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

The Travel of the Jesuits in Ethiopia

Historia Geral de Ethiopia a Alta ou Abassia do Preste Ioam (1660)

Portuguese writer Balthazar Téllez's The Travel of the Jesuits in Ethiopia (1660) is an academic compilation of the journeys reflected in the book's title. A major source for the text was Manuel de Almeida's history of Ethiopia, which was never published in its original Portuguese. Brewer (p. 294) goes so far as to call Téllez's work "an abridgement and revision" of Almeida's that also accounts for the observations of other Portuguese travelers to Africa. Téllez also drew on the account of Jerónimo Lobo.

In the text, Téllez argues that Prester John was an Asian monarch, not an Ethiopian king, and he blames Covilhā for perpetuating the misunderstanding that Prester John was in Africa. This account and rationale influenced Hiob Ludolf's History of Ethiopia (1681) and a dozen later writers.

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History of Ethiopia Historia de Etiopía a Alta ou Abassia

German historian Hiob Ludolf was an academic authority on the Ethiopia of his day, having befriended an Ethiopian Christian in Rome who became the main source for his understanding of the country. Published in 1681, Ludolf's History of Ethiopia (1681) argued that Prester John was not the Ethiopian negus; instead, Ludolf reasoned, Prester John must have been the Asian monarch he was considered centuries before. Here, following Balthazar Téllez's theory, Ludolf argues that Covilhā was responsible for the misattribution of Prester John to Ethiopia:

[Covilhā, traveling] in some of the Ports of the Red Sea, heard much talk of a most Potent Christian King of the Abessines, that us'd to carry a Cross in his Hands; as also of his Subjects, who were great Favourers if not Followers of the Christian Religion. Believing it therefore to be of little moment whether this famous Monarch liv'd in Asia or in Africa, he certainly persuades himself, as being Ignorant both in History and Geography that this was the Prince so much sought after.... These glad Tidings the Portugals sooner believ'd, than consider'd, and so spread the News all over Europe for real Truth; Credulaity gaining easily upon those that are ignorant of Foreign Affairs and Kingdoms.

(qtd. in Silverberg, p. 317)

This argument became popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, even as the link between Prester John and the Ethiopian monarch predates Covilhā's expedition.

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