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

Sister Catherine Guarnieri da Osimo

In 1495, in the Monastery of St Clares in Foligno, Sister Catherine acted as a scribe for Francesco Suriano to compose Il Trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente.

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Map 4.1 : Author Origins and Travel

Francesco Suriano

Sister Catherine Guarnieri da Osimo

Paulo de Chanedo

Giacomo Filippo Foresti da Bergamo

Joao Afonso de Aveiro (Afonso de Paiva)

Pêro da Covilhã

Joseph of Lamego

Abraham of Beja

Hartmann Schedel

Cornelis de Zierikzee

Guiliano Dati

Vasco da Gama

Queen Helena of Ethiopia

Afonso de Albuquerque

Gómez de Santisteban

Ludovico Ariosto

Johann Boemus

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Il Trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente Il Trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente (1485)

This text, written around 1485 but unpublished until 1900, narrates the travels of Francesco Suriano, as recorded by Sister Catherine Guarnieri da Osimo. Among the places the group travels to is Ethiopia, in which they find a cosmopolitan court of Prester John populated with a number of nobles from Europe and the Holy Land:
"Having crossed the river [the Nile] we traveled for ten days and reached the court of the great king Prester John, which was in a place called Barrar. In which court we found ten Italians, men of good repute, viz. Master Gabriel, a Neapolitan, Master Jacomo di Garzoni, a Venetian, Master Pietro da Monte from Venice, Master Philyppo, a Burgundian, Master Consalvo, a Catalan, Master Ioane da Fiesco, a Genoese, and Master Lyas of Beirut [?], who went there with papal letters. All these had been there for twenty-five years. But since 1480 there had gone there Master Zuan Darduino, nephew of Nicolo da Ie Carte, a Venetian, my dear friend and an honest man of good repute, Cola di Rosi, a Roman, who had changed his name to Zorzi, Matheo of Piedmont, Nicolò, a Mantuan, Master Nicolò Branchalion, a Venetian, Brother Ioane aforesaid from Calabria and Batista da Imola. I asked these men what they had gone to do in this strange land. They replied saying that their intention was to seek jewels and precious stones. But since the king did not allow them to return they were all ill content, although they were all well rewarded and provided for by the king, each in accordance with his rank." (qtd. in Silverberg, 190)
Silverberg notes that of the many names mentioned above, only painter Nicolò Branchalion (Brancaleone) was confirmed to have been in Ethiopia by other sources, having been commissioned by Emperor Baeda Maryam I (successor to Zara Yakob) to paint several significant, controversial devotional works in local churches.

Suriano's description of Barrar itself not only pales in comparison to the expectations of what a Prester John kingdom might look like but also appears to go out of its way to diminish the architectural and cultural accomplishments of Ethiopia. Suriano claims that the only "buildings" that exist in Barrar are the churches built to memorialize its emperors, and though the text notes that the population is substantial and willing to fight to defend Christendom, he claims that the soldiers lack the weaponry to competitively engage in modern combat.

In chapter 34 of the text, Suriano also mentions the epistle sent Paulo de Chanedo to Prester John (Prete Ianne).

Read on Google Books.