Letters of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira
Carta das novas que vierama el Rey nosso Senhor do descrobimento do Preste Joham (1521)
Published in Lisbon by Germao Galhard in 1521, the Carta narrates the Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia from 1520-1526. The Letters narrate Diogo Lopes de Sequeira's attempt to secure an alliance between the Portuguese crown and the Abyssinian king, Lebna Dengel, the proposed ruler of the land of Prester John. As Blackburn (p. 41) notes, this document, which survives in one copy, is considered the first printed text to suggest the existence of the land of Prester John.
The impact of Sequeira's Letter was overshadowed by the more substantial treatise of Francisco Alvares, a priest who accompanied Sequeira. Alvarez's A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John, published around 1527, became one of central texts for sixteenth-century Prester John lore.
For more on the text, see Thomas.
Published in Lisbon by Germao Galhard in 1521, the Carta narrates the Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia from 1520-1526. The Letters narrate Diogo Lopes de Sequeira's attempt to secure an alliance between the Portuguese crown and the Abyssinian king, Lebna Dengel, the proposed ruler of the land of Prester John. As Blackburn (p. 41) notes, this document, which survives in one copy, is considered the first printed text to suggest the existence of the land of Prester John.
The impact of Sequeira's Letter was overshadowed by the more substantial treatise of Francisco Alvares, a priest who accompanied Sequeira. Alvarez's A True Relation of the Lands of Prester John, published around 1527, became one of central texts for sixteenth-century Prester John lore.
For more on the text, see Thomas.