DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61669#0307
APPENDIX
APPENDIX B
“Presbyter Joannes” (Prester John)
“ The idea ” (says Colonel Yule)1 “ that a Christian potentate of enormous wealth
and power, and bearing this title, ruled over vast tracts in the far East, was uni-
versal in Europe from the middle of the twelfth to the end of the thirteenth
century, after which time the Asiatic story seems gradually to have died away,
whilst the Royal Presbyter was assigned to a locus in Abyssinia ; the equivocal
application of the term India to the East of Asia and the East of Africa facilitat-
ing this transfer. Indeed I have a suspicion, contrary to the view now generally
taken, that the term may from the first have belonged to an Abyssinian Prince,
though circumstances led to its being applied in another quarter for a time.
“Be that as it may, the inordinate report of Prester John’s magnificence
became especially diffused from about the year 1165, when a letter full of the
most extravagant details was circulated, which purported to have been addressed
by this potentate to the Greek Emperor Manuel, the Roman Emperor Frederick,
the Pope, and other Christian sovereigns. By the circulation of this letter,
glaring fiction as it is, the idea of this Christian Conqueror was planted deep in
the mind of Europe, and twined itself round every rumour of revolution in further
Asia. . . .”
The title of Prester John, borne by this semi-mythical Christian hero, was
transmitted to his successors in Africa; and at the time when Holbein copied
the name of his kingdom on to the globe of the “ Ambassadors,” was the common
appellation of David, King of Abyssinia.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury2 3 has a curious passage concerning this personage.
In his narrative of the meeting that took place at Bologna between Charles V.
and the Pope in the winter of 1532-33/ he says :
“ During this interview I find in our records a Portuguez in the name of
David King of the Ethiopians (vulgarly called Prete Jan) presented himself Am-
bassador to his Holiness ; for authorizing which Charge he brought with him not
only Letters of Credence (translated out of the Chaldee to the Italian and
Portugal tongues) wherein the said King declared himself to be descended from
Queen Candace, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but a Crucifix of gold ;
the further effects of his employment being to require some excellent artificers
1 “ The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian,” newly translated and edited, with notes, by
Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., vol. i., p. 205, note 3.
2 “Life and Reign of Henry VIII.” (1532-33, “Ambassador sent to the Pope from the
King of Ethiopia ”).
3 See Holbein’s “ Ambassadors,” p. 72.
24I II
APPENDIX B
“Presbyter Joannes” (Prester John)
“ The idea ” (says Colonel Yule)1 “ that a Christian potentate of enormous wealth
and power, and bearing this title, ruled over vast tracts in the far East, was uni-
versal in Europe from the middle of the twelfth to the end of the thirteenth
century, after which time the Asiatic story seems gradually to have died away,
whilst the Royal Presbyter was assigned to a locus in Abyssinia ; the equivocal
application of the term India to the East of Asia and the East of Africa facilitat-
ing this transfer. Indeed I have a suspicion, contrary to the view now generally
taken, that the term may from the first have belonged to an Abyssinian Prince,
though circumstances led to its being applied in another quarter for a time.
“Be that as it may, the inordinate report of Prester John’s magnificence
became especially diffused from about the year 1165, when a letter full of the
most extravagant details was circulated, which purported to have been addressed
by this potentate to the Greek Emperor Manuel, the Roman Emperor Frederick,
the Pope, and other Christian sovereigns. By the circulation of this letter,
glaring fiction as it is, the idea of this Christian Conqueror was planted deep in
the mind of Europe, and twined itself round every rumour of revolution in further
Asia. . . .”
The title of Prester John, borne by this semi-mythical Christian hero, was
transmitted to his successors in Africa; and at the time when Holbein copied
the name of his kingdom on to the globe of the “ Ambassadors,” was the common
appellation of David, King of Abyssinia.
Lord Herbert of Cherbury2 3 has a curious passage concerning this personage.
In his narrative of the meeting that took place at Bologna between Charles V.
and the Pope in the winter of 1532-33/ he says :
“ During this interview I find in our records a Portuguez in the name of
David King of the Ethiopians (vulgarly called Prete Jan) presented himself Am-
bassador to his Holiness ; for authorizing which Charge he brought with him not
only Letters of Credence (translated out of the Chaldee to the Italian and
Portugal tongues) wherein the said King declared himself to be descended from
Queen Candace, mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but a Crucifix of gold ;
the further effects of his employment being to require some excellent artificers
1 “ The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian,” newly translated and edited, with notes, by
Colonel Henry Yule, C.B., vol. i., p. 205, note 3.
2 “Life and Reign of Henry VIII.” (1532-33, “Ambassador sent to the Pope from the
King of Ethiopia ”).
3 See Holbein’s “ Ambassadors,” p. 72.
24I II