
5:45
Speaker 1: That is magnified by one million. When you're the pope.
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Speaker 1: At this time, Christian rulers were always plying the Vatican
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Speaker 1: with these gifts, and they would be like, hey, Pope Leo,
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Speaker 1: we're cool, right, Like I'm the king of so and so,
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Speaker 1: I want you to favor me if anything happens down
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Speaker 1: the line. And there was one guy, the king of
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Speaker 1: Portugal at the time, Manual the First, in fifteen thirteen,
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Speaker 1: he said, I'm gonna go all out. I'm gonna outdo
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Speaker 1: every gift the pope has ever gotten. Well, surely, ben
6:18
Speaker 1: papal favor cannot be carried by mere mortals. But that
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Speaker 1: being said, this is a pretty good attempt um. He
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Speaker 1: Manuel in particular wanted to um exercise some political swagger
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Speaker 1: with this relationship and expand Portugal's shipping routes to India,
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Speaker 1: which were at the time being threatened by Egypt. Um.
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Speaker 1: Egypt had essentially the makings of a monopoly on these
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Speaker 1: trade routes. So in order to to get Leo, I'm
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Speaker 1: just gonna called Leo X because that sounds badass um,
6:51
Speaker 1: but we all know, excess the tenth uh to get
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Speaker 1: him on board and to help, you know, flex some
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Speaker 1: papal muscle in this whole dispute, he decided to um
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Speaker 1: gift the pope with a freaking Indian elephant, and not
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Speaker 1: just any Indian elephant, an albino elephant um named ann
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Speaker 1: A and then O n e Um and then it
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Speaker 1: was anglicized to Hanno, which is excusing to me. And
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Speaker 1: what's wrong with ann I can say that, that's easy enough.
7:21
Speaker 1: What's the what's the problem? You know, people get weird
7:24
Speaker 1: about names. They think it's an ownership thing, you know
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Speaker 1: what I mean. So they probably just wanted to uh,
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Speaker 1: you know what, maybe it was just a pet name,
7:34
Speaker 1: which is weird because Hannah was definitely not a pet.
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Speaker 1: He was he was part of a transaction manual paid
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Speaker 1: to get better shipping routes to India. Right, and this,
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Speaker 1: uh I almost said, this guy, this elephant, this white elephants.
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Speaker 1: Hanno became a fundamental part of the politics of Portuguese
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Speaker 1: expansion here. He made a cameo in the Protestant Reformation,
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Speaker 1: and he was so popular. I mean, like people would
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Speaker 1: you know this is this is in the time before
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Speaker 1: widespread zoos, right, so this is people's one chance to
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Speaker 1: see a near mythical creature that they've yeah for some
8:17
Speaker 1: reason decide to call Hannah. Uh, it makes you wonder
8:20
Speaker 1: what Harambie's real name was. Story for another day. It
8:24
Speaker 1: is a story for another day, but it is interesting.
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Speaker 1: The whole idea of anglicization of names in and of itself,
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Speaker 1: I think could be a cool one. But names aside, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: this is a beloved elephant by the Pope and an
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Speaker 1: important kind of almost like diplomatic chess piece in some ways. Right, Yeah,
8:44
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. And then check this out. History forgot
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Speaker 1: about it that we got. We got all the way
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Speaker 1: to like nineteen sixty two. Uh, some folks were digging
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Speaker 1: up the Vatican's Belvidere courtyard. They wanted to modernize the
9:02
Speaker 1: h v A c true story. That's acceptable, that's an
9:06
Speaker 1: acceptable modification of the Vatican. But they probably don't do
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Speaker 1: too much remodeling typically, right, Yeah, you can imagine it
9:13
Speaker 1: gets a little bit tricky for them, given the age
9:17
Speaker 1: and the whole you know, the fact that this is
9:21
Speaker 1: these are sanctuaries and so on. But they managed to
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Speaker 1: get together. It was considered a worthwhile operation. And while
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Speaker 1: they were digging, these Italian construction workers where you know,
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Speaker 1: they're like s sunk and they hit bone. I don't.
