Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402–1555

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 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 Ethiopian- Adali War. Thereafter, the arrival of the Jesuits in the Horn 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. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Transculturalisms, 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 modern contacts and exchanges among the states, polities and entrepreneurial organizations of Europe; Asia, including the Levant and East India/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:

• 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 Mingjun Lu

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Commedia dell’ Arte and the Mediterranean Charting journeys and mapping ‘Others’ Erith Jaffe-Berg

Early Modern Catholics, Royalists, and Cosmopolitans English transnationalism and the Christian commonwealth Brian C. Lockey

English Colonial Texts on Tangier, 1661–1684 Imperialism and the politics of resistance Karim Bejjit The African Prester John and the Birth of Ethiopian-European Relations, 1402–1555

Matteo Salvadore Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 First published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2017 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 for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN: 978-1-4724-1891-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-61229-4 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 A Lella ed Elio Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Contents

List of illustrations viii Preface ix

Introduction 1

PART I The Mediterranean way 19

1 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, 1400s–1526 128 7 A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 153 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 8 Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 180 Conclusion 203

Appendix 210 Bibliography 212 Index 229 Illustrations

Maps 1.1 The world of the encounter: The Mediterranean, 1400–1550 20 4.1 The world of the encounter: The Indian run, 1400–1550 87 5.1 The world of the encounter: The Indian Ocean and Red Sea worlds, 1400–1550 111 5.2 The world of the encounter: The Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 1400–1550 120

Figures 1.1 The Kingdom of Ethiopia according to Fra Mauro Mappamondo di Fra Mauro (1450 ca.) 29 1.2 Cosmographical sketch from Zorzi’s manuscript 31 2.1 Alfonso’s memorandum 41 3.1 Copy of the letter of indulgence bestowed to the Ethiopians in Constance 57 3.2 Antonio di Pietro Averlino (aka Filarete), “Porta del Filarete,” St. Peter’s Basilica, 1445 61 3.3 View of Santo Stefano degli Abissini in the 1750s 72 7.1 Title page of Legatio David Aethiopiae (1533) 157 8.1 Title page of Modus Baptizandi (1549) 188 8.2 Title page of Missa qua Ethiopes (1549) 189 8.3 Title page of Testamentum Novum (1549) 190 8.4 Example of correspondence between Tesfa Seyon and Roman

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 personalities 191 8.5 Ritratto dell’Imperatore Atana de Dinghel 192 8.6 Example of correspondence between Giovanni and Tesfa Seyon 196 Preface

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 of Ramusio’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 Mag- gioli, 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 explaining what they were doing as part of their training, and then he told me what I had heard from my father for most of my 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 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 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 I would thank them in the preface of my first book. I am also grateful to a variety of people from my days in Philadelphia, and in particular to the following exceptional individuals: Teshale Tibebu was the best doctoral advisor I could have hoped for. He supported me by offering a balanced x Preface mixture of praise and criticism and, more important, he trusted me with the free- dom 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 Northrup’s Africa’s Discovery 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-Uthoff for 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 modern Ethiopia and drive to deprovin- cialize 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 naïvely 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 of my 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 long journey. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 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 texts, but I must thank those who went beyond their duties to help me: Andreina Rita at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Gianfranco Armando at the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, and Rosalba Guarnieri at the Biblioteca Comunale di Palermo. At GUST I must also thank my generous and supportive dean, Ali Ansari, for providing me with the necessary flexibility that allowed me to complete my manuscript while heading one of his departments. I must also thank Robert Cook, Preface xi 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 modern Italian vernaculars, and my good friends and colleagues Thorsten Botz and Manal 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. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Introduction

“We who profess Christianity ought to be ashamed of ourselves, since the Ethiopi- ans seem to surpass us in regard to the cult and observance of the religion.” Adamus Carolus to Damião de Góis, 28 October 15401

In 1291, Giovanni Mauro da Carignano was appointed rector of the church of San Marco al Molo in Genoa’s old port, the Madraccio. As the priest began to attend to his flock of seafarers, he must have looked for ways to increase his alms and quickly realized the potential of his location. Located at the very center of Genoa’s burgeoning thalassocracy, whose tentacles stretched throughout the Mediterra- nean and beyond, Carignano started to offer his patrons navigational material and information, turning his privileged position into a business so lucrative it attracted the ire of the city’s bishop. Inspired by conversations with mariners and traders who had been to faraway places, at some point in the 1320s Carignano must have decided to formalize his geographical knowledge by producing a portolan of the Mediterranean.2 His chart departed significantly from the copycat mapmaking style of medieval Europe, one that had been recycling ancient knowledge with little basis in reality. On the contrary, the priest included an impressive degree of novel details on the Nile Valley, where he located a “Terra Abaise” [Abyssinia] inhabited by “Christiani Nigri” [Black Christians].3 Some clues as to Carignano’s source of information on what was at the time a very remote place in the European mind would be found, almost two centuries later, in Jacopo Filippo Foresti’s (1434–1520) Supplementum Chronicarum (1483):

