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

Jodocus Hondius

Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) was a Flemish cartographer, famous for his maps of Europe and the New World.

Jump to his 1606 map of Prester John's empire.

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Map 5.1 : Author Origin and Travels

Please click on the individual points on the map to see detailed information on Author Origins and Author Travel.
Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465-1530)

Francisco Álvares (1465-1540)

Joao de Castro (1500-1548)

Damião de Góis (1502-1574)

John More (1509-1547)
William Waterman
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594)

Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598)
Richard Hakluyt
Edward Webbe
Duarte Lopes
Filippo Pigafetta
Jan Huyghen van Linschoten
George Abbot
William Shakespeare

Christopher Marlowe
Richard Johnson (1573-1659)

Benedict Goes
Father Fernão Guerreiro
Jodocus Hondius
Luis de Urreta
Father Nicolau Godinho (Nicholas Godigno)
Samuel Purchas
Manuel de Almeida
Tirso de Molina (Gabriel Téllez)
Nicolas Visscher
Peter Heylin
Balthazar Tellez
Hiob Ludolf
Philippe Avril
Marko of the Topozersky Monastery

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Mercator Map (1628) This map, created by Gerardus Mercator, grandson to the Gerardus Mercator who in 1569 created the map more likely to be called the "Mercator Map," follows the tradition of his grandfather by placing a white European looking Prester John in Africa. Both Mercator maps were not well known until they were made more popular by fellow Flemish cartographer Jodocus Hondius.

As Brooks explains (p. 202),
His 1628 map of Africa included an illustrated depiction of the seemingly ageless Prester John; in this scanned image, one can observe that the passing of almost six decades between grandfather and grandson resulted in few changes to the ways in which Prester John had been imagined by European cartographers.

The 1628 Mercator map again depicts a seated Prester John with a cross, and the mythical potentate still faces east. The priest-king in this image wears a flowing royal robe instead of what appears to be a mandilion on Prester John in the 1569 map. On the head of Prester John is a more elabroate crown in the 1628 image, implying at least a sense of continuity in the perceived importance heldy by the illustrator twoard the priest-king in continental and regional affairs. Both Mercator maps... provided a prominent place for the kingdom of Prester John. While some Europeans in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries had begun the process of moving away from a strong belief in the power and wealth of Prester John, clearly the notion of this mighty priest-king remained a source of fascination for many learned Europeans, and the Mercator maps serve as evidence of this continued allure. Yet despite his innovative techniques, Gerardus Mercator and his work remained relatively unknown beyond a small circle of geographical and cartographical experts, and it would take the efforts of another Flemish cartographer to bring Mercator's projections to a wider audience.