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Speaker 1: I don't know why I'm phrased it that way of
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Speaker 1: picturing like the Beverly Hillbillies going bone, bone, black gold,
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Speaker 1: dino bricks, white gold, whatever you wanna call. Yeah, it's bone,
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Speaker 1: and it was elephant, mom. But they didn't know that
9:51
Speaker 1: at the time. Um, they were like, I was about
9:54
Speaker 1: to say, socrate blow. These weren't frenchmen. What am I
9:56
Speaker 1: doing here? One of them could have said socre blue?
9:59
Speaker 1: What would what would be Italian? Like a very stupid
10:01
Speaker 1: stereotypically the bone. Here we go, we get, there, we go. Oh,
10:07
Speaker 1: I don't even know. I don't. I am not familiar
10:09
Speaker 1: with any of the music of Abba except for Dancing Queen.
10:12
Speaker 1: Somebody played me a song of theirs the other night
10:14
Speaker 1: that sounded like a like a poker or something, and
10:17
Speaker 1: I really liked it, but I can't remember what it
10:18
Speaker 1: was called irrelevant, completely unrelated to anything we're discussing. But
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Speaker 1: it's true they found these bones and then um, history
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Speaker 1: forgot about it again. That's right, that's right. The well
10:31
Speaker 1: they did go so far as to realize it was
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Speaker 1: not like a dinosaur, and it was dated to some degree.
10:37
Speaker 1: They didn't have I don't think they had carbon dating
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Speaker 1: at this point, did they know? They probably did, They
10:42
Speaker 1: would have had carbon dating, radio carbon dating maybe, like
10:46
Speaker 1: it's a thing that existed, but I don't know if
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Speaker 1: it would have been widespread because this was first proposed
10:51
Speaker 1: in right. Um. But they did to some degree of
10:58
Speaker 1: accuracy date the bones, of course, again after realizing that
11:02
Speaker 1: they were not, in fact, like dinosaur bones or something, um,
11:05
Speaker 1: that it was the bones of an elephants. And then,
11:10
Speaker 1: as I said, history promptly forgot about it again until
11:14
Speaker 1: like the early nineteen eighties. Um, we're we're pushing up
11:18
Speaker 1: close to our cutoff for this story. But it's it
11:20
Speaker 1: started a long time ago. Storry. Well that's okay, we
11:23
Speaker 1: we get a pass. So in the eighties, Um, this
11:32
Speaker 1: is there's a period between the late eighties and the
11:35
Speaker 1: early to mid nineties where this was becoming a thing. Um.
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Speaker 1: No one asked any questions about it up until that point.
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Speaker 1: So you know, I think it's fair to say history
11:43
Speaker 1: sort of forgot it again. It was odd, to say
11:46
Speaker 1: the least, that no one would have inquired as to
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Speaker 1: why there was an elephant buried in Vatican City. Um,
11:53
Speaker 1: and no one thought to ask that question until Uh
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Speaker 1: the Smithsonians historian emeritus, a gentleman by the name of
12:00
Speaker 1: Silvio Bedini, it caught wind of this story and he
12:04
Speaker 1: did some exhaustive research and actually published a paper in
12:09
Speaker 1: called the Pope's Elephants, and it was there's a great
12:13
Speaker 1: as obscure article that refers to this work as the
12:16
Speaker 1: most thorough study to date of the elephant that lived
12:19
Speaker 1: in the cortill de Belvidere. Right, and this is you know,
12:23
Speaker 1: it almost goes without saying rarefied niche in the world
12:27
Speaker 1: of publishing. Uh. But he did solve the mystery. And
12:30
Speaker 1: we owe Silvio an enormous debt for this. He's the
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Speaker 1: one who figured out how these elephant bones got under
12:38
Speaker 1: the court of Belvidere. Uh. He He's the one who
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Speaker 1: did this research and discovered, like we said at the top,
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Speaker 1: that the Portuguese monarchy was attempting to expand its control
12:52
Speaker 1: of trade routes, not just trade with India but the
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Speaker 1: East Indies as well, and they wanted to how like
13:00
Speaker 1: Frank Herbert Dune is this They wanted to control the
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Speaker 1: spice trade. Yeah, they wanted to let that spice flow.
