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

Crusader County of Edessa

The County of Edessa was the first Crusader territory established in the aftermath of the First Crusade. Its seat was the ancient city Edessa. Located in upper Mesopotamia in what is now Turkey, Edessa was considered something of a "gateway to the East" during the Middle Ages.

European interest in Edessa increased during the twelfth century, which is curious considering that the city was both a hotbed of Nestorianism (a Nestorian theological school flourished in Edessa until 489) and one of the reputed resting places of the Apostle Thomas. In other words, there appear to have been clear links between Edessa and the legend of Prester John.

The 1144 fall of the County of Edessa from Christian control precipitated the Second Crusade and portended a wider loss of control in the area that would take place across the next fifty years. The following year, Otto of Freising reported rumors of a distant eastern priest king intending to make his way westward.

Through two twelfth-century narratives insisting on Christian miracles in the city of Edessa, writers establish Edessa not only as a magical place worth defending, but as a naturally Christian locale. By way of his associations with Thomas, Prester John, in turn, offers support to those worried about the loss of Edessa.

Given that the Prester John legend arose, in part, out of news that Edessa had fallen, it should not be surprising that this association persists well into the fourteenth century. Johannes Witte de Hese, whose fanciful “travels” recall those of the more famous John Mandeville, even names Edessa as the city that houses the infamous kingdom of Prester John.

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Itinerarius
Itinerarius (c. 1389-1424)

Johannes Witte de Hese, whose fanciful “travels” recall those of the more famous John Mandeville, relates a tale of eastern travel more concerned with engaging and entertaining his audience than with the sober reporting of observations and/or historical fact.

The purported author appears to be an invented persona, á la Mandeville; the only clue given about the author's true identity is the frequent reference to Cologne. This popular text circulated in manuscript form until it was first printed in 1489. At that point it became popularly bound with Prester John chapbooks.

As the Itinerarius's modern editor and translator Scott Westrem observes (p. xi), "the Itinerarius belongs to a group... of texts [that] share a covacbulary that includes common verbs of motion, concrete nouns, and superlative adjectives; a style that combines autobiographical details about travel with ethnographic, political, and mercantile observations; and a perspective that reflects authorial attempts to achieve some comprehension of what has been at times a literally alienating experience."

Given that he claims to have actually successfully traveled to the terrestrial paradise, Silverberg (p. 221) notes that in this respect, Johannes accomplishes the feat of "out-Mandevilling Mandeville."

In the Itinerarius Johannes names Edessa as the city that houses the infamous kingdom of Prester John.

From Westrem’s English translation of Johannes Witte de Hese's Itinerarius:
And sailing farther for fourteen days, one comes to the city of Edissa where Prester John lives. And this city is the capital of his entire realm, and it is located in Upper India at the end of the inhabited earth. And this city is more than twenty-four times the size of the city of Cologne.

And the residence of Prester John is located in the center of the city. And it is a good two German miles long and the same in width as well, for it is square. And it stands atop columns, of which there are said to be nine hundred. And the central column is larger than the others, and at this [column] four large giants have been made out of precious stones and gilded; they stand with bowed heads beneath the palace as if they were supporting the whole palace. And at certain other columns images have been made as well: at one the image of a king and at another the image of a queen, holding baubles and golden goblets in their hands. That is to say, when the image of the king has the babule in its hands, the image of the queen has the golden goblet in its hands taking a drink, and so back and forth. And these images are made of precious stones and gilded….

[The account of Prester John’s kingdom goes on for another 220 lines]
Acts of Thomas Originally composed in Syriac in the third century, The Acts of Thomas described the missionary travels of Jesus' apostle Thomas east of Europe into India. Since the text circulated fairly widely in the Middle Ages (having been translated twice into Latin in the 6th century), it became one of the central texts to familiarize European readers with the existence of a place called India.

In addition to introducing readers to India, The Acts of Thomas helped inaugurate a strange controversy—one which resurfaced around the time of the Prester John legend—concerning the location of Thomas' tomb. It appears that some traditions insisted that Thomas' bones rested in India, while others asserted that his remains were carried west to Edessa. It was even thought that Thomas rested simultaneously in Edessa and India, a theory circulating as early as the fourth century, perhaps beginning with the Syrian theologian St. Ephraim.

Both Latin translations of The Acts of Thomas identify the city of Edessa as the final burial place of Thomas. The Acts (p.152) states
“they brought goodly garments and many linen cloths, and buried [Thomas] Judas in the sepulcher in which the ancient kings were buried." Later, however, when certain villagers go to Thomas’ tomb, the text claims “[they] did not find the bones, for one of the brethren had taken them away secretly and conveyed them to the West” (p.153).

The resting place of the tomb of the Apostle Thomas reappears as a discussion point in a number of twelfth century texts, including the Letter of Prester John. The renewed interest was timely. While Edessa had long displayed the relics of St. Thomas, the mid-twelfth century Seljuk incursion persuaded city leaders to temporarily transfer Thomas' remains to the Aegean island of Chios. In 1258, moved further west to their current resting place: the town of Ortona in central Italy.

Given Thomas as a figure of interest in both eastern and western Christianities, not to mention his association with Edessa, a city connected to the legend, it makes sense that the tomb of St. Thomas should become part of Prester John's domain. Later interpolations of the Letter even integrate the scene from the Acts in which Thomas constructs an ethereal palace for King Gundafor.
El Libro del Infante Dom Pedro
One of the most popular fictional narratives of the sixteenth century to feature Prester John, this highly romanticized account of the life and adventures of the Infante Dom Pedro, brother to Henry the Navigator, positions Dom Pedro as the mythic hero of Portugal's Age of Exploration. Silverberg (p. 231) calls this text "the last of the great Prester John tales."