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 A priest of Genoa, provost of San Marco and famous man indeed, published a tractate, which he named “The Map,” wherein, writing much about the condition of this people, he reported that Prester John ruled over them like a patriarch, and that 127 archbishops were subordinate to him, each of whom, he said, had 20 bishops. . . . in the period of [Pope] Clement V, in the year of our salvation 1306, this same Emperor [Prester John] sent 30 ambassadors to the King of Spain, and offered him help against the infidels. Approach- ing Avignon and Clement V Pontifex Maximus with reverence, and having 2 Introduction been thoroughly instructed by many apostolic letters, they came to Rome to visit the thresholds of the apostles Peter and Paul. After visiting these, they returned joyfully to their own [lands]. But, since they had remained at Genoa for many days awaiting the season for sailing, they left in writing, according to request, many things (as it happened) about their own rites, customs, and lands, having written [about these], they left [what they had written], which the same author reported.4

On any given day in 1306, Carignano can be imagined in the Madraccio, peering down at the docks from his rectory’s window. The port must have been teeming with activity as galleys were loading and unloading goods and passengers: in many cases the two were one and the same, as the Genoese were among the most rapacious slave traders of the Mediterranean and Genoa was a prime hub for the trade. Genoa’s slave trade targeted mostly Arabs and Eastern Europeans, but chained Africans were not an uncommon sight: already in 1286, the city’s slave population had motivated the Dominican Giovanni Balbi (n.a.–1298) to include considerations on both slavery and color in his Latin dictionary.5 What must have been exceedingly uncommon to Carignano was the sight of a peculiar group of Africans, neither wearing chains nor wretched in their appearance walking about on their own and making inquiries about sailing to the East, probably to Alexan- dria. As the maritime republic enjoyed special relations with the Mamluk sultanate, the visitors were in the right place and likely found the transport they sought, but not before entertaining Carignano with their story. It can be speculated that the party had found its way to Europe by embarking on one of the many Venetian and Genoese galleys that connected Alexandria and various Levantine ports to multiple ports on the Italian peninsula. Upon reaching Italy and learning that Pope Clement V (1305–1314) was in fact in Avignon – where he would later move his court and start the eponymous papacy – they traveled to France, later they visited Rome, and finally they reached Genoa in search of a safe passage back east. As to the purpose of the mission, the Ethiopian emperor Wedem Arad (1299–1314) came to be known for his aggressive expansionist policies, which attracted much scorn from neighboring Muslim communities.6 One could speculate that upon learning of the ongoing conflicts between Chris- tians and Muslims in the Mediterranean basin, the sovereign probably wondered whether he could find worthy allies against the common enemy and opted to dispatch a mission to Europe. It is more likely, however, that Carignano’s visitors were simply monks making Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 pilgrimage to the same European locales that in the ensuing centuries attracted scores of Ethiopians: a clerical identity and purpose would be in line with their visit to the pontiff. If so, claiming to be on a mission on behalf of their sovereign could have simply been a ploy to elicit support: they could have represented themselves as “ambassadors” for the sake of convenience or been mistaken for such by their interlocutors. As to what Foresti refers to as their visit “to the King of Spain” [ad regem Hispaniarum], the monks could have dressed in diplomatic garb their pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, one of many loci of devotions Introduction 3 that Ethiopian pilgrims would visit time and again in the following centuries. Had the Ethiopians been pilgrims, they could have hailed not from Ethiopia but from Jerusalem, where an Ethiopian clerical community had existed at least since the Middle Ages and through which in the ensuing centuries countless Ethiopians and Europeans transited as they undertook the journey to and from Ethiopia. All in all, there can be no type of conclusive interpretation of the Ethiopian transit through Genoa; yet, it remains extremely significant because it is the first recorded case of an Ethiopian visit to Europe and, if accepted as an embassy, also the first recorded African embassy to a European sovereign. The few toponyms Carignano included in his map, along with the alleged commentary, documented not only the first timid Ethiopian steps into Europe but also the equally timid European attempts to move past a variety of myths and misconceptions of ancient and medieval derivation as to the existence, identity, and location of Christian communities beyond the Middle East. More generally, the visit adumbrates the emergence of an encounter between the Kingdom of Ethiopia and various polities in Western Mediterranean Europe. It presents tropes that will appear in similar guises time and again in the ensuing centuries: Ethiopian embassies seeking Christian allies, pious Ethiopian monks defying the odds of early modern travel to find salvation and knowledge at the heart of Western Christendom, European traders seeking commercial opportunities, and lay and ordained intellectuals, chroniclers, and mapmakers grappling with the notion of a country to be found in the Indies and populated by Black Christians. However, as much as the visit is significant and anticipates things to come, it remains an outlier: no other Ethiopian mission to Europe was recorded until almost a century later, and neither the transit through Genoa nor the possible visit to Avignon produced any relevant consequence for later interactions.7 To the contrary, starting in the early 1400s and specifically with the Ethiopian embassy to the Republic of Venice in 1402, Ethiopian and European agents entertained relations grounded on recurring and, to a certain degree, predictable dynamics of interaction that connected disparate events, personalities, and locales over a complex matrix that encompassed 150 years of exchanges over three continents. This vast and translocal body of exchanges and its cultural by-products are the subject of this volume. I define the early modern Ethiopian-Europeanencounter as the combined experience of lay and ordained Ethiopians and