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Speaker 1: And as part of the operations and all these distant
13:10
Speaker 1: parts of the world. They were also collecting animals that
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Speaker 1: you wouldn't normally see in Mediterranean Europe, and so there
13:19
Speaker 1: was lead up to this elephant things that happened before.
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Speaker 1: Portugal had already sent different popes, parrots, man drills, leopards, monkeys, galore.
13:32
Speaker 1: I gotta say, though, I feel like sending someone a
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Speaker 1: man drill as a as a gift feels kind of threatening.
13:39
Speaker 1: Are you guys very familiar with man drills? They're freaking terrifying,
13:43
Speaker 1: aren't they. They're like kind of looked like what you
13:44
Speaker 1: would think of as a baboon, with like the blue
13:47
Speaker 1: and red noses and like the butts and stuff, enormous fangs,
13:52
Speaker 1: massive things, and they apparently will like rip your face off,
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Speaker 1: you know, if provoked. Yeah, no hesitation and okay. So anyway,
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Speaker 1: they're sending them animals, right and at the time that
14:04
Speaker 1: they're gearing up to send this, uh, to send this elephant,
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Speaker 1: the Portuguese king is, as we said, his name is
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Speaker 1: Manuel first. Uh. He has a problem because he knows
14:17
Speaker 1: that he's starting to to get beefy with Egypt. Because
14:23
Speaker 1: Portugal's maritime trade routes are becoming a threat to Egypt's
14:30
Speaker 1: overland trade routes. Egypt has a monopoly on the trade there,
14:35
Speaker 1: and so Egypt is pushing the pope and they're saying, look,
14:39
Speaker 1: you gotta pull the leash on these guys in Portugal.
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Speaker 1: They're eating our lunch or whatever they would have whatever
14:46
Speaker 1: the equivalent of that would have been in the fifteen hundreds.
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Speaker 1: And the Egyptian leaders the thing is they have leverage.
14:55
Speaker 1: They controlled Jerusalem at this time. They can destroy someone
15:00
Speaker 1: the most holy sites in the Christian religion if the
15:03
Speaker 1: Pope gets on their bad side. Yeah. It's interesting. I always,
15:07
Speaker 1: um think of you know, the Vatican as being this
15:11
Speaker 1: sort of like isolated a political thing. But that's not
15:14
Speaker 1: true at all, is it. It very much held political
15:18
Speaker 1: sway and was you know, not hesitant to to flex
15:22
Speaker 1: it when needed. Um. And yeah, like you know, out
15:27
Speaker 1: of fealthy or something along the lines. Christian leaders, because
15:32
Speaker 1: religion was such a huge part of of all of
15:34
Speaker 1: these forms of government, Um, it was customary for them
15:38
Speaker 1: to send the new pope these gifts. And it was
15:42
Speaker 1: seen by the savvyest of them, I suppose, as an
15:46
Speaker 1: opportunity to you know, get in good with someone that
15:50
Speaker 1: could help provide some political support. If he got in
15:54
Speaker 1: good with the Pope, he could potentially ask for him
15:58
Speaker 1: to help finance his expansion efforts. And when we're saying
16:02
Speaker 1: expanding his trade routes, I mean we're literally saying like
16:06
Speaker 1: expanding his fleet, like getting more vehicles, getting more ships,
16:10
Speaker 1: um weapons, all of that stuff. If he got the
16:14
Speaker 1: Pope's you know, holy blessing um for this, you know,
16:19
Speaker 1: essentially like manifest destiny situation, this idea of expanding as
16:24
Speaker 1: a nation, the Portuguese trading system, and so he had
16:28
Speaker 1: he knew what kind of the go to gifts were,
16:32
Speaker 1: um things like gold or you know, spices or fine
16:37
Speaker 1: you know linen's and a pimp cup. Uh, something called
16:44
Speaker 1: a brocade altar cover. Is that like a type of
16:48
Speaker 1: weave perhaps, Yeah, it's a uh it's like brocaded silk
16:54
Speaker 1: or something would have a raised pattern me by pressure
16:58
Speaker 1: or embroidery. So a very fancy tablecloth for an altar
17:03
Speaker 1: got it. So he did send all these things, like
17:05
Speaker 1: even though there maybe like we're a little more on
17:07
Speaker 1: the obvious side, he he wanted to like really like
17:10
Speaker 1: go go hard and go large. So he sent all
17:13
Speaker 1: of these things in addition to gold and jewels and
17:17
Speaker 1: crusted you know, with rubies and find neck necklaces and
17:22
Speaker 1: what have you. And uh, then he sent these weird
17:25
Speaker 1: exotic animals like cheetahs and leopards and dogs like what's
17:29
Speaker 1: described in this Amazing Else obscure article as strange dogs.
