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

Map 1.1: Author Origins and Travels; Textual Imaginings

Map 1.1 plots the beginnings of the legend of Prester John. This first era is defined as the period that begins the legend through the events of the Fifth Crusade, an event which solidified the real historical repercussions engendered by the belief in the western arrival of Prester John.
 
Even within the first fifty years of the legend one can see the beginnings of a global phenomenon. Although a product of German political tensions, the legend spread within Europe and into the Levant by the first quarter of the thirteenth century. 

 
On this page, readers are encouraged to explore the beginnings of the Prester John legend. By clicking on the points on the map, the reader can learn more about that particular author or text. For an overview of how to use the maps, click here. 
 
Below is a list of all authors and texts featured on this map. 
 
Click to learn more about an author or click on any text read relevant excerpts and to learn more about how these narratives contribute to the legend of Prester John.
 
Anonymous -  On the Arrival of the Partriarch of the Indians to Rome under Pope Calixtus II (1122) 

Odo of Rheims - Letter to "Count Thomas" (1120s) 

Otto of Freising - The Two Cities, A Chronicle of Universal History to 1146 (1157)

Benjamin of Tudela - The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela  (c. 1164-1173)

Anonymous - The Letter of Prester John (c. 1165-1170)

Richard of Poitiers, Chronica Richardi Pictauiensis (1171)*

Pope Alexander III - Letter to Prester John (1177)

Geoffrey of Breuil - Chronica (c. 1181)*

Roger of Howden - Gesta Regis Henrici II et Ricardi I  (late 12th century)*

Gerald of Wales - De Vita Galfridi Archiepiscopi Eboracensis (late 12th century)*

Anonymous - Annales Colonienses Maximi  (late 12th century)*

Anonymous - Flores Historiarum (late 12th century)*

Anonymous - The Elyseus Narrative (late 12th century)*

Anonymous - Continuatio Admontensis (late 12th / early 13th century)*

Wolfram von  Eschenbach - Parzival (early 13th century) 

Jacques de Vitry - Letter II (1217)*

Jacques de Vitry - History of the deeds of David, King of the Indies (1220/1221)

Book of Clement ( )*

Pope Honorius III - Epistola (1221)*

Jacques de Vitry - Letter VII (1221)*

Annales de Dunstaplia (c. 1221)*

Ralph of Coggeshall - Chronicon Anglicanum (before 1224)*

Anonymous - Chronicon Sancti Martini Turonensis (1225)*

Anonymous - Annales Pegavienses (before 1227)*

Oliver of Paderborn - History of Damietta (late 1220s)*

Richard of San Germano - Chronica (before 1235)*

*not yet on map
 
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