Europeans who, either on behalf of the polities to which they belonged or as independent agents, traveled, either with their feet or with their mind, beyond the Arab world to seek power, profit, or Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 knowledge. Some Ethiopian and European agents went so far as to create diasporic communities, embracing transcultural practices and identities and, at times, even undergoing a rather extensive metamorphosis by fully embracing life in the new host society. The experience of Ethiopian pilgrims and representatives as active agents of transcontinental discovery is particularly remarkable because, in spite of their physical appearance, they were welcomed as intellectuals and diplomats in a variety of European locales. The same societies that were quickly becoming familiar with the callous trade in African bodies and the related categories 4 Introduction of racial difference, which would shape world history to this day, extended the Ethiopians deference and respect. These agents operated over a complex network of locales in the Mediterranean, Red, and Arabian Sea basins, as far west as Lis- bon and as far east as Cochin on the Malabar Coast, in an encounter world that stretched over three continents. Despite the arduous communication and transportation through this vast territory, individuals, artifacts, and, most important, knowledge circulated over surprising distances and, at times, with equally surprising efficiency. For example, between the early 15th and the early 16th centuries, a fragment of the True Cross seems to have been transported from Venice to Ethiopia through the Middle East, and from Ethiopia to Portugal via the Indian and Atlantic Oceans for a grand total of about 30,000 kilometers. In the 16th century, the most traveled agent discussed in this volume journeyed from Portugal to Ethiopia via Goa, from there to Rome through the Ottoman Empire, back to Ethiopia around Africa, and again around Africa to Portugal, for an astonishing total of 60,000 kilometers.8 As remarkably cosmopolitan and enterprising individuals operating as pilgrims, traders, and ambassadors traveled from one side of the encounter world to the other, they shared their knowledge of their own societies with their hosts and, upon returning to their land, they shared with their fellow countrymen what they had observed during their travels. In the case of prolonged journeys, they made their interlocutors privy to the acculturation they had witnessed and experienced themselves. As they operated between worlds, Ethiopian and European brokers contributed to discursive formations that bore on the age of exploration and more generally on both Ethio- pian and European awareness of what lay on the other side of the Muslim divide. In Europe, the cultural intercourse between Ethiopians and Europeans yielded a substantial body of knowledge in the form of travel literature and theological, linguistic, and geographical treatises that will be referred to as the Ethiopianist library, the first body of European knowledge dedicated to a specific African society south of the Sahara. As will become clear in the next chapters, Ethiopians are to be regarded as the undisputed initiators of the encounter, but as they ventured into Europe to plant the seed of relations that would unfold for over two centuries, they found very fertile soil, nurtured by European anxiety and curiosity: they shared their stories with heads of states and intellectuals and came to be associated with European fantasies regarding the unknown regions beyond the relatively familiar Arab world. Hence, the actual encounter did not unfold in a discursive vacuum but, rather, was grafted onto Europe’s preexisting planetary consciousness; one that, until the age of exploration, was predicated more on myth than reality.9 In the European mind, Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Ethiopians, their kingdom, and, in particular, their sovereign came to be associated with a variety of legendary figures, first and foremost that of Prester John. The myth of Prester John was first recorded by Otto of Freising (1114–1158), who in his Chronica sive Historia de duabus civitatibus (1145) narrated a rumor of “a certain John, a king and priest who dwells beyond Persia and Armenia in the uttermost East. . . . It is said that he is a lineal descendant of the Magi, of whom mention is made in the Gospel.”10 Within decades, rumors and myths found expression in what came to be known as the Letter of Prester John, which the Introduction 5 imaginary sovereign had supposedly dispatched to the Byzantine emperor Manuel Komnenos (1143–1180). The letter, which associated the imaginary sovereign and his kingdom with several mythological constructs of ancient and medieval imagination – such as the Fountain of Youth, the Earthly Paradise, and the Gates of Alexander – was quickly disseminated through Europe in multiple versions.11 In the letter, the imaginary sovereign referred to his domain as extending over “three Indies,” which in the European parlance of the time corresponded to an ill- defined tripartite division of the land masses beyond the Arab world into Lesser, Greater, and Middle India. In general terms, the first corresponded mostly to the northern portion of the Indian subcontinent and would often stretch well into central Asia, the second corresponded to the southern portion of the subcontinent and the coast beyond, and Middle India was identified with East Africa – the Nile, rather than the Red Sea, would usually mark the separation between Asia and Africa.12 The confused geographical notions of the era afforded the discourse on the Prester, and especially the issue of his location, a good degree of latitude: whereas the European imagination initially located the Prester in Asia, within the ensuing two centuries the sovereign would find his way to Middle India. Like- wise, Ethiopians in Europe would often be referred to as Indians and at times their faith would be associated with the evangelistic activities of Thomas the Apostle. The relocation was the by-product of facts, hearsay, and conjectures that, between the 13th and the 14th centuries, reshaped the discourse on what lay beyond the familiar confines of the Middle East. On the one hand, starting in the mid-13th century, missionaries dispatched to the Far East, to the Mongol court in Karakorum, brought back no evidence of the Asian Prester.13 On the other hand, a new discourse on an African Prester John began to emerge in connection with the Holy Land: for example, upon returning from his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1335, the Italian pilgrim Jacopo da Verona related that

