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

Nile River

According to Adam Knobler, the association of the Ethiopian negus with the ability to control the Nile River dates back to the reign of the Fatimid sultan al-Mustansir Billah (r. 1036-1094). As Knobler notes (p. 204),

when a flood in Ethiopia failed to have any effect on the Nile. The sultan, in desperation, sent Patriarch Michael of Alexandria to Ethiopia to request a restoration of the river’s flow which, following the breaking of a mound, they did. From this point onward, the Ethiopians often claimed power over the Nile’s flow.

See the list of texts below that comment on Prester John's ability to control the flow of the Nile.

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Chronica Boemorum John de' Marignolli's History of Bohemia (c. 1355), commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (r. 1346-1378), is composed in the style of a universal history and includes a lengthy detour to the Orient, which identifies associates Ethiopia as “the land of Prester John” and notes the kingdom’s proximity to the terrestrial paradise with the ability to control the Nile River. The text survives in three manuscripts.

Specifically, Marignolli associates the biblical River Gyon with the Nile, and describes the river as "that which circleth the land of Ethiopia" and "where are now the Negroes, and which is called the Land of Prester John... The Christians of St. Matthew the Apostle are there, and the Sultan pays them tribute on account of the river, because they have it in their power to shut off the water and then Egypt would perish" (qtd. in Silverberg, p. 170).

From Silverberg (p. 170):
John de' Marignolli wrote an account of his Eastern travels which, in the words of his nineteenth-century translator Henry Yule, is to be found, 'like unexpected fossils in a mud-bank, imbedded in a Chronicle of Bohemia' that he composed about 1355. This lengthy interpolation enters the chronicle on the flimsiest of pretenses: Marignolli chooses to begin his history of Bohemia with the Creation and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, and, having got as far as the statement that Eden is located "beyond India," is reminded that he himself once visited India, which leads him to say, "And now to insert some brief passages of what I have seen myself ... " An anecdotal description of the Orient that runs to more than fifty printed pages
follows.
Pope Nicholas V's Letter to Prester John Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) entrusted the Franciscan Ludovico da Bologna to organize a mission to deliver a letter to Zar'a Yaqob, understood as Prester John.

As Salvadore (p. 65) explains, "the document, dated 1 December 1456, speaks to the anxieties reigning over the Church and, more generally, the European establishment-- anxieties that also explain the renewed interest in Ethiopia." Here the Pope employs time-honored crusading rhetoric and the familiar call to divert the Nile River in hopes to render the Ethiopian-European connection into something potent and durable:
Immediately after leaving the conclave [8 April 1455], our soul oppressed by the fall and misfortune of Constaninople [1453] we made a vow to embark on a war against the Turks, to those who are iniquitous usurpers of Christian lands. Therefore, given that our funds are not enough, we decided to gather the armies of all the pirnces of the arth who profess the religion of Jesus Crucified-- you among them.... Between Westerners and Easterners, we have organized two good armies of land and sea, of sufficient valor.... we plan to add to the enterprise your important cooperation, with which we will have enough strength no only to defeat the unholy Turk, but to take away from the infidel the holy land of Jerusalem.... Because God wanted you to have, under your sublime rule, a powerful army, the river Nile whose inundations fertilize the land where our enemies feed and you at your own pleasure can take that away from them.
Salvadore (p.66) adds that this letter is particularly notable for being the first explicit "call to arms" sent to the Ethiopian ruler, the presumed Prester John.
A Short Relation of the River Nile Portuguese Jesuit missionary Jerónimo Lobo (1595-1678) turned a correspondence with Henry Oldenberg concerning the source of the Nile River into A Short Relation on the River Nile, published in London in 1669.

The full title of the text is A Short Relation of the River Nile, of its source and current; of its overflowing the campagnia of Ægypt, till it runs into the Mediterranean and of other curiosities: written by an eye-witnesse, who lived many years in the chief kingdoms of the Abyssine Empire. Translated by Sir Peter Wyche.

Lobo's near twenty years of experience as a missionary in Ethiopia lent authority to his claim that Prester John bears no association with the Ethiopian negus. Like so many others who made this argument, Lobo's argument is primarily linguistic:
There have not been wanting some late Authors, who upon small grounds, and lesse truth, would maintain this opinion and report, proving by divers Etymologies and interpretations of the word, that the Abyssine Emperour was properly Prester John: But this affirmation being without any appearance of truth; excuseth me from shewing how little it hath; lonely say, that those who have spent some time in Ethiopia know all reported on this subject to be a meer fable; never any Prince of this Empire had that Title, neither is the word known in the whole extent of those Dominions...

Those of an higher Province, in the heart of this great Empire, (where many ages these Princes kept their Court) when according to this ancient and usual Custome, they present their Petitions, cry 'Jan Coy' (i.e.) my King: (Jan signifying King, and Coy my)...

The Abyssines speaking of their King, undouhtedly gave him the most ancient, most usual and most respectfull title of Jan: neither is it less probable, that for the greater reverence of the Royal person, they to ld them their King was a Priest; thence was he concluded Jan by title, and by office a Priest: All know that among us Sacerdote and Presbytero are the same, which the Latines called Presbyter and the French Prester; this word joyned to Jan begets Prester Jan, which with small addition is corrupted into Prester John, intending the same.
(qtd. in Brewer, pp. 245-246)
Egyptus Novelo This map, a detailed depiction of the Nile Basin, which features Egypt and Ethiopia, survives in three medieval copies of Ptolemy's Geography.

It is theorized that the map was created in Florence, possibly influenced by the presence of an Ethiopian delegation at the Council of Florence (1431-1449). Its novelty (compared to contemporary maps such as that by Frau Mauro), suggests that it was created with specialized knowledge of the Nile Basin.

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