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• 1 2015-06-18T14:51:56-07:00 The Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms 5 image_header 2024-01-02T17:04:41-08:00

  Libro del conosçimiento de todos los reinos y tierras y señoríos que son por el mundo, et de las señales et armas que han cada tierra y señorío por sy y de los reyes y señores que los proueen (1385)
  
  This anonymous (and presumably imaginary) travelogue describes the adventures of a Castilian friar as he treks the known world. Although no author has been confidently identified, the book itself states that its author was born in Castile in 1305. 
  
  This traveler searches out Prester John in the imaginary city of Malsa, but never meets the legendary priest-king. Marino, in her translation, relates the following about the traveler’s encounters with kingdom of Prester John:

  And I reached a great city they call Graciona, which is the capital of the empire of Abdeselib, which means "servant of the cross." And this Abdeselib is the defender of the Church of Nubia and of Etiopia, and he defends Prester John, who is the Patriarch of Nubia and of Etiopia and governs many great lands and many cities of Christians. But they are as black as pitch and they burn themselves with fire on their foreheads with the sign of the cross in recognition of their baptism. And although these people are black, they are men of good understanding and good mind, and they have knowledge and science; and they have a land that is very abundant in all things because there are many and very good waters that come from the Antarctic Pole where they say Earthly Paradise is.” (61)
  
  “I traveled through many lands and cities and reached the city of Malsa, where Prester John, the Patriarch of Nubian and of Etiopia, always resides. On my way I always kept to the shore of the River Eufrates, which is a very inhabited and abundant land. And when I arrived in Malsa I stayed there for a time because I saw and heard marvelous things every day. And I asked what Earthly Paradise was, and what they said about it. And some wise men told me that it was some very high mountains that border on the circle of the Moon and that not every man could see them, since of twenty men who might go, only three of them would see it, and they never heard of any man climbing them… And they told me that these mountains were completely surrounded by seas deep with water that descends from them, from which flow four very large rivers that are the greatest in the world, which they call Tigris, Eufrates, Gion, and Ficxion. And these four rivers irrigate all of Nubia and Etiopia, and the waters of the aforementioned mountains that descend make such a great noise, that the sound can be heard two-days’ journey away… And they told me many other secrets of the virtues of the stars, concerning predictions as well as magic, and also the virtues of the herbs and plants and minerals. And I saw there marvellous things. And the Greeks call this place Orthodoxis, and the Hebrews call it Ganheden, and the Latins Paraiso Terrenal because it is always a wonderful temperature there. And the insignia of Prester John is a silver flag with a black cross, and on both sides two crooks in this manner, because in the land of Nubia and Etiopia there are two emperors: one is the Emperor of Graconia and the other is the Emperor of Magdasor” (61, 63, 65)