They are black Ethiopians from among the people of Prester John, who is one of the greatest princes in the world. Those Nubians sing for the whole day and the whole night. They consecrate fermented bread . . . They always carry, as I have said, a cross in their hand, even in the presence of the Sultan and in the presence of the Saracens, and they pay no tribute through the entire land of the Sultan. Also, however often the sepulcher of Christ is opened, they enter without [paying] money or tribute; and the reason for this is that Prester John, the Lord of Nubia and Ethiopia, has the potential within his own realm to divert the Nile river . . . If that land did not receive this river, it would be Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 wholly uninhabitable, as evidently [is the case for] all of Egypt; and, similarly, Prester John is more powerful than the Sultan.14

The statement, the oldest extant reference to an African Prester John, goes hand in hand with Angelino Dulcert’s 1339 portolan chart. Also known as Dalorto, the Majorcan mapmaker stopped short of including the Prester and his kingdom, but referred to him in one of the chart’s legends, which explains that the “Saracens of Nubia” [Nubia Saracenorum] were at war with the “Christians of Nubia and 6 Introduction Ethiopia, in the dominion of Prester John.”15 Both references are symptomatic of a paradigm shift that, over time, turned the Prester into an African sovereign to be identified with the Christian rule of Ethiopia. As for Carignano, although his informants may have belonged to the same pilgrimaging milieu, and while he was certainly familiar with the Prester’s myth, there is no evidence other than Foresti’s word to suggest that he proposed any association between the sovereign and what he outlined on his map as a Christian country on the upper Nile. Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that the visitors to Genoa could have known about this European construct, let alone have invoked it: it is more likely that they simply presented themselves as representatives of a powerful Christian African king. It was probably Foresti who, operating in a rather different context – one in which Prester John was the sovereign of Ethiopia – made the interpolation. Carignano’s interlocutors, for their part, certainly did not refer to themselves as subjects of Prester John – something that Ethiopians would start to do much later.16 One is left wondering whether the Ethiopian visitors shared the name of their sovereign with either Carignano or other interlocutors. In the case of the Genoese cartographer, there is no evidence that they did, and Foresti’s use of the general title of Prester John suggests that he was also oblivious to the specific name of the sovereign. However, an oblique reference to the party found in a different document indicates that, at some point during their journey, the monks shared the name of their sovereign with some of their interlocutors. In an apocryphal letter by Prester John to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (1316–1378) from around 1370, among many elements born out of the European imagination one finds references to the Ethiopian passage through Genoa. Prester John relates that at “other times we sent you an embassy and we did not receive any answer” and, more important, refers to himself as “your brother King Voddomaradeg, son of the most excellent King of Ethiopia.”17 The document, like the more famous Let- ter of Prester John, combined fiction with reality, facts with hearsay and sheer invention. However, although the reference to a previous embassy could be sheer invention rather than a reference to Carignano’s interlocutors, the name Voddo- maradeg happens to be surprisingly similar to that of the Ethiopian sovereign at the time of Carignano’s embassy, Wedem Arad. Hence, one can speculate that the visitors to Genoa shared more with Carignano and other interlocutors than Foresti conveys and that some of the information found its way into the apocryphal letter. Jacopo da Verona seems to have been the first author not only to locate the Prester in Africa but also to entertain a belief he had heard in the Holy Land: that Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the Prester had power over the source of the Nile. The possibility of diverting or even shutting off the most important river of the Arab world, as can be imagined, was rather attractive for crusade-bent Europeans intent on devising ways to reclaim Jerusalem, and it should be considered an important aspect of the discourse that for centuries resonated through the encounter world. Controlling the Nile was an attribute that, for obvious reasons of geographical proximity, could be ascribed only to an African Prester, and not to his Asian predecessor. Unlike the