Letter of Prester John

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Prester John 10: The End is not the End

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Prester John before a crucifix in an early 15th-century book of Mandeville’s Travels.

It's the end of the Prester John story, or at least the end for now. The priest-king pops up in Tibet and dives into the world of fiction and comics, and the Dalai Lama makes an appearance.

The History of Sport podcast which I mention can be found here and on all the other usual podcast platforms.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ames, Richard. The Jacobite Conventicle. R. Stafford, 1692.

  • Rachewiltz, Igor de. Prester John and Europe's Discovery of East Asia. Australian National University Press, 1972.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Shakespeare, William. Much Ado about Nothing. Penguin, 2005.

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Prester John 9: The End Part One

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16th-Century Chart - Prester John (Wikimedia)

What happens to a mythical priest-king when you get too close to him? Does he just disappear?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ray, John. A Collection of Curious Travels & Voyages. 1693.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 8: Ambassador Mateus and his Many Doubters

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A 16th-Century Portrait of Dawit II (Wikimedia)

In the early years of the 16th-century, Ethiopia's regent, Eleni, sent an ambassador to Portugal to propose an alliance. She sent a man named Mateus. Unfortunately for Mateus, almost nobody believed him.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India. Hakluyt Society, 1875.

  • Alvares, Francisco. Narrative of the Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia during the years 1520-1527. Hakluyt Society, 1881.

  • Baldridge, Cates. Prisoners of Prester John: The Portuguese Mission to Ethiopia in Search of the Mythical King, 1520-1526. McFarland, 2012.

  • Diffie, Bailey Wallys & Winius, George Davison. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.

  • Eliav-Feldon, Miriam. Renaissance Impostors and Proofs of Identity. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Rogers, Francis Millet. The Quest for Eastern Christians: Travels and Rumor in the Age of Discovery. University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

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Prester John 7: The Way from Lisbon

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Detail from the Cantino planisphere, a Portuguese map from 1502.

It's part 7 of the Prester John story, on the trip to Prester John's Ethiopia, and on the Portuguese crown's pursuit of the priest-king and how that story was connected to the developing ones of exploration and colonialism.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco Da Gama, 1497-1499, translated by Ernst Georg Ravenstein. The Hakluyt Society, 1898

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Ferreira, Susannah. The Crown, the Court and the Casa Da Índia Political Centralization in Portugal 1479-1521. Brill, 2015.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Krebs, Verena. "Re-examining Foresti's Supplementum Chronicarum and the 'Ethiopian' embassy to Europe of 1306," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 82, Issue 3 (October 2019) .

  • Kurt, Andrew. "The search for Prester John, a projected crusade and the eroding prestige of Ethiopian kings, c .1200 – c .1540," in Journal of Medieval History, 39.3 (September 2013).

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458," in Journal of World History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 2010).

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Prester John 6: The Ethiopian Prester John

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This is the first of two episodes on the next jump in the Prester John narrative, as the story pivots to Ethiopia and as Ethiopian envoys and pilgrims travel in 15th-century Italy and Spain.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Knobler, Adam. Mythology and Diplomacy in the Age of Exploration. Brill, 2016.

  • Krebs, Verena. Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe. Springer International, 2021.

  • Krebs, Verena. "Re-examining Foresti's Supplementum Chronicarum and the 'Ethiopian' embassy to Europe of 1306," in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 82, Issue 3 (October 2019) .

  • Kurt, Andrew. "The search for Prester John, a projected crusade and the eroding prestige of Ethiopian kings, c .1200 – c .1540," in Journal of Medieval History, 39.3 (September 2013).

  • Salvadore, Matteo. The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Salvadore, Matteo. "The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John's Discovery of Europe, 1306-1458," in Journal of World History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (December 2010).

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Prester John 3: The Fifth Crusade

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Attack on tower near Damietta by members of the Fifth Crusade - From the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris

Attack on tower near Damietta by members of the Fifth Crusade - From the Chronica Majora of Matthew Paris

The crusaders make their way first to Acre and then to Damietta. Perhaps someone would be along to help them soon?

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291. Edited by Jessalynn Bird, et al. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

  • The Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century. Edited by E.J. Mylod, et al. Routledge, 2016.

  • Brownworth, Lars. In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades. Crux Publishing Ltd, 2017.

  • Cassidy-Welch, Megan. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade. Penn State University Press, 2019.

  • Madden, Thomas F. The New Concise History of the Crusades. Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

  • Powell, James M. Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213-1221. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.

  • Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ Or Lord of the World? Catholic University of America Press, 1994.

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Prester John 2.5: Papal Correspondence

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Pope Alexander III and the Ambassador - Spinello Aretino

Pope Alexander III and the Ambassador - Spinello Aretino

A shorter episode, on a letter from Pope Alexander III to Prester John.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Pope Alexander III (1159–81): The Art of Survival. Taylor & Francis, 2016.

  • Rachewiltz, Igor de. Papal Envoys to the Great Khans. Stanford University Press, 1971.

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Prester John 2: Where From and What For

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Prester John comfortably enthroned in East Africa - Detail from the Queen Mary Atlas, MS 5415 A British Library

Prester John comfortably enthroned in East Africa - Detail from the Queen Mary Atlas, MS 5415 A British Library

On the many fantastic additions to the Letter of Prester John (Dragons! Strange Bakeries! Etc!), and on the theories around it.

Sources:

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Nowell, Charles E. "The Historical Prester John." Speculum 28, no. 3 (1953).

  • Romm, James S. The Edges of the Earth in Ancient Thought Geography, Exploration, and Fiction. Princeton University Press, 2019.

  • Wang, I-Chun. "Alexander the Great, Prester John, Strabo of Amasia, and Wonders of the East." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 14.5 (2012).

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Prester John 1: The Letter

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From "Le Livre des Merveilles", 15th century. From the Gallica Digital Library. (Wikimedia)

From "Le Livre des Merveilles", 15th century. From the Gallica Digital Library. (Wikimedia)

The legend in its early forms: the arrival in Rome of a patriarch from the east, the chronicles of Otto of Freising, and that famous "letter."

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • Otto of Freising, Chronicon, ed. G.H. Pertz, MGH SSRG (Hanover: Hahn, 1867), VII, 33, (pp. 334-35), translated by James Brundage, The Crusades: A Documentary History, (Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 1962). Accessed at Fordham University Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

  • Prester John: The Legend and its Sources, compiled and translated by Keagan Brewer. Taylor & Francis, 2019.

  • Baring-Gould, Sabine. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. Roberts Brothers, 1867.

  • Heng, Geraldine. The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press, 2018.