The African Prester John and the birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555 1315612294

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The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555

From the 14th century onward, political and religious motives led Ethiopian travelers to Mediterranean Europe. For two centuries, their ancient Christian heritage and the myth of a fabled eastern king named Prester John allowed Ethiopians to engage the continent's secular and religious elites as peers. Meanwhile in Ethiopia, the nobility came to welcome European visitors and at times even co-opted them by arranging mixed marriages and bestowing land rights . The protagonists of this encounter sought and discovered each other in royal palaces, monasteries, and markets throughout the Mediterranean basin, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean littoral, from Lisbon to Jerusalem and from Venice to Goa. Matteo Salvadore's narrative takes readers on a voyage of reciprocal discovery that climaxed with the Portuguese intervention on the side of the Christian monarchy in the EthiopianAdali War. Thereafter, the arrival of the Jesuits in the Hom of Africa turned the mutually beneficial Ethiopian-European encounter into a bitter confrontation over the souls of Ethiopian Christians.

Matteo Salvadore is Assistant Professor of History at American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

Tra nscultura lisms, 1400-1700 Series Editors: Mihoko Suzuki, University of Miami, USA, Ann Rosalind Jones, Smith College, USA, Jyotsna Singh, Michigan State University, USA

This series presents studies of the early modem contacts and exchanges among the states, polities and entrepreneurial organizations of Europe; Asia, including the Levant and East Indi a/Indies; Africa; and the Americas. Books will investigate travelers, merchants and cultural inventors, including explorers, mapmakers, artists and writers, as they operated in political, mercantile, sexual and linguistic economies. We encourage authors to reflect on their own methodologies in relation to issues and theories relevant to the study of transculturism/translation and transnationalism. We are particularly interested in work on and from the perspective of the Asians, Africans, and Americans involved in these interactions, and on such topics as :

The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402-1555 Matteo Salvadore

Material exchanges, including textiles, paper and printing, and technologies of knowledge Movements of bodies: embassies, voyagers, piracy, enslavement Travel writing: its purposes, practices, forms and effects on writing in other genres Belief systems: religions, philosophies, sciences Translations: verbal, artistic, philosophical Forms of transnational violence and its representations. Also in this series: The Chinese Impact upon English Renaissance Literature A globalization and liberal cosmopolitan approach to Donne and Milton MingjunLu Commedia dell' Arte and the Mediterranean Charting joumeys and mapping 'Others' Erith Jaffe-Berg Early Modern atholics, Royalists, and o mopolitans Eng li h lran nal ionali 111 and Lhc hri Li an om monwca llh Brian . l o k •

I~~~o~l!!n~~~up LONDON AND N W YORK

English olonia l ~ xls on Tan~icr, 166 1- 1684 l1111r riali sm ond th · politi ·s ol',.. sist:111 · • K/lr i111 lh :jj it

First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 7 11 Third Avenue, New York, NY I 0017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 20 I 7 Matteo Salvadore The right of Matteo Salvadore to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 . All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only fo r identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is avai lable from the British Library library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN: 978- 1-4 724-1891-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978- 1-315-61229-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex Co Vantage, LLC

A Lella ed Elio

Contents

List of illustrations Preface

viii lX

Introduction

PART I

The Mediterranean way

19

Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402- 1459

21

2

The Crown of Aragon, 1427- 1453

36

3

Rome via Jerusalem, 1439- 1484

54

4

Lisbon, 1441- 1508

82

PART II

The Indian run

105

5

Beyond the sea, 1509- 1520

107

6

Shewa, l 400s- l 526

128

7

A tale of three cities, 1527- 1539

153

8

Ending the war and the encounter, 1540- 1555

180

Conclusion

203

Appendix Bibliography Index

2 10 212 229

Illustrations

Preface

Maps 1.1 4.1 5.1

5.2

The world of the encounter· The Mediterranean, 1400- 1550 The world of the encounter: The Indian run, 1400-1550 The world of the encounter The Indian Ocean and Red Sea worlds, 1400-1550 The world of the encounter· The Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 1400-1550

20 87 111 120

Figures 1.1

1.2 2.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 71 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6