17:35
Speaker 1: And I want to know more about these strange dogs.
17:37
Speaker 1: I imagine it maybe means like weirdly selectively bred dogs
17:42
Speaker 1: that we wouldn't see anymore today. That's that's my guess.
17:46
Speaker 1: Also sent a fancy Persian horse and then Hannah the elephant,
17:52
Speaker 1: Which doesn't that seem like a homework assignment? All that stuff.
17:55
Speaker 1: It's like, Okay, I appreciate where you're coming from, man,
17:58
Speaker 1: but you've literally given me, like a a flock of
18:01
Speaker 1: creatures to have to deal with. But you know, I
18:03
Speaker 1: guess they've got people to take care of that stuff. Yeah,
18:05
Speaker 1: he's the pope. There'll be things he occasionally looks at,
18:09
Speaker 1: if he looks at them more than once. With strange
18:12
Speaker 1: dogs that really stuck out to me too, I think
18:14
Speaker 1: it's probably it could be, uh, something like a shizu.
18:17
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking initially, for instance, because that
18:20
Speaker 1: would be from China, but it could also be something
18:23
Speaker 1: that's just dog like and maybe not actually a caneid
18:26
Speaker 1: like a hyena for instance, which is not near as
18:30
Speaker 1: related to dogs as they may seem. Or maybe like
18:32
Speaker 1: it's abettan fox, you know what I mean. Foxes are
18:37
Speaker 1: probably best described I didn't write this, but foxes are
18:39
Speaker 1: probably best described as dogs running cats software. So that's
18:44
Speaker 1: that's like a strange dog to look that makes sense,
18:46
Speaker 1: That makes sense. I'm picturing some sort of like innubius,
18:49
Speaker 1: like you know, mutant dog who situation, but who knows.
18:54
Speaker 1: We weren't there, um. But the thing about elephants that
18:56
Speaker 1: was neat is like they weren't you know, it wasn't calm.
19:00
Speaker 1: I mean Italians were aware of elephants, which is a
19:03
Speaker 1: funny thing to say because you know, um, the Great
19:06
Speaker 1: uh War I guess, conquering hero Hannibal across the Alps
19:11
Speaker 1: using elephants outfitted for battle, um and also uh there
19:18
Speaker 1: they were known to have been kept by Roman Um
19:21
Speaker 1: officials like high level consoles and you know, when the
19:24
Speaker 1: empire was flourishing. Yeah, so the it's like something we
19:29
Speaker 1: knew existed if we're Italians in that time but there
19:33
Speaker 1: hasn't been an actual elephant in Europe for people to see,
19:37
Speaker 1: especially in Italy, for centuries. So this is uh the
19:41
Speaker 1: event of the year. Possibly you know the Well caveat
19:46
Speaker 1: because a lot of stuff happened, but this is a
19:48
Speaker 1: huge deal. There was no David Attenborough documentary to depict
19:54
Speaker 1: that elephants in the wild. There were no photographs because
19:58
Speaker 1: the camera wasn't invented in till eighteen thirty nine, so
20:04
Speaker 1: we didn't have any real depictions of these creatures. Additionally,
20:08
Speaker 1: most people didn't known paintings or sculptures. Those are pretty
20:12
Speaker 1: expensive and even if you could buy one, most of
20:14
Speaker 1: the artists or sculptors who would create that art for
20:17
Speaker 1: you had never traveled to Asia or Africa where they
20:21
Speaker 1: might see a live elephants. So what you're what you're
20:23
Speaker 1: seeing when you get these paintings is like this game
20:26
Speaker 1: of telephone that's lasted for centuries and that and that
20:30
Speaker 1: means that most people in Italy at this time have
20:33
Speaker 1: never even seen a picture of an elephant when this
20:36
Speaker 1: gift arrives courtesy of Portugal. So when Manuel brought these
20:43
Speaker 1: elephants back, he was also creating kind of a potential
20:49
Speaker 1: Elephant trade operation who was demanding a tribute of ten
20:52
Speaker 1: elephants each year from his various vassals on the trade route.
