In the early 1500s, a rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon as a gift from an Indian ruler to the Portuguese king Manuel. As the first rhino in Europe since Roman times, it caused quite a stir. The German artist Albrecht Durer created a woodcut which was based on the letters and sketches he received about the fabulous new rhinoceros. Durer’s woodcut became THE rhinoceros, and circulated around Europe for the next two hundred years. This is despite its many inaccuracies—scaly legs, armored rivets, a gorget, and, perhaps most puzzlingly, a horn on the creature’s back. Oops!
King Manuel arranged a battle between the rhinoceros and a captive elephant, to test Pliny the Elder’s assertion that those two animals were “natural enemies.” Unfortunately, in a complete anticlimax, the creatures shied away from each other and refused to fight. King Manuel, disappointed, gifted the rhinoceros to the Pope. Great way to cover up his pseudo-scientific experiment’s failure! Sadly, the ship transporting the rhinoceros sank, and the animal drowned before reaching Rome. But the rhino lived on, in Durer’s woodcut.
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