![]() ![]() The fame of the rhino is such that its coming even made a noise in the Spanish, French and Italian regions. In the royal menagerie of Manuel 1st, the perissodactyl attracts curious onlookers who come to look at the beast named Ulysse. No specimen of this kind had set foot in the old Europe for over twelve centuries and the time of the Roman games. ![]() May 20, 1515, the Nossa Senhora da Ajuda ship docked on the banks of Belém in Lisbon and the landing of the rhino undoubtedly made the biggest impression. Thus in January 1515, Alfonso de Albuquerque, governor of Portuguese India in Goa, is embarking towards Lisbon among ivory furniture and other prestigious gifts, a rhinoceros, royal gift of Muzaffar Shah II, Sultan of Cambay. The exchanges between representatives of Portuguese monarchy and Indian sultans then become commonplace to resolve conflicts, seal agreements or flatter elites. With its full facade on the Atlantic Ocean, the Portugal and its browsers children, Vasco da Gama in mind, bypass the Cape of Good Hope to set foot on the Indian sand in 1498. Woodcut from around 1515, the Rhinoceros of Albrecht Dürer became a naturalist illustration icon, inspiring many artists until beginning of the twentieth century.From Goa to LisbonIn the heart of the sixteenth century, while trade and merchant ships master seas and oceans, it is extremely common to see these wedges filled with plants, spices and exotic animals to satisfy the curiosity of Europe. Image details from the RRC Image Gallery: ![]()
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