The Popes, the Animals and the role of the Germans
Some popes are at war with animals and consider pets to be a sign of decadence, while they welcome animals on their plates. Leo XIII still hunted birds in the Vatican gardens - for lunch. St Francis called all living creatures his sisters and brothers. In more recent times, Benedict XVI, who famously had a pet cat, followed in this tradition of loving animals.
In 1905, the unsurpassable Paul Maria Baumgarten published "Curiosa aus dem Vatikanischen Archiv" in the Historical Yearbook of the Görres Society. There he wonders where the Cortile del Papagallo in the Papal Palace at the Vatican got its name from.
I quote a few sentences:
'Parrots have been known in Italy since Pliny, and they must have been brought to Germany at the time of the Crusades.
In the Vatican Palace, the courtyard between the Cortile di San Damaso, the Cortile del Maresciallo and the Cortile della Torre Borgia is called the Cortile dei Papagalli, the Courtyard of the Parrots. In some papal palaces in the Papal States, we also find a Sala dei papagalli or del papagallo, names that can undoubtedly be traced back to parrot birds.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, just as in the 19th century under Leo XIII (1878-1903), we occasionally find all kinds of rare animals at the papal court, which had arrived there either from foreign legations or through missionaries, in rare cases also through traders.
Baumgarten then reports that the first parrots probably arrived in the 15th century through missionaries from the Canary Islands, and it was particularly astonishing that the birds could be trained to speak.
In this way, parrots also regularly arrived at the papal court, and it is probably not necessary to explain at length the origin of the names given above.
The earliest authenticated record of a parrot at the Curia dates from the time of Martin V (1417-1431). A German named Johannes is described as the pope's familiare and keeper of the parrot, and the apostolic chamber instructed him to provide the necessary funds for the bird's upkeep:
Johannes Teotonicus familiaris domini nostri pape et custos papagalli is paid the sums due per commestione dicti papagalli.
When Pope Martin V was in Tivoli in the spring of 1424, the parrot was forgotten when he left. A messenger was sent to fetch it:
PS: There is currently a large colony of green parrots in the Vatican Gardens, which are said to have been released into the wild under John XXIII. They also used to hang around the Campo Santo Teutonico when the palm trees with the delicious fruit were still there.
- Details
- Written by: Stefan Heid
- Category: Roman notes