Curious Fear of the Rhinoceros

Before 1515 the last time Europe had seen a Rhinoceros was during the Roman Empire. It was put into the same mythical category as unicorns. In 1515 one arrived in Lisbon as a present from the ruler of Cambay. The Rhinoceros was put into King Manuel's menagerie where he then arranged a fight between it and one of his elephants. He wanted to test an account of Pliny the Elder about how elephants and rhinoceri are bitter enemies. However, during the battle the noise of the crowd startled the rhinoceros and it fled the scene in panic. After this, King Manuel gave the rhinoceros to the Pope for his menagerie. Sadly on the way there the ship containing the rhinoceros was wrecked in a storm and it perished in the depths of the sea.

Although never seeing the rhinoceros, Albrecht Dürer produced a woodcut of the animal from a written account. This representation is a scary interpretation of the animal. It consists of a body made of armor with a scaly texture covering it. Dürer's print was thought to be an accurate representation of the animal up until the 18th century where more rhinoceros were imported to Europe. Scary, huh?