The white elephant given to Pope Leo X in 1514 was named Hanno.
Hanno was an Asian elephant presented by King Manuel I of Portugal during the diplomatic mission surrounding Leo X’s accession. He arrived in Rome in 1514 with the Portuguese ambassador Tristão da Cunha and quickly became the pope’s favourite animal.
The elephant was kept first near the Belvedere and later in a specially built Vatican enclosure. His arrival caused a sensation, and artists recorded him, including Raphael, whose sketches helped make Hanno one of the best-known elephants of Renaissance Europe. The pope even refused a request to lend him to Florence, worrying that the journey would harm the animal’s feet.
Hanno died in Rome on 8 June 1516, after treatment for constipation involving a gold-enriched laxative. His story is sometimes confused with Abul-Abbas, another famous elephant who reached Europe centuries earlier, or with Surus, the elephant associated with Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps.