The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries

Chronica Majorica

According to Brewer (p. 277), Matthew Paris' chronicle

mentions Prester John several times but not in any major capacity. He includes the letter of Alexander III (vol. 2, p. 316), and the letter or Philip the Franciscan declaring Prester John's land to be a Nestorian land (vol. 3, p. 398); he says, based on knowledge from the mission of Andrew of Longjumeau, that Prester John was slain by the Mongols, whose king took his daughter to wire (vol. 6, p. 115). He also says that a monk of Prester John's (an Ethiopian mission?) exhorted Frederick II and the Pope to make peace, so that a united Europe will have a stronger chance of defeating the Mongol threat (vol. 6, p. lIS). He then describes the eating habits of this monk and says that he lived 17 days' march beyond Ninive (vol. 6, p. 116).


For the text, see Henry Richards Luard, ed., Matthaei Parisiensis, Monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica Majora (London, RS, 1882), 7 vols. No translation known.

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