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However, the friendship between #Pope and #elephant was short-lived: In June 1516, Hanno fell seriously ill; he could barely breathe and had convulsions. Pope Leo called in his own doctors, who diagnosed angina due to the shortness of breath. The animal was also suffering from constipation, and the doctors decided to treat it with a laxative, which, in accordance with common #earlyModern practice, was enriched with a large amount of gold and administered to the elephant in a high dosage in view of its size. The treatment was ineffective; the animal died on 8 June 1516 and was interred in the Cortile del Belvedere. His skeletal was discovered in 1962 during construction work on the cooling system. In contrary to first assumptions it did not belong to #dinosaur but an elephant.
The Pope himself composed the epitaph: (5/7)
#emdiplomacy #NewDiplomaticHistory #history #histodons #adventCalendar #AdventCalendar2024