The Kingdom of Ethiopia according to Fra Mauro Mappamondo di Fra Mauro (1450 ea.) Cosmographical sketch from Zorzi's manuscript Alfonso's memorandum Copy of the letter of indulgence bestowed to the Ethiopians in Constance Antonio di Pietro Averlino (aka Filarete), "Porta del Filarete," St. Peter's Basilica, 1445 View of Santo Stefano deg Ii Abissini in the 17 50s Title page of Legatio David Aethiopiae ( 1533) Title page of Modus Baptizandi (1549) Title page of Missa qua Ethiopes (1549) Title page of Testamentum Novum (1549) Exan1ple of correspondence between Tesfa Seyon and Roman personalities Ritratto dell 'Imperatore Atana de Dinghel Example of correspondence between Giovanni and Tesfa Seyon

29 31 41 57 61 72

157 188 189 190 191 192 196

I wrote the vast majority of this volume over the past three years in Kuwait, but this being my first book, the list of people to whom I owe my gratitude traces all the way back to when I began developing an interest in history as a teenager. I distinctly remember perusing, as a 15-year old, my father 's copy ofRamusio's Navigationi et Viaggi and being fascinated with the whole notion of travel and exploration. Little did I know that one day that very volume would become one of my sources. To this day, my father has a larger historical library than I have, and I think I wanted to be a historian ever since I would see him reading in the little spare time he had left after spending most of the day running his company. Although I was a terrible high school student with limited interest in reading, my father's insistence that history was very important ultimately struck a chord with me. Like most of my students today, in school I thought history to be a rather boring subject, but only until my third year of high school, when Prof. Lanfranco Maggioli, an extraordinarily gifted teacher, turned the subject into the most captivating I had ever studied. At the very beginning of college, I took a general contemporary history course dreaded by freshmen, and I became fascinated with the instructor, Prof. Fulvio Cammarano. From the moment he walked into the first class with his unlit cigar and started lecturing, I began dreaming of becoming a historian. One day I went to visit him to ask what must have sounded like a rather silly question: what I needed to do to become a professor - in my mind, how to be like him. He graciously entertained me by pointing at his assistants and exp laining what they were doing as part of their training, and then he told me what I had heard from my father for most ofmy life: read, a lot. A couple of years later, Anna Maria Gentili introduced me to African history, and when I asked her the same question - how does one become a professor? - she told me something that a few years later I would hear almost verbatim while watching Marco Tullio Giordana's family epic The Best of Youth: if you have any ambition, leave this country. I did, and ultimately I lost touch with these acquaintances who marked my coming of age, but I have always felt indebted to them, and I promised myself! would thank them in the preface of my first book. I am al o grateful to a variety of peopl e from my days in Philadelphia, and in particular to the fi ll ow ing exceptiona l individual : Te hal e Tibebu was the best doctoral adv isor I u Id have hoped fi r. I le upp rtcd me by fTerin a balanced