20:59
Speaker 1: So he could. So it's not like they hunted down
21:02
Speaker 1: one elephant. He just thought this would be a move.
21:05
Speaker 1: Like that scene in American Psycho when everybody's comparing their
21:08
Speaker 1: business cards, Hanno was his super cool business card. That's
21:13
Speaker 1: a terrible comparison because the thing about that in the
21:16
Speaker 1: film and in the novel is that the business cards
21:19
Speaker 1: are identical and therefore somewhat anonymous. Right. But it's also
21:23
Speaker 1: appropriate then because if I'm not mistaken, the material or
21:27
Speaker 1: the shade of the business card in American Psycho is
21:30
Speaker 1: called bone with a watermark, watermark raised printing with sweating.
21:37
Speaker 1: As he's talking about this, I love when he drops it.
21:39
Speaker 1: You can't see it because we're doing the We're not
21:42
Speaker 1: on your podcast, but okay, maybe we'll watch that one.
21:50
Speaker 1: Hanno is unusual, even amid elephants because of Hanno's pigment,
21:56
Speaker 1: so it is it is still a special gift. Amid
21:58
Speaker 1: special gifts. They run into some logistical problems. Heado is taken,
22:04
Speaker 1: you know, buy ship to this port in Italy and
22:08
Speaker 1: then they have to get him to the papal Palace.
22:10
Speaker 1: And again he's an elephant for some reason. You know,
22:13
Speaker 1: when I when I hear when I hear albino elephant
22:16
Speaker 1: named Hannah, I picture a tiny elephant. And I don't
22:18
Speaker 1: know why that is. I don't think if there is
22:21
Speaker 1: a tiny elephant, they certainly don't stay tiny long. But
22:23
Speaker 1: what would be the rough size of a full grown
22:27
Speaker 1: Indian elephant? Ben uh, The size is gonna be somewhere
22:31
Speaker 1: between six and a half feet to eleven and a
22:35
Speaker 1: half feet from the shoulder height, and they can weigh
22:40
Speaker 1: up to eleven thousand pounds five thousand kilograms. For the
22:43
Speaker 1: rest of the worlds. That's crazy. And how would they
22:48
Speaker 1: even like, how is such a beast on a ship?
22:51
Speaker 1: I would think you would fall right through the floor
22:54
Speaker 1: the deck. Well, he wasn't grown. He was four years old.
22:57
Speaker 1: He was only four years old. Okay, okay, got it.
22:59
Speaker 1: Thank you for for checking me on that them. But
23:02
Speaker 1: it's true. It was kind of like a logistical fiasco
23:07
Speaker 1: making this happen. It was a seventy mile journey from
23:10
Speaker 1: the port of hercules Um to Rome and this is
23:14
Speaker 1: coming from Bedini's fantastic paper. So, like you said, he
23:18
Speaker 1: wasn't a full grown elephant. He arrived um in an
23:21
Speaker 1: Italian port and then would have to be like walked
23:25
Speaker 1: to the you know ship would would house this thing,
23:28
Speaker 1: but even a small one, it's not like you can
23:30
Speaker 1: carry it on a litter or something like that. So
23:32
Speaker 1: they had to like walk it and kind of you
23:34
Speaker 1: know what ended up being a almost ceremonial procession, kind
23:37
Speaker 1: of like a wicker parade. Um. And so he got
23:40
Speaker 1: to Italy from India via Portugal in the winter of
23:45
Speaker 1: fifteen fourteen, and um, he apparently did you know what
23:50
Speaker 1: do they say when elephants fight, only the grass suffers?
