Prester John 6: The Ethiopian Prester John

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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Medieval Halloween: Lamias, Devils, and Disembodied Hands

Dante, Virgil, and Satan - The Inferno - Add MS 19587, f. 58r

Medieval stories of the paranormal, for Halloween or any time really. Featuring invisible devils, water sprites, and helpful hands.

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

Sources:

• Gesta Romanorum, translated by Charles Swan. George Bell & Sons, 1905.

• Joynes, Andrew. Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels and Prodigies. Boydell, 2006.

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Prester John 5: The Mongol Priest-King

Ong Khan, sometimes identified as Prester John, in Marco Polo’s Le Livre des Merveilles - Wikimedia

The Mongols, their conquests, and the travellers who went to see them were all going to necessitate some changes to the Prester John narrative. This episode is all about those changes.

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.

• Sir John Mandeville: The Book of Marvels and Travels, translated by Anthony Bale. Oxford University Press, 2012.

• Aigle, Denise. The Mongol Empire Between Myth and Reality. Brill, 2014.

• Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West:1221-1410. Routledge, 2018.

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

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Prester John 4: Waiting for David

King David (though not the one in this episode) in the Westminster Psalter

After their success at Damietta, the participants in the Fifth Crusade decide what to do next, and they wait for a certain someone...

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 3: The Fifth Crusade

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

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

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

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.

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Medieval Lives 2: Ramon Llull

Detail from The Life of Ramon Llull - Wikimedia

Ramon Llull sat down one night to write a love song, but instead he experienced a religious vision that would totally change the direction of his life.

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

Sources:

• Doctor Illuminatus: A Ramon Llull Reader, edited by Anthony Bonner. Princeton University Press, 1993.

• Other Middle Ages: Witnesses at the Margins of Medieval Society, edited by Michael Goodich. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

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Abd-al-Razzāq Samarqandī 3: To Home, to Herat

1550 map of the Arabian Sea and surrounding lands - Wikimedia

The Timurid ambassador's time in India comes to an end, and he heads for home.

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

Sources:

• India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India. Edited by Richard Henry Major. Hakluyt Society, 1857.

• Alam, Muzaffar and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. Indo-Persian Travels in the Age of Discoveries, 1400–1800. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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