Mercator World Map of 1569
An early attempt to depict a cylindrical model of the globe, Gerardus Mercator's 1569 map depicts an African kingdom of Prester John. Notably Prester John, the only ruler Mercator illustrates on the African continent, is here depicted in the style of a European king.
Brooks describes Mercator's Prester John kingdom on the upper Nile river (p. 201):
Mercator's Prester John is depicted by the mapmaker as seated on a royal throne and holding up a cross, symbolizing his dual role as temporal and spiritual leader of his empire. The inscription readers 'Prete Giam magnus imperator Abbissini'... Mercator imagined the kingdom of Prester John as being centered on the upper Nile River, evoking earlier traditions of the mighty priest-king possessing the power to regulate or shut off the flow of the life-giving Nile.
Mercator's grandson, who shared the name of this grandfather, depicts Prester John in much the same way some half-century later, in 1628.
View the map, courtesy of the National Library of Australia.
