This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

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

King Manuel I of Portugal

King Manuel I of Portugal (1469-1521), so-called "the Fortunate," succeeded his cousin João to the throne at the age of 26 and ruled the country in crucial years of its ascendancy, from 1495 until his death. A member of the house of Aviz, Manuel oversaw dramatic expansion of the Portuguese empire due excursions along the coasts of Africa and India, many of which were implicity and/or explicitly connected to the search for Prester John's kingdom.

This page is referenced by:

Francisco Álvares Born near Coimbra, Portugal, Francisco Álvares (1465-1541) was an explorer and missionary who traveled with Diogo Lopes de Sequeira to Ethiopia, serving as chaplain for the King Manoel's Portuguese embassy to Ethiopian Emperor (nəgusä nägäst) Lebna Dengel from 1520-1526.

Most centrally, upon arriving to Ethiopia, Álvares meets Pêro da Covilhã, whose (mis)adventures after 25 years in Ethiopia he records. Of Covilhã, he writes (qtd. in Silverberg, p. 205):
This Pero da Covilha is a man of great wit and intelligence and there is no one else like him at court; he is one who knows all the languages that can be spoken, both of Christians, Moors, Ethiopians, and heathens, and who got to know all the things for which he was sent; he gives an account of them as though he had them present before him. For this reason he is much liked by the Prester and all the court.
The account of his journey, compiled as A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John of the Indies was published in Portugal in 1540 by Luis Rodriguez, shortly after the death of Álvares.

Baldridge's monograph offers a detailed and engaging account of Friar Álvares' journey to Ethiopia along with rich discussion of the legend and the substantial role it played in the ideology, politics, and maritime activity of 16th century Portugal.

Baldridge (p. 16) introduces the journey thusly:
In the spring of 1520 he found himself aboard a ship of his nation preparing to disembark upon a beach in Ethiopia, a kingdom where he, and many other Europeans, believed that Prester John would at last be found alive.
Damião de Góis Born in Alenquer, Portugual, Damião de Góis (1502-1574) was a humanist philosopher and historian. He spent his early years as a page in the court of King Manoel, where he encountered the Ethiopian ambassador Matthew and gained an interest in all matters Ethiopia.

On diplomatic mission to Antwerp in his twenties, Góis acquired and translated into Latin an account of Matthew's journey to Portugal and his interactions with the Portuguese King. This translation was published without Góis's knowledge or permission as Embassy of the Great Emperor of the Indians, Prester John, to Manoel, King of Lusitania [Portugal], now also known as the Legatio.

The Legatio was published in 1532 on the heels of the recent Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia (1520-1526) (led by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira and recorded by Francisco Álvares). As Silverberg (p. 299) points out, Góis's text, which only covered Matthew's journey to Portgual, should have been obselete now that Álvares had returned to Portgual from Ethiopia, but the account of Álvares's journey would not be published for another eight years.

Damião's Legatio was an important early modern source on Ethiopian Christianity, which positioned these Christians (and thus the kingdom of Prester John) as schismatic heretics in need of conversion. The account was quickly translated into English by John More.
Pope Leo X's Letter to King Manuel I of Portugal In this letter from Pope Leo X (1513-1521) to Portuguese King Manuel I, written in the last year of the pope's life, Leo discusses "the Things done on the Red Sea, and... [the possibility of] entering into a treaty woth Prester John, the most powerful of Ethiopia' (qtd. in Brewer, p. 287).
Titles of Honor Written by John Selden, Titles of Honor is a large work covering peerage law, heraldry and genealogy. Selden discusses the etymology of Prester John.

