Medieval Animals
You're Dead to Me
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What Kind of Beastes Are They Keeping in Their Menageries?
In the ninth century, we have the frankish emperor charlemagne is gifted an elephant named abulabas by the caliph of bagdad. Charlemagne also kept bears, camels, lions, monkeys and rare birds. The french kings also had a private menagerie. And charles the fifth even added ponds for his aquatic animals, including a porpoise. In the nunneries, they were deemed to be adno, a nuisance. So in fact, you actually have archbishops regularly having to issue bands to nuns from keeping dogs in the thirteenth century.
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