The Popes Rhinoceros

The Portuguese are to send the Pope a rhinoceros from India as a gift. As fate would have it, the ship and the rhinoceros sink. What a disaster! What is to happen? Lawrence Norfolk tells a story about the decadence of the time. Why a rhinoceros for the Pope? Was the rhinoceros's demise a reflection of the excessive willingness to give gifts to one another? This is precisely what Lawrence Norfolk reflects in his wonderful book. The rhinoceros symbolizes what people in their power wanted to represent.