vast majority of mythical attributes ascribed to the Prester by the European Introduction 7 imagination, his dominion over the Nile is not of European derivation. To the contrary, its origin lies deep in the heart of Ethiopia’s religious-political system and its complex relations with Egypt. Since its foundation in late antiquity, the Ethiopian Church had been acepha- lous, dependent on the Alexandria-based Coptic Church for its head – the abun. After his death, the Ethiopian emperor would request the Patriarch of Alexandria to dispatch a successor to fill the vacant seat. This unique arrangement, which for Ethiopia was one of voluntary dependence, satisfied a variety of purposes.18 Domestically, an Egyptian abun barely capable of speaking the language of the Ethiopian elites and neutral, in terms of identity, to the complex ethnic and regional balance of the kingdom played an important unifying role that was instrumental to the monarchy’s well-being.19 Geopolitically, the special relationship guaranteed an important channel of communication and negotiation between the two polities on opposite ends of the Nile basin. In each country, religious minorities were, to a large extent, pawns of negotiation that could be used by Egyptian and Ethiopian sovereigns to gain leverage against their opponents. Egyptian consent to dispatching the abun was predicated on good relations between the two countries and on the Ethiopians’ safeguarding of its Muslim subjects, which in turn was predicated on fair treatment of Christians in Egypt. At some point before the early 13th century, when the Fatimid (909–1171) and the Zagwe (900–1270) ruled on opposite ends of the river, Ethiopian anxieties about the dispatch of an abun, Egyptian anxieties about the flow of the Nile, and the precarious condition of religious minorities in both countries all contributed to the emergence of the myth of the African Prester John.20 This body of preexisting discursive formations describing a country and a sovereign that did not exist outside of the European mind – what can be referred to as pseudo-Ethiopianist knowledge – is a vast and complicated topic upon which much ink has already been spilled and which lies beyond the scope of this volume. It will be discussed inasmuch as it affected the evolution of the encounter: myths and fantasies about the Prester and his kingdom had a profound bearing on the establishment and development of Ethiopian-European relations. The exchanges thrived on the intertwining of old myths with the fluid geopolitical realities and the discourses of the early age of exploration – firstand foremost the anxiety that both Islamic and Christian expansion generated among Europeans, Ethiopians, and Muslims alike. Furthermore, whereas the myths that informed the encounter were primarily European, traces of comparable discourses could be found in Ethiopia, with the invocation of a Frankish king who would save the country from Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 its enemies. By the mid-1500s, myths and fantasies that had enabled Ethiopian-European relations, such as that of Prester John, began to dissipate in the face of European exploration, while the Counter-Reformation Catholicism first starved and then killed the ecumenism and tolerance underlying over a century of exchanges.21 Hence, although relations continued to unfold well into the 1600s, by the mid-1500s their nature had changed dramatically and can no longer be considered an encounter. What for more than a century had been a diffused, multi-centered set of relations grounded 8 Introduction on mutual respect and curiosity turned into a binomial confrontation between Ethiopians and the newly founded Society of Jesus, determined to enforce Catho- lic orthodoxy in the country. Hence, the Jesuit phase in Ethiopian-European relations, after which Ethiopian rulers prevented missionaries from setting foot in their kingdom and mostly kept the kingdom from contacts with Catholic Europe, is better treated as a separate experience.22 This is the first comprehensive study exclusively dedicated to dissecting 15th- and 16th-century Ethiopian-European relations in the context of European and Ottoman expansion, along with the transcultural knowledge and identities that 150 years of exchanges generated.23 Written as a multi-centered text sensitive to the important contributions that scholars hailing from cultural and literary studies have made to the field of African and diaspora studies, it aspires to fill a substantial lacuna in the historiography of Ethiopia, Ethiopian-European relations, and the African diaspora. To this day, early modern Ethiopian history and the early phase of Ethiopian-European relations – and, more generally, African-European relations – remain largely understudied. Although the latter, in