Otto of Freising
Uncle to Frederick Barbarossa, Otto is the man most responsible for creating the legend of Prester John. It is perhaps no coincidence that Otto writes of a distant priest-king at the very time Otto's uncle Frederick was embroiled in a power struggle against papal authority.
Otto’s account provides some of the basic “facts” about the legend and, while the Letter greatly expands on Otto’s account, it does not very much increase its audience’s knowledge of the elusive figure.
Jump to his Historia de Duabus Civitatibus.
