Petrus Gonsalvus,the Hirsute Man

Born in 1556 on Tenerife, he came as a child to the court of the French King Henry II, who had him trained and educated. Later he lived in Flanders at the court of the artistic Margaret of Parma, who was regent of the Netherlands.

His residence in Parma is documented after 1583. Probably Petrus Gonsalvus was married while still in the Netherlands, and he had two (according to other accounts four) children, of whom at least two were also hirsute.

Because of their condition, hirsutism or hypertrichosis universalis, he and his children were popular objects of medical research. On the way to Italy, the hirsute man and his family were examined by the famous Basel doctor Felix Plater. The Bolognese naturalist Ulysses Aldrovandi also examined him and the children.

The results of the examination are preserved in detailed reports. Portraits and descriptions of the life of the hirsute family are also found in the 1582/83 sketchbook of Georg Hoefnagel in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library) in Vienna.

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