particular the Afri- can diaspora in Europe, has attracted substantial interest in recent years, the historiography of early modern Ethiopia is still in its infancy. The dearth of scholarship is both disappointing and surprising when one considers that, as one of few sub- Saharan polities with a writing system and a developed bureaucracy, Ethiopia offers an abundance of precolonial sources.24 Of course, I am far from being the first scholar to tackle Ethiopian-European exchanges, and like anyone who embarks on a comprehensive project, I cannot but be grateful enough to those who have paved the way. Among the first scholars who began to shed light on the encounter were 19th-century Church historians concerned with documenting and often celebrating the accomplishments of their religious order: although one would expect them to adopt a hagiographic approach, some of the scholarship they produced is rather objective and valuable, and their contributions to unearthing and editing missionary sources probably remain unrivaled to this day.25 Following in their footsteps were the founding fathers of modern Ethiopian studies who, albeit primarily concerned with histoire évé- nementielle, made significant contributions to the history of Ethiopian-European relations and produced not only accessible transcriptions of the Ethiopian royal chronicles but also commentary that remains among the best scholarship of Ethio- pia’s early modern political and literary history.26 However, it must be remembered that some of the most productive Ethiopianist scholars of this generation wrote in the age of the scramble for Africa and colonialism and saw their scholar- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ship benefitting from an interest in African studies that was not always propelled by the most noble of motives.27 With the colonial era coming quickly, but not soon enough, to an end, studies in Ethiopian-European relations fell mostly into oblivion. Until the late 1990s, only a handful of scholars, mostly associated with the London-based Hakluyt Society, engaged with a few Ethiopia-related travel narratives; whereas Luciano Lefevre produced the most important collection of articles on the topic of the Ethiopian presence in Italy. Throughout the 1960s, Introduction 9 though African and African diaspora studies started to flourish, the topic of Ethiopian-European relations, with the exception of the Jesuit era, remained mostly untouched. The few recent contributions to the field have been produced either by scholars of early modern European studies or by Ethiopianists mostly trained in the positivist philological tradition typical of continental Ethiopian studies.28 In general, scholarship on early modern Ethiopia seems to remain, to this day, mostly disconnected from and oblivious to the larger fields of African studies and to the paradigm shifts that have changed, usually for the better, the face of African and colonial studies as well as the writing of history in recent decades.29 Still rather deaf to the interdisciplinary cross-fertilization that has benefited North American academia, Ethiopian studies is continuing the unabated march on the positivist-philological tracks that Leopold von Ranke and his disciples laid down in the 19th century. With a few worthy exceptions, contemporary Ethiopianists have been writing overly positivist scholarship and have published it in hyper- specialized journals and for the most part failed to engage larger historiographical debates in African and global history. One could facetiously quip that when Edward Gibbon mistakenly referred to Ethiopian existence as one of isolation, he had in fact a premonition on the fate of Ethiopianist scholars: “forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten.”30 If Ethiopianists have mostly remained oblivious to developments in African and diaspora studies, the latter have, by and large, ignored the Ethiopian presence in Europe and concerned themselves almost exclusively with the study of the slave trade, mostly in the Atlantic, and colonialism, mostly of the British and French variety, and their cultural by-products. Given the sheer primacy of the two heinous phenomena in the history and heritage of Africans, their preponderance in African and diaspora studies is hardly surprising. Nevertheless, shedding light on one of the most consequential phenomena in early modern and modern world history – the slave trade – should not work to the detriment of exploring less known but still important aspects of the African experience, such as that of the Ethiopian and, more generally, the African presence in early modern Europe. To this effect, it is worth quoting from the Presidential Address delivered by Paul Tiyambe Zeleza at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association:

We need to de-Atlanticize and de-Americanize the histories of African diasporas. In order for the field to grow, it is critical that the Afro-Atlantic and U.S. African American models of African diaspora studies be provincialized rather than universalized, as is the tendency among many of us in the U.S. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and Anglophone academies for whom the world beyond our borders can only be simulated copies of our own and for those elsewhere who are anxious to signal their cosmopolitan familiarity with the intellectual products of the world’s largest academic system by producing mimic histories.31

Thankfully, already before Zeleza’s call, the history of early modern African- European relations and of the African diaspora in Europe started to see important contributions and more recently has seen a proliferation of works that have been 10 Introduction broadening and problematizing the field, questioning ingrained assumptions and analytical categories, but much more work remains to be done.32 Substantial sections of this volume, concerned with the Ethiopian presence in Rome and Lisbon, fit with this new collection of works on the African diaspora in Europe. However, although the latter take almost exclusively a social or cultural history approach mostly geared toward micro-history, I opted to tell personal stories as part of larger regional and global trends. Furthermore, although the vast majority of these valuable contributions frame diasporic Africans simply in their European milieu, as an Africanist and a world historian, I strove to frame the history of the Ethiopian encounter with Europe in the context of regional and global dynamics and make it conversant with larger scholarly trends in African and world history.33 By the end of the volume, it will be clear that the hegemonic analytical models to which Zeleza referred, in particular those subscribing to notions of all-trumping color prejudice as a universal and timeless constant in European-African relations, do not quite fit the reality of the encounter. Because I strongly believe that any historian’s reading public should be first and foremost one of interested generalists as opposed to fellow specialists, and that the historian’s craft is ultimately about telling interesting stories rather than showcasing erudition, I strove to produce a volume that reads both as a rigorous analytical work and as an enjoyable narrative. To this purpose, I opted to confine historiographical considerations to the introduction, conclusion, and occasionally to the footnotes, while instead making generous use of quotations – more often than not, historical agents are the best narrators and their testimonies offer priceless insights into the spirit of the era. The volume is organized according to both chronological and spatial considerations. Part One is dedicated to the encounter in the 15th century: the first three chapters focus on three Mediterranean locales that saw the unfolding of the first episodes. Chapter 1 looks at Venice as the significant locus of both the first meaningful interactions and the first contributions to the Ethiopianist library; Chapter 2 is set between the eastern Iberian and the southern Italian peninsulas, within the boundaries of the Crown of Aragon, whose rulers in the first half of the 15th century found themselves engaged by Ethiopian sovereigns. Chapter 3 is dedicated to Rome and the emergence of both an interest in Ethiopia and of an Ethiopian community in the city. Chapter 4 shuttles back and forth between Lisbon and Por- tugal’s exploratory frontier and transitions the readers out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic and then Indian Ocean basins, where most of the 16th-century exchanges unfolded. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 The second part of the volume focuses on Ethiopian-European interactions in the context of Portuguese and Ottoman expansion. Whereas the organizing prin- ciple of the first part is primarily location, the second part is organized around the personal experiences of Ethiopian and European agents who wandered back and forth between worlds. Chapter 5 discusses the first exchange of embassies between Ethiopia and Portugal and follows the traces of Ethiopian and later Por- tuguese representatives as they sailed in both directions on the carreira da India (the Indian run) between Lisbon and Goa. Chapter 6 focuses on the most famous Introduction 11 episode of the encounter among nonspecialists, the Portuguese embassy that reached Ethiopia in 1520, but it also offers biographical sketches from the community of Europeans who already lived in Ethiopia’s roving capital in the 15th century and early 16th century. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the Portuguese embassy’s return to Portugal and to the complex and, at times, surreal events that unfolded along the Lisbon-Rome axis between the late 1520s and late 1530s and that ultimately triggered Portugal’s military expedition to Ethiopia. They involved, in addition to the Portuguese sovereign and the Roman pontiff, an Ethiopian ambassador turned prisoner in Lisbon, a Portuguese chaplain turned ambassador of the Ethiopian sovereign, a Portuguese barber turned patriarch, and various scholars across Europe. Chapter 8 discusses the contours of the military expedition and its aftermath along with the biographies of three key cross-cultural brokers whose experiences epitomize the transition into a separate era. Finally, the conclusion offers a few theoretical thoughts and historiographical polemics. This volume is based primarily on three corpora of sources. One comprises the traditional historiography of Ethiopia and Portugal. Ethiopia’s body of court history, known as the royal chronicles, offers much in terms of clues to the geopolitical context in which the agents of the encounter