23:56
Speaker 1: Did I make that up? How's that? How's that? Especially
23:58
Speaker 1: that that's a here a paraphrase? Yeah, okay, so that's
24:01
Speaker 1: what it is, and that's what has happened. There's a
24:03
Speaker 1: lot of grass suffering. Um. More so, even it was
24:06
Speaker 1: described as leaving a path of destruction in his wake. Um.
24:10
Speaker 1: He obviously wasn't full grown, but he was about four
24:13
Speaker 1: ft tall, um, and you know, pretty plotting animal. And
24:18
Speaker 1: it wasn't a particularly pleasant trip because the Italian you
24:23
Speaker 1: know roads were like really hard and he was very um,
24:30
Speaker 1: you know, painful on his little elephant. And he wasn't
24:34
Speaker 1: the cause of most of the of the destruction, to
24:37
Speaker 1: be absolutely clear, The cause of most of the destruction
24:41
Speaker 1: were the all through human Italians who were like clamoring
24:45
Speaker 1: from all areas to come watch him walk those seventy
24:49
Speaker 1: miles from the Porter Hercules to Rome. Like they were rioting,
24:54
Speaker 1: and they were trampling fields, they were crashing in roofs.
24:58
Speaker 1: When everybody in the village would try to stand up
25:00
Speaker 1: and watch the elephant, and a caravan started following behind him.
25:05
Speaker 1: Every day, this caravan got bigger and bigger and bigger.
25:09
Speaker 1: All socioeconomic status is are involved, like nobles say, hey,
25:14
Speaker 1: let's follow the elephant, Peasants say, hey, let's follow the elephant,
25:18
Speaker 1: and workers are saying the same thing. They want to
25:22
Speaker 1: check this out. The elephant does come accompany with his
25:25
Speaker 1: support staff. They notice there are strangers speaking a language
25:29
Speaker 1: they don't recognize to the elephant and kind of guiding it.
25:34
Speaker 1: And the elephant had to spend the night in places
25:37
Speaker 1: that would keep it secure and hidden away from the curious,
25:43
Speaker 1: and all along the way, like every single day, almost
25:49
Speaker 1: there would be a wealthy Italian nobleman who was like
25:54
Speaker 1: elephant handlers, why don't you just take a quick detour
25:57
Speaker 1: to my castle so I can entertain you and your elephant.
26:01
Speaker 1: And they had to say no because this was an
26:03
Speaker 1: express delivery to the Pope, or at least most times
26:06
Speaker 1: if the detour was too long. Uh. They arrived I
26:10
Speaker 1: think right on time, like they were skirting it. They
26:14
Speaker 1: were rushing in just before the Portuguese ambassador was scheduled
26:18
Speaker 1: to appear before the Pope, and they decked Hanno out
26:23
Speaker 1: like they gave him a catwalk treatment. Boy did they
26:26
Speaker 1: ever again. Back to our friends at Alice Obscura, I
26:29
Speaker 1: just really good turns of phrase, these writers, Uh, adorned
26:33
Speaker 1: with handsome vestments and with a silver tower on his back.
26:36
Speaker 1: A silver tower sounds impressive. Um. And you know that
26:41
Speaker 1: cool trick elephants to where they get down on one
26:43
Speaker 1: knee and like jenuflect like in the Lion King. Uh,
26:47
Speaker 1: he did that when he got to the Pope. They
26:49
Speaker 1: must have taught him that. They that's so cool. And
26:51
Speaker 1: then he lifted back up and blew his little horn
26:54
Speaker 1: trumpet was a trunk trunk trumpet three times like in
27:00
Speaker 1: celebration and then then he does kind of a super
27:03
Speaker 1: soaker thing, you know what I mean. Like, if this
27:06
Speaker 1: elephant had a T shirt gun, he would have been
27:08
Speaker 1: firing it, but instead he sucked water into his trunk
27:11
Speaker 1: and it was just like just just spraying water on
27:15
Speaker 1: everybody in the crowd. Classic elephant move, including the Pope.