From EEBO:
Out of Europe wee come into Afrique and Asia where also, the Grand Signior, notwithstanding his Court and residence at Constantinople is fittest to be placed. But first, of that Ethiopian Emperor or Prince of the Abyssins, which is commonly titled Prester John, and, in Latine, Presbyter Ioannes, as if it were Priest John. But, by testimonie of Zaga Zabo an Ethiopian Embassador to the last Emanuel K. of Portugal, the name is corrupted from Precious Gian. For his Ethiopique thus expresses it. *〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 i. Gian Belul, quod sonat (saith the translation publisht by Damian à Goes) Io∣annes Belul, hoc est Ioannes preciosus, siue altus; Et in Page 76 Chaldaica lingua, Ioannes Encoe: id, si interpreteris, etiam Ioannis Preciosi siue alti significatum habet, so that Gian Belul is of their true Ethiopian tongue, which they vse in common speech, not that which is spoken and writen in their Liturgies and holy exercises, and known, mongst them, by the name of Chaldè; but, more specially, stiled *Giaein i. Libertie, quod nimirùm (as the noble Scaliger yeelds the reason) eâ solâ vte∣rentur Arabes illi victores, qui Aethiopiam insiderunt. For he most learnedly (as in all things els) deriues them thither from the Abasens in Arabia, whence Sept. Seue∣rus had his denomination of Arabicus, as in one of his i Coins appears, inscribd with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of whom mention is made by Vranius, an old author of Arabique affairs, placing them in Arabia foelix, which happily salues their deriuing themselues from Melech son to Salomon (as they fable) by lMaqueda the Queen of the South. For, where *Saba is, were those Abassenes, whence the Latines haue their Sabaei and Tura Sabaea. Thus, mee thinks, those things concurre as it were to make vp on both sides that truth, at which learned men haue been very purblind. And, by likelyhood how should they fitter haue a speciall tongue for their wri∣tings and holy ceremonies vtterly differing from their vulgar, then by being transplanted out of some other Nation, and bringing it thither with them? there bee∣ing in it also a mixture of Ebrew, Chaldê, & Arabique; but it is, by them, calld Chaldè, whereupon Zaga Za∣bo saith that Helen one of their Empresses wrote two books of Diuinitie in Chaldé, and tells vs furthermore that their Prince is not properly stiled Emperor of the Abassins but of the Ethiopians. The Arabians cal them mElhabasen from the same reason, as we Abassins; but they are known to themselues only by the name of Ithiopiawians. Of this Belul Gian, is made that Beldigi∣an, by which, Luis de Vretta a Spanish Frier saies, they Page 77 call their Emperor. But Bodin notes in his margine to his 1. de Rep. cap. IX. that his name is Iochabellul i. gem∣ma pretiosa, as he saies. I cannot but preferre the testi∣mony of Zaga Zabo an Ethiopian Priest, which in this could not deceiue. But plainly as the name of Pres∣byter Ioannes is idly applied to him, so it had its cause vpon another mistaking. For, in the trauails of such as first discouerd to any purpose those Eastern States (as they were of later time) is mention n made of one Vncham or Vnchan a great Monarch in those parts where now the G•eat Cham or Chan of Cathay hath his Dominion; and him, they call Presbyter Ioan∣nes; and write that one Cinchis, whom they fained to haue been begotten on a poore widow by the Sunne beames, as chosen King among the Tartars rebelling a∣gainst this Vncham, ouercame him; and, from this Cin∣chis the Tartarian Monarchie hath its originall. And some more particulars of it you haue in the life of S. Lewes of France, written by De Ionuille, a noble Baron of France, that was with him in the holy warres. Hee calls him in his French Prebstre Iehan. This relation is of about M. C. XC. and hath made the readers con∣found the corrupted names of both Princes, twixt whom, too great distance was to haue the one deriud from the other. And some o trauellers into those parts, haue expressely deliuerd them both as one. But the Diuine Scaliger teaches, that, the Asiatique Vncham and his predecessors were calld 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉Prestigiani, that is, in Persian, Apostolique, and so had the name of Padescha Prestigiani, i. Apostolique King, because of his Religion (being a Kind of Christian, as Beldigian is al∣so) which, in Ethiopique-Chaldé must be exprest by Ne∣gush Chawariawi. Doubtles the community of sound twixt Prestigiani, Presbyter, and Precious Gian was a great cause of this error, which, vntill the Portugalls further acquaintance with the Ethiopians, alwayes pos∣sest Page 88 Europe. But I wonder how the learned Mun∣ster was so much in this matter deceiud, that hee sup∣poses the Ebrew Epistle printed in his Cosmographie, beginning 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 i. Ego Pristijuan, to be as sent from the Ethiopian Emperor; especially sith hee took notice of both the Asiatique and African Prince abusd in the name of Presbyter Ioannes. The Prestigians affirming in it, that Thomas the Apostle was buried in his country, makes plain enough that it came from the Eastern parts, if not counterfeited. The title likewise is much differing from what the Beldigian vses I will onely adde one example out of Beldigian Dauid his Letters to p Pope Clement VII. in Latine thus: In Nomine Dei &c. Has literas is ego Rex mitto, cuius nomen Leones Venerantur & Dei gratia vo∣cor Athani Tinghil (that is, the Frankincense of the Virgin) Filius Regis Dauid, filius Solemonis, filius de ma∣nu Mariae, Filius Nau per carnem, filius Sanctorum Pe∣tri & Pauli per gratiam, Pax sit tibi iuste Domine, &c. The like is in diuers Letters thence to the Kings of Portugall. But, for that name of Cham in the Tartari∣an Empire, it signifies Lord or Prince, and that Cinchis, or Cangius, Cingis, or Tzingis (for by these names he is known) was calld Cinchis Cham his sonne and succes∣sor Hoccota Cham, or rather Chahan or Chan; although a q Polonian, which seemd to haue much knowledge in that his neighboring country, long since deliuerd thus: Imperator eorum (Tartarorum)