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

Era One Map: Author Origins, Text Origins, Author Travel



The map above plots these early beginnings of the legend. 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.

Eusebius of Caesarea Historia Ecclesiastica

Sefer Eldad Book of Eldad

Anonymous De adventu patriarchae Indorum ad Urbem sub Calixto papa secundo [On the Arrival of the Partriarch of the Indians to Rome under Pope Calixtus II]

Odo of Rheims Letter to "Count Thomas" [Domni Oddonis Abbatis S. Remigii Epistola ad Thomam comitem de quodam miraculo S. Thomae Apostoli]

Benjamin of Tudela The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela [Masa'ot Binyamin] [1164-73]

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

Anonymous The Letter of Prester John (c. 1165)

Pope Alexander III Letter to Prester John (1177)

Wolfram von  Eschenbach Parzival (1197-1215)

Jacques de Vitry History of the deeds of David, King of the Indies [Historia Gestorum David regis Indorum]

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  1. Era One: 1122-1220 AD Christopher Taylor // christopher.eric.taylor@gmail.com