27:20
Speaker 1: Now keep in mind, this is a guy who could
27:21
Speaker 1: have people killed for just like not showing him enough deference.
27:27
Speaker 1: And the Pope loves this. Leo the tenth is like, yeah,
27:32
Speaker 1: his little pope hands you know, Oh yeah, he found
27:35
Speaker 1: it absolutely charming. Um. It's a pretty big gamble though,
27:39
Speaker 1: Soaking the Pope. Pope soak Pope soaks are a dangerous games.
27:44
Speaker 1: It's really it's a fine line. Um. How how much
27:47
Speaker 1: is too much? Is the question? And apparently this was
27:49
Speaker 1: just enough because Hanno would go on to become the
27:53
Speaker 1: Pope's favorite pet. But hold the phones, surprise, surprise, We're
27:59
Speaker 1: gonna do it another preemptive two parter. Sorry, guys, you
28:02
Speaker 1: gotta take vacation at some point, you get it. Um,
28:05
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to this story, surprisingly, um, and
28:08
Speaker 1: a lot of really cool history involved in a lot
28:11
Speaker 1: of cute elephant hijinks, a lot of crazy political dealings. Uh,
28:16
Speaker 1: just wait, folks, just wait, it's coming your way next
28:19
Speaker 1: time on Ridiculous History Gold animals who will be mentioned
28:24
Speaker 1: in part two. I also want to be completely honest,
28:28
Speaker 1: it's been very difficult for me to hold off on
28:30
Speaker 1: sharing facts about the cognitive abilities of one of my
28:33
Speaker 1: favorite animals. So maybe we'll get to that as well.
28:37
Speaker 1: In the meantime, let me tell us some of your
28:40
Speaker 1: favorite obscure facts about the Vatican. Uh, some of your
28:44
Speaker 1: favorite weird facts about elephants, or you know, anything that
28:49
Speaker 1: comes to mind. You can find us. We're all over
28:51
Speaker 1: the internet on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, not just
28:55
Speaker 1: as a show, but as individuals. Oh it's true, man.
28:59
Speaker 1: You can find me on Instagram at how now Noel Brown,
29:03
Speaker 1: where you can see me posing with my baby albino
29:07
Speaker 1: elephant that hopefully we'll never grow up. How about you, Ben?
29:10
Speaker 1: Where can they find you? You can find me at
29:13
Speaker 1: Ben Bolan hs W on Twitter. You can also learn
29:17
Speaker 1: more strange adventures at Ben Bolan on Instagram. Do give
29:21
Speaker 1: it a look. Thanks as always to the uh, the
29:27
Speaker 1: Pope of our podcast, our super Pope, do Sir of
29:32
Speaker 1: this podcast casey Pegram, Casey Pokegram. No, it's too far.
29:36
Speaker 1: Let's a step too far, an elephant step too far. Yes,
29:41
Speaker 1: And of course to Alex Williams who composed this banging track. Uh,
29:45
Speaker 1: to Jonathan Strickland, who sends his his love to you
29:50
Speaker 1: ridiculous historians and his just like aggressive disregard to the
29:55
Speaker 1: three of us totally. I think we're due for a
29:57
Speaker 1: drop in pretty soon. Um, but it would be weird
30:00
Speaker 1: to have him on the second part of the two parters,
30:02
Speaker 1: so it'll probably be on the next week's epond. What
30:04
Speaker 1: am I saying? I can't spoil the surprise? Who all
30:07
Speaker 1: love the surprise? Quister visits so much? Um. Yeah. In
30:10
Speaker 1: the meantime, do all those things that we're saying hit
30:13
Speaker 1: us up. You can find our Facebook grew Ridiculous Historians,
30:16
Speaker 1: where memes of plenty are shared. You know, topics are discussed,
30:20
Speaker 1: friendships are made, romances, marriages. There's been a few ridiculous
30:25
Speaker 1: Historian marriages. I can only assume we'll see you next time, folks.
30:35
Speaker 1: For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, visit the I
30:37
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
30:40
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.