x Preface mixture of praise and criticism and, more important, he trusted me with the freedom to find my own research interest. Howard Spodek taught me how to be a world historian inside and outside of the classroom. At the African Studies Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Lee V. Cassanelli introduced me to issues of transcultural encounters between Africans and Europeans that would keep me busy for the ensuing decade and assigned me David Northrop's Africa sDiscovery of Europe. I am deeply indebted to Prof. Northrup not only because his volume is the piece of scholarship that provided the most inspiration for what eventually became this book but also because first as my reader and then time and again over the years, he generously shared with me excellent scholarly advice. Toward the end of my doctorate, as I began teaching African history at Rowan University and grappling with the joys and pains of academic life, I also looked up to two good friends who never failed to cheer me up, David Applebaum and Jim Abbott. In Italy, I am indebted to Irma Taddia, whom I first met as an inexperienced and mostly lost graduate student at the 2007 International Conference of Ethiopian Studies-her enthusiasm for my work grounded me and kept me going. My research benefitted from the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST)/University of Missouri-St. Louis Summer Faculty Fellowship, which allowed me to work with Ruth Iyob, whose profound understanding of the African diaspora greatly helped me develop my theoretical approach. I also would like to thank Sarah Fekadu-Uthofffor the generous invitation to discuss my work at the Volkswagen Fellows Interdisciplinary Symposium at Washington University of St. Louis, which occasioned one of many productive conversations with Wendy Belcher, whose innovative work on early modem Ethiopia and drive to deprovincialize the field has long been a source of inspiration for my own work. I am also grateful to the late Jerry Bentley as well as to Allison Kavey, Jonathan Miran, Gabriella Romani, and Tom Taylor for trusting me as a contributor to the journals and collections they edited over the past years. My publications there represented meaningful steps toward this project. Of course, this volume would have never seen the light of day had it not been for the patient support of my editor, Erika Gaffney. When five years ago I naively told her I thought I had a manuscript ready for publication, she offered a very tactful answer, knowing - I think - that I would soon realize the enormity ofmy misconception . Today, as I look at an altogether different text written almost entirely from scratch, I cannot but be thankful to her for having graciously pointed me in the right direction. I am also thankful to my production editor Megan Hiatt, for patiently walking me through the last stages of my Jong journey. Having worked with sources from dozens of institutions, I am unfortunately unable to list all the gracious archivists and librarians who helped me retrieve rare t t , but I must thank those who went beyond their duties to help me: Andreina Rita at the Biblioteca Apo tolica Vaticana, Gianfranco Armando at the Archivio S' ,rcto Vaticano, and Ro alba uarnieri at the Biblioteca Comunal e di Palenno. /\I GUST I must al th ank my ncrou and upJ orti vc dean, Ali Ansari, for prnv icling me with the nc ssary n xibilil y I hat all wed me to mpl cte my manus ·ript whil e hcad in , on ' of' hi s departm ents. I mu sl also th ank R b rt ook,

Preface

x1

who six years ago as Vice President of Academic Affairs at GUST offered me the position and midwifed a new fantastic chapter in my nomadic life. I also owe a great deal of gratitude to those who helped me make sense of sources in foreign languages, among them my father, who assisted with early modem Italian vernaculars, and my good friends and colleagues Thorsten Botz and Mana! Hosny, who helped with French and Arabic. The citations from Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish sources were translated by, respectively, Jessica Wright, Sara Nogueira, and Marlene Dias de Sousa. Additionally, I feel particularly indebted to three exceptional individuals. James De Lorenzi has been discussing Ethiopian history with me for the last decade and has read my work many times over, never failing to provide me with both moral support and exceptional scholarly insight. Martin Rosenstock has not only given me precious feedback on my work but also has taught me a lot about narrative strategies. If, as I hope, I succeeded in telling an intriguing story, this is because of what I learned from him over countless cups of good Turkish coffee. Thorsten Botz has been nourishing my soul with exceptional piano playing, cosmopolitan food, and artisan tea; more important, he has set an example as a writer that I can only aspire to emulate and made me understand the importance of daily discipline for scholarly productivity. Finally, my wife Silvia: with her loving support, she went far beyond what can be expected, even imagined. She has been the most caring, forgiving, and unflinching partner anyone could dream of. I wrote this volume on my home desk in Salmiya, oftentimes with my young sons Elia and Carlo making a variety of noises in the background. At times, I confess, I found myself wondering whether the world would not be a better place if children of academics came equipped with time-to-write off switches. Yet I do not think I would have found the energy to complete this project had it not been for the thought that hopefully one day while spending time in a good academic library and walking through the stacks they will chance upon their daddy's book. This volume is dedicated to my parents, who never objected to their only child leaving home in his early twenties to go, in my mother's words, "further and further away." Almost 20 years later, as a father, I realize how hard it must have been for them, and I am immensely grateful.