operated. However, the chronicles are mostly concerned with Ethiopian grandees, are highly politicized, celebratory, and cryptic, and they must be taken with caution. Other Ethiopian sources, such as hagiographies of saints, occasionally shed light on the events under consideration but overall were at best marginal to the reconstruction of the encounter. Compara- ble to the Ethiopian chronicles in purpose – that of celebrating the monarchy – but much more articulate and inclusive of both grandees and commoners is the body of sources that narrates both the history of the Portuguese monarchy and of its expansion overseas.34 The second corpus consists of itineraries, travel narratives, and treatises Euro- pean and, more rarely, Ethiopian authors produced either directly or through a third party. Most sources belonging in this category were printed as events unfolded for what was a burgeoning reading public with a penchant for the overseas. Although some manuscripts were either never turned into printed works or saw the press only in recent times, the vast majority of those who inked pages upon pages with information about Ethiopia, real or imagined, did so not for a distant posterity but, rather, for the consumption by contemporaries. Hence, their authors bore on the encounter as political, religious, or commercial agents and as contributors to the discourse that surrounded it.35 The third corpus includes archival documents, in most cases either personal Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 or official correspondence but also reports and documents concerning financial transactions. Belonging to this body of sources are diplomatic exchanges between Ethiopian and European sovereigns and between rulers and their envoys, as well as reports by European agents involved in overseas exploration. Part of this corpus is available in edited collections, but in many cases the latter offer documents that are either incomplete or whose transcription or translation is untrustworthy and must be checked against the original. Ethiopia’s relations with both the papacy and the Portuguese monarchy are the best documented and are easier to access, 12 Introduction thanks to impressive collections of edited documents, whereas sources from the Crown of Aragon can be accessed only in archival form.36 Before engaging the narrative, a brief review of key terminology is in order. Although the notion of an “age of exploration,” led by European explorers, has rightly come under scrutiny for a variety of reasons, among them the undue weight that it places on the European contribution to early modern globalization and the whitewashing of a phenomenon that resulted in massive violence and exploita- tion at the expense of non-Europeans, a viable alternative is yet to emerge. In the context of this volume, the concept of an age of exploration or an age of discovery is intended to refer to the European exploration of Africa’s coastline, a phenomenon whose significance is hardly deniable. Needless to say, the image of European pilots and sailors venturing bravely into the uncharted waters of the southern Atlantic should be balanced with the story of the pillaging, raiding, and trading in human beings for which they were responsible. Throughout the volume, “Europe” and “European” mostly refers to European locales, rulers, and polities that were involved in the encounter and that were found almost exclusively on the Italian and Iberian peninsulas. Throughout the period under consideration, with the partial exception of Burgundy, there are no traces of meaningful relations between Ethiopia and Ethiopians and Northern or Central European societies. To avoid using the cumbersome expression “Italian and Iberian peninsulas,” which properly delineates the contours of the region under consideration, I made liberal use of various expressions such as “Western Mediterranean” and “Mediterranean Europe” that would normally identify larger regions but should, in this case, be taken to refer to the Kingdom of Portugal, the Crown of Aragon, the Papal States, and the smaller principalities of the Italian peninsula. Throughout the period under consideration, the term “Ethiopia,” also spelled “Aethiopia,” was usually used in European sources to identify the mostly unknown world south of the Sahara, whereas the Kingdom of Ethiopia, which encompassed much of today’s northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, was mostly referred to as Abassia in Italian, Abexia in Portuguese, and Abyssinia in English: they are all renderings of the Geez “Habesha,” the Ethiopian self-designation used by highland Christians.37 For the sake of clarity, I used “Aethiopia” in the translation of sources that refer to sub-Saharan Africa as opposed to Ethiopia proper. Furthermore, my use of the term “Ethiopian” is intended to identify primarily Ethiopian Christians: in early modern Ethiopia, non-Christians could be either tolerated or persecuted, but they were consistently excluded from the political Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 process unless they converted and assimilated – hence, they are largely marginal to the exchanges under consideration. Likewise, my use of the term “African” should also be interpreted restrictively, as referring only to Africans south of the Sahara. Throughout the text, I referred to Ethiopians as well as other individuals hailing from Africa south of the Sahara as “Africans” and avoided using the cumbersome qualifier “sub-Saharan.” As to the nature of the Kingdom of Ethiopia, primary and secondary sources have long characterized it as either a kingdom or an empire, and its ruler as a king Introduction 13 or an emperor.38 I opted to refer to Ethiopia as a kingdom because this is the most common characterization in sources of the era, whereas I referred to Ethiopia’s negusa nagast, or king of kings, as either