Ecclesiastical and Political History of the Great and Remote Kingdoms of Ethiopia
[Ecclesiastical and Political History of the Great and Remote Kingdoms of Ethiopia, Monarchy of the Emperor Called the Prester John of the Indies]
Composed by Luis de Urreta, the Historia attempts to explain how the emperor of Ethiopia came to be known as Prester John. His theory was that the actual name for the emperor, Baldigian, became incorrectly westernized as 'Prester John' over time. Urreta posits that the real Prester John was an Asian monarch descended from the Magi. His account bears a clear similarity to the account of Otto of Freising some 450 years earlier. Urreta's account was criticized by his contemporaries who continued to believe in the Ethiopian Prester John, including Balthazar Tellez, who rebuts Urreta's theory in his Travel of the Jesuits in Ethiopia.