F uropc.i n ,·n cotmll'r into

M.atko S.1h-adore

hitlIi in izi lei sc lo IV," Alli de! X IV

Introduction

17

18 19

20

21

22

23

24

15

Congresso geografico italiano (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1949), 507; Cortesiio, History of Portuguese Cartography, 2:257 Pistola de/ Presto Giovanni all 'Imperatore Carlo IV, in Leone del Prete, Lettera inedita de! Presto Giovanni all 'imperatore Carlo IV, ed altra di Lentulo ai senatori romani sopra Gesi't Cristo (Lucca: Tipographia dei figli di G. Rocchi, 1857), 9- 11 Haggai Er! ich, The Cross and the River- Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002), 15-48. Although the bead of the Ethiopian Church is officially called "pappas" ("priest" in Greek, the Coptic Church's liturgical language), both sources and scholarship usually refer to the office holder as abun, a more generic honorific in the Geez language that translates as " our father," used to refer to high-ranking clerics. The nature of the Ethiopian Church's relationship to the Alexandrine Church, the details of the ecclesiastical arrangements, and its political implications are beyond the scope of this text. For a general overview and further references, see Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, ed. Siegbert Uhlig and Alessandro Bausi, 5 vols (Weisbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003- 2014), J · 13- 14, I :56, 2:414, and I ·799. Henceforth cited as EA . The Prester 's alleged power on the Nile was first mentioned in an Arab source in the early 1200s; see Emery Van Donze!, "The Legend of the Blue Nile in Europe," and Richard Pankhurst, " Ethiopia's Alleged Control of the Nile," both in The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths, ed. Haggai Erlich and Israel Gershoni (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000), 121 - 30 and 25- 38, respectively. Although by the mid-1 SOOs most myths related to the Prester would be dispelled, some such vastly exaggerated extensions of his domain survived, as one can observe in Ortelius's Africae Tabula Nova ( 1570), in which the Prester 's domain, along with the Nile, extends well into central Africa. Abraham Ortelius, Thea/rum Orbis Terrarum (London: Officina Plantiniana, 1608); Relafio, The Shaping ofAfrica, 62- 3, 208- 9. The Jesuit mission to Ethiopia has benefitted from a substantial body of scholarship in recent decades. The definitive text is the recently published Andreu Martinez d' A16sMoner, Envoys ofa Human God: The Jesuit Mission to Christian Ethiopia, 1557- 1632 (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Other key contributions are Herve Pennec, Des Jesuites au royaume du Pretre Jean, (Ethiopie) . Strategies, rencontres et tentatives d 'implantation, 1495- 1633 (Paris: Centre Culture] Calouste Gulbenkian, 2003); Leonardo Cohen, The Missionary Strategies of the Jesuits in Ethiopia (1555- 1632) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2009); along with Camillo Beccari's IS-volume collection of primary sources, Rerum aethiopicarum scrip/ores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVJ ad XIX (Roma: C. De Luigi, 1903- 1917). For an extensive bibliography, see Leonardo Cohen Shabot and Andreu Martinez d'Alos-Moner, "The Jesuit Mission in Ethiopia (16th- 17th Centuries): An Analytical Bibliography," Aethiopica 9 (2006): 190-212. On the Jesuit mission and its aftermath, see also Matteo Salvadore, "The Jesuit Mission to Ethiopia (1555- 1634) and the Death of Prester John," in World-Building and the Early Modern Imagination, ed. Allison B. Kavey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 141 - 72; Matteo Salvadore, "Gaining the Heart of Prester John: Loyola's Blueprint for Ethiopia in Three Key Documents," World History Connected 10, no. 3 (2013), http://world historyconnected.press. ii Iinois.edu/10.3/forum _ salvadore.htm I; Matteo Salvadore, "Muslim Partners, Catholic Foes: The Selective Isolation of Gondarine Ethiopia," Northeast African Studies 12, no. I (2012) : 51-72. Valuable but compilatory in nature and offering little analysis is S. C. Munro-Hay, Ethiopia Unveiled: Interaction between Two Worlds (Hollywood: Tsehai, 2006). The volume includes an overview of Ethiopia's relations with the European, Arab, and Indian worlds along with Ethiopia-related myths spanning two millennia: as can be imagined, the excessive breadth precludes depth. In this regard, it should suffice to consider that for the period under consideration, Tadde se Tam rat, hurch and tale in Ethiopia, remain , to thi day, th e only book-length contributi on to thiopian hi tori ography.

