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

Luis Rodriguez

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A True Relation of the Lands of the Prester John of the Indies
Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias (1527-1540)

This account of the journey of Portuguese missionary and explorer Francisco Álvares (1465-1541) to Ethiopia beginning in 1520, finished in 1527 and published in Lisbon by Luís Rodrigues in 1540, became one of the most widely read Prester John texts. By the end of the sixteenth century, was translated into Italian, French, German, and Spanish.

Here Prester John is treated as the very historical and very mortal king of Abyssinia. Very little of the mythological character of the legend infiltrates the account of Father Álvares. In this rather dry treatise, Álvares narrates the travels of Diogo Lopes de Sequeira and his retinue to present-day Ethiopia. He also includes the then-authoritative account of the travels of Pêro da Covilhã whom Álvares met in Ethiopia.

Interestingly, the text does not describe Prester John as a figure to be discovered, but rather presumes that the partiarch they meet is Prester John. Brewer (p. 21) notes that Álvares' inclusion of a definite article in his title (the Prester John) reflects the burgeoning trend of understanding Prester John as itself a title. In other words, there is little mystery surrounding Prester John here: he is simply (and obviously) the patriarch of a land that these travelers intended purposefully to visit.

Nonetheless, this contact between Portugal and Abyssinia was very important diplomatically, politically, and religiously for the involved parties. Later, Álvares discusses his desire to present the letters from Prester John to Pope Clement VII, to whom he describes the Ethiopian king as "the most serene and powerful lord David, king of the great and high Ethiopia, by the masses called Prester John" (qtd. in Silverberg, 316).

This account influenced later writers interested in Prester John, including Damião de Góis, Richard Hakluyt, and Samuel Purchas. It is also recorded that Samuel Johnson used Álvares (through the translation of Samuel Purchas) to create his Rasselas.

The account was translated into English for the Hakluyt Society in 1876 by Lord Stanley of Alderley as Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Abyssinia During the Years 1520-1527.