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The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries Main Menu Orientation to Project Path One: 1122-1235 Path Two: 1236-1310 AD Path Three : 1311-1460 AD Path Four : 1461-1520 AD Path Five: 1521-1699 AD Path Six: 1700-1800 AD Global Middle Ages

Mercator World Map of 1569

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Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendate Accommodata (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.

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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.

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