16

Introduction

25 Marcellino (da Civezza), Storia universale de/le missioni francescane, 9 vo ls in 11 (Roma: Tipografia Tiberina, 1857-1895), vol. l ( 186 1), hereafter cited as Marcellino, Storia universale; Teodosio Somigli, Etiopia Francescana nei documenti dei secoli XVIJ e XVIJJ Preceduti da cenni storici sulle relazioni con l 'Etiopia durante J sec. XIV E XV, vol. I (Firenze: Quaracchi, 1928); Mauro da Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni Romano-Etiopiche (Citta del Vaticano: Tipografia Poliglotta Vaticana, 1929). 26 The_ reference is primarily but not exclusively to Carlo Conti Rossini (1872- 1949), Enrico Cerulli (1898- 1988), Ignazio Guidi ( 1844-1935), Rene Basset ( 1855-1924), and Jules Perruchon ( 1853- 1907). 27 In particular, one of the scholars whose work will be quoted throughout th e vo lume Enrico Cerulli (1898- 1988), was directly involved in the crimes of the Italian colo~ nial regime in Ethiopia. Richard Pankhurst, "Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia: A History of Their Di scuss ion, from th e League of Nations to the United Nations (1936--1949)," Northeast African Studies 6, no. 1-2 (1999) : 83- 140. Not only was Cerulli never prosecuted by the U.N. War Crimes Commission, for political reasons, also _his colonial past has been conveniently whitewashed by fe llow Ethiopian studies specialists. See Lanfranco Ri cci's entry on Cerulli in EA I ·709- 10, which bears no reference to Cerulli 's colonial responsi bilities and attempted prosecution. 28 The most important works associated with the Hakluyt Society are Beckingham, "An Ethiopian Embassy to Europe c. 131 O"; Charles Fraser Beckingham, "European Sources for Ethiopian History before 1634," Paideuma 33 ( 1987): 167-78; Charles Fraser Beckingham, "Notes on an Unpubli shed Manuscript of Francisco Alvares Verdadera informayam das terras do Preste loam das Indias," Annales d 'Ethiopie 4, no. 1 (1961 ): 139-54; Charl es Fraser Beckingham and Bernard Hamilton, eds, Prester John, the Mongols, and the Ten Lost Tribes (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1996); Charles Fraser Beckinghan1 and George Wynn Brereton Huntingford, eds, Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593- 1646; Being Extracts from the History of High Ethiopia or Abassia, by Manoel De Almeida, Together with Bahrey 's History ofthe Galla (London: Hak luyt Society, 1954); Francisco Alvares et al., The Prester John of the Indies; a True Relation ofthe Lands ofthe Prester John, Being the Narrative of the Portuguese Embassy to Ethiopia in 1520 (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961 ), hereafter Alvares, Prester John of the Indies; Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, ed., Ethiopian Itineraries circa 1400- 1524, Hakluyt Society, Works, 2d ser., no. 109 (Cam bridge: Hakluyt Society, 1958); Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, " Some Medieval Theories about the N ile," The Geographical Journal l 14, nos. I /3 ( 1949): 6--29; George Wynn Brereton Huntingford and Richard Pankhurst, The Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the First Century AD to 1704, Fontes Historiae Africanae Series Varia (Oxford: British Academy, 1989); Luciano Lefevre's many contributions are cited throughout the vo lume. Examples of scholarship on the African di aspora written primarily from an Euro pean studies viewpoint are Kurt, "The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings"; Benjamin Weber, "G li Etiopi a Roma nel Quattrocento: ambasciatori politici, negoziatori religiosi o pellegrini?" Melanges de / 'Ecole f!an_r;aise de Rome - Mayen Age 125, no. 1 (20 13), http://mefrm.revues.org/l 036; BenJam1~ Weber, "La Bulle Cantate Domin? (4 Fevrier 1442) et les enjeux ethiopiens du Concile de Florence," Melanges de / 'Ecole Franr;aise de Rome - Moyen Age 122, no. 2 (20 10): 441- 9. 29 Notable exceptions are Wendy Laura Belcher, Abyssinia s Samuel Johnson: Ethiopian Thought in the Making ofan English Author (Oxford: Oxford Univers ity Press, 20 12); d' Al6s-Moner, Envoys of a Human God. 30 Edward Gibbon, The Histo,y of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (P hiladelphia : B. F. French, 1830), 2 4. 3 1 Paul Tiya mbe Zelcza, "1Hri an Dia p ra : Toward :.i I ba l I Ii t ry," African tudies Review 5 , no. I (20 I O : - .

