Æthiopes regem suum, quem nos vulgo “Prete Gianni” corrupte dicimus, quatour appellant nominibus, quorum primum est “Belul Giad,” hoc est lapis preciosus. Ductum est autem hoc nomen ab annulo Salomonis quem ille filio ex regina Saba, ut putant genito, dono dedisse, quove omnes postea reges usos fuisse describitor.... Cum vero eum coronant, appellant “Neghuz.” Postremo cum vertice capitis in coronæ modum abraso, ungitur a patriarcha, vocant “Masih,” hoc est unctum. Hæc autem regiæ dignitatis nomina omnibus communia sunt.—Quoted by Selden, from a little annal of the Ethiopian kings (1552), in his Titles of Honor, v. 65 (1614).
*** As this title was like the Egyptian Pharaoh, and belonged to whole lines of kings, it will explain the enormous diversity of time allotted by different writers to “Prester John.”
Marco Polo says that Prester John was slain in battle by Jenghiz Khan; and Gregory Bar-Hebræus says, “God forsook him because he had taken to himself a wife of the Zinish nation, called Quarakhata.
Bishop Jordānus, in his description of the world, sets down Abyssinia as the kingdom of Prester John. Abyssinia used to be called “Middle India.”
Otto of Freisingen is the first author to mention him. This Otto wrote a chronicle to the date 1156. He says that John was of the family of the Magi, and ruled over the country of these Wise Men. Otto tells us that Prester John had “a sceptre of emeralds.”
Maimonĭdês, about the same time (twelfth century), mentions him, but calls him “Prester-Cuan.”
Before 1241 a letter was addressed by “Prester John” to Manuel Comnēnus, emperor of Constantinople. It is preserved in the Chronicle of Albericus Trium Fontium, who gives for its date 1165.
Mandeville calls Prester John a lineal descendant of Ogier, the Dane. He tells us that Ogier, with fifteen others, penetrated into the north of India, and divided the land amongst his followers. John was made sovereign of Teneduc, and was called “Prester” because he converted the natives to the Christian faith.
Another tradition says that Prester John had seventy kings for his vassals, and was seen by his subjects only three times in a year.
In Orlando Furioso, Prester John is called by his subjects “Senāpus, king of Ethiopia.” He was blind, and though the richest monarch of the world, he pined with famine, because harpies flew off with his food by way of punishment for wanting to add paradise to his empire. The plague, says the poet, was to cease “when a stranger appeared on a flying griffin.” This stranger was Astolpho, who drove the harpies to Cocy´tus. Prester John, in return for this service, sent 100,000 Nubians to the aid of Charlemagne. Astolpho supplied this contingent with horses by throwing stones into the air, and made transport-ships to convey them to France by casting leaves into the sea. After the death of Agramant, the Nubians were sent home, and then the horses became stones again, and the ships became leaves (bks. xvii.-xix.).