While its author remains unknown, the book was originally printed in 1515 in Seville, though there is evidence to suggest that manuscript editions of the text circulated for some decades before. The text went through hundreds of editions from the sixteenth into the eighteenth century from Spanish and Portuguese presses.

The book is attributed to a man called Gómez de Santisteban, "one of the twelve that traveled with said prince." Given the Mandevillian tenor of the "travels" described within the book, it should not be presumed that this man was the book's actual author, though it is certainly possible.

The narrative takes Dom Pedro and his polyglot authorial companion from Castile to Norway to the Holy Land to Egypt, Arabia, and Mecca (where they witness Muhammad's floating coffin, a 12th century trope that parallels similar tales of St. Thomas). From there, the itinerary takes a more imaginative turn to the land of the Amazons, the home of Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and a land of giants called Luca, all of which are subject to the sovereignty of Prester John. Finally, they reach the city of Alves (also called 'Edicia'), the domain of Prester John himself, where Dom Pedro presents the priest king with a letter from the King of Castile.

From there, more familiar tropes from the Letter of Prester John are discussed, including the important link to St. Thomas. Here it is also made clear that Prester John is more of a title than an individual with new Prester Johns divinely chosen through a miracle performed by St. Thomas.

As the travelers ready themselves to return homeward, Prester John gives them a Letter to share with European Christians (a reduced form of the 'original' twelfth-century Letter), which the companions heroically carry back to Europe.

From Silverberg (226-7):
Pedro’s active career and tragic end stirred the European imagination: to those outside Portugal, knowing no details of the domestic political struggle, his downfall seemed like the toppling of a mythic hero, and swiftly the mythmaking began. His deeds were rehearsed by historians, they were dramatized by poets, and they passed into the oral tradition as folk legends. The aspect of Dom Pedro’s life that received the greatest embellishment was his grand tour of 1425-28, which became not merely a conventional trot through the capitals of Europe but, in some retellings, a splendid journey to the ends of the earth. The Book of the Infante Dom Pedro was the climactic work of this group.
...

The world of the Book of the Infante Dom Pedro is the familiar medieval fantasy world already well explored in the fancies of such writers as Mandeville. Beyond Christendom lies the Moslem world, and on the far side of that is a world of fables, inhabited by Amazons, the Lost Tribes of Israel, and Prester John… All the remote lands save Eden itself are under the sovereignty of Prester John, who here is as much a figure of legend as he ever was in the twelfth or thirteenth century. The author’s intent seems utopian and ecumenical; he implicitly criticizes the disunified world of Latin Christendom by showing the ideal community of Prester John’s land, where command of church and state is united in the person of the same benevolent autarch, and Christian justice and harmony are universally prevalent.
Read the account in English.
Fall of Edessa The Crusader county of Edessa, established in 1099, was the first of the feudal states obtained by crusaders during the first Crusade. In 1144, it became the first Crusader state to fall when Imad ad-din Zengi of Mosul overtook the territory in the Siege of Edessa.

The moment was catastrophic enough to the crusading psyche to catalyze the preaching of the Second Crusade.
Acts of Thomas This passage derives from the Acts of Thomas the Apostle, an apocryphal New Testament text composed in Syriac sometime around the third century AD. This text was widely available in Europe until the early twelfth century, when two Latin translations began to circulate.

The Latin version of the Acts of Thomas, which evolved into two more popular treatises, De miraculis Beati Thomae and the Passio Sancti Thomae, both explicitly identify the city of Edessa as the final burial place of Thomas. It was even thought that Thomas rested simultaneously in Edessa and India. The original third-century Syrian Acts of Thomas supports both locations. Initially, the text states “they brought goodly garments and many linen cloths, and buried [Thomas] Judas in the sepulcher in which the ancient kings were buried” (152) Later, however, when certain villagers go to Thomas’ tomb, the text claims “[they] did not find the bones, for one of the brethren had taken them away secretly and conveyed them to the West” (153).

Manuscript copy of the Acts of Thomas in a Martyrology
The Elyseus Narrative Composed anonymously in the late twelfth century, this short text describes the legend of an Indian-born priest who travels to the court of Prester John. Some of the material appears to be borrowed from the de Adventu (or at least suggests its influence).

Both texts share a preoccupation with the Apostle Thomas, though the Elyseus narrative places the miracles associated with this figure in a curious (and highly relevant) locale: Edessa.

The Elyseus narrative situates the miracles of St. Thomas on a mountain just outside of this recently lost Crusader county. Edessa was regarded as an important locale, both for its Christian population and for its strategic location as a Christian gateway to the East. Edessa had also been historically considered a hotbed of Nestorianism, Prester John’s reputed faith, ever since the School of Edessa’s support of Nestorius in the fifth century. While Jerusalem might be the center of the Christian world, Edessa, the first crusader state to be established and also the first to be lost, figures as the first success in the expansion of the boundaries of a Latin Christian empire. Whatever inspired the timely conjunction that brought Edessa and Prester John’s India together suggests that reports of the events within these locales might have been circulating more closely than their geographies might otherwise indicate.

The account of Elyseus is notable also for its depiction of the Earthly Paradise, which is said here to exist on top of four mountains in India, suggesting a possible source for those who sought Prester John in Tibet.

As Brewer (p. 274) notes, the text is known in only one manuscript, edited by Zarncke (p. 122-27). There is no known English translation.

This page references:

Edessa in the Twelfth Century