Pedro Gonsalvus

Pedro Gonsalvus

Pedro Gonsalvus , Pedro Gonzales or Petrus Gonsalvus (* uncertain: 1537 in Tenerife , † around 1618 in Capodimonte ) was the first known case of hypertrichosis .

Life

Pedro Gonsalvus was known as a " wolf man " or "ape man" because he had abnormal hair growth due to the rare disease hypertrichosis. Its extremely rare form of hypertrichosis is called Ambras syndrome .

Because of this special quality, he came to the court of the French King Henry II at the age of 10 , where he was initially kept in the house as a monkey and only paid attention to him as an adolescent.

Petrus Gonsalvus and Catherine.

Pedro, who is said to have even spoken Latin, was later married to Catherine Raffelin , who had no abnormal body hair. She gave birth to seven children, four of whom had inherited their father's disease, including his daughter Tognina . Heinrich made part of the Fontainebleau park available to the family to provide them with a natural environment and protection.

They regularly took part in public events where they always wore courtly robes. Later around 1580 to 1590 the family moved to Italy, possibly to the court of Margaret of Parma . Despite the noble life that Pedro led, he and his hypertrichotic children were not regarded by their contemporaries as fully fledged people. The last known record of him came from the year 1617 of the baptism of his grandson, after which his trace is lost. Pedro may have died in 1618.

literature

• Roberto Zapperi : The wild man of Tenerife. The miraculous story of Pedro Gonzalez and his children . CH Beck, Munich 2004.