?ut

Introduction

17

32 Early exam ples of scholarship on the African diaspora in Europe are Hans Werner Debrunner, Presence and Prestige, Africans in Europe . A History of Africans in Europe Before 1918 (Base l: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1979); Ivan Van Sertima, ed., African Presence in Early Europe (New Brunsw ick: Transaction Books, 1985); William Benjamin Cohen, The French Encounter with Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530- 1880 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003). The standard text of references is David Northrup, Africa s Discovery of Europe: 1450--1850 (New York: Oxford Uni versity Press, 2002), which inspired this very work. Recent examples are Kate Lowe, "Africa in the News in Renaissance Italy· News Extracts fro m Portugal about Western Africa Circu lating in Northern and Central Italy in the 1480s and 1490s," Italian Studies 65, no. 3 (November 20 I 0) : 310--28; Kate Lowe, " ' Representing' Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402- 1608," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (Sixth Series) 6, 17, no. I (2007): I 01 -28; Kate Lowe, "Black Africans' Religious and Cultural Assimilation to, or Appropriation of, Catholicism in Italy, 1470--1520," Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Reforme 31 , no. 2 (2008) : 67-86; Thomas Foster Earle and Kate Lowe, eds, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Cam bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Allison Blakely, Blacks in the Dutch World: The Evolution of Racial imagery in a Modern Society (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993); Mischa Honeck, Martin Klimke, and Anne Kuhlmann, Germany and the Black Diaspora: Points of Contact, 1250--1914 (New York : Berghahn Books, 2013). 33 Prime examples of this trend are Jonathan Miran, Red Sea Citizens: Cosmopolitan Society and Cultural Change in Massawa (B loomington: Indiana Uni versity Press, 2009); James De Lorenzi, Guardians of the Tradition: Historical Writing in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Rochester: Uni versity of Roch ester Press, 2015). 34 Some eminent examples of this body of works, which offers pri celess references to th encounter, are Gomes Eanes de Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest o/Guinea, trans. C. Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, Works of the Hak luyt Society, 2 vols (Cam bridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 1963); Joao de Barros and Diogo do Couto, Da Asia de Joao de Barros dos feitos, que as Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista dos mares, e terras do Oriente. 13 in 24 vo ls. (Lisboa: Regia Officina Typografica, 1777), hereafter Barros and Couto, Da Asia de Joao de Barros. 35 Examples of this corp us are publications such as Alvares, Prester John of the Indies; and Saga Zaab's confession of fai th, Damiao de G6is, Fides, Religio, Moresqve JEthiopvm Svb Jmperio Preciosi Ioannis (Lovanii : Ex offici na Rutgeri Rescij , 1540), see Chapter 7 36 In this category are Comissao Executiva das Comemorayoes do v Centenario da Morte do Infante D. Henrique, Monumenta Henricina, 15 vo ls. (Coi mbra, 1960--1 974), hereafter cited simply as Monumenta Henricina; Renato Lefevre, "Documenti pontifici sui rapporti con l'Etiopia nei secoli XV e XVI," Rassegna di Studi Etiopici V (1947): 17-41, Renato Lefevre, " Documenti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua atti vi ta romana nel sec. XVI," Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 24 (1969): 74-133 ; Osvaldo Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici (Roma: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2003). 37 EA I 59---65 and 162-5; 2: 948; Belcher, Abyssinia s Samuel Johnson, 18-20. 38 On the issue, see Herve Pennec and Dimitri Toubkis, "Refl ections on the Notions of 'Empire' and ' Kingdom ' in Seventeenth-Century Ethiopia: Royal Power and Local Power," Journal ofEarly Modern History 8, no. 3/4 (2004): 229-58. 39 Siegbert Uhlig and Alessandro Bausi, eds, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, 5 vo ls (Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 2003- 20 14).

Part I

The Mediterranean way

1

..:

~ C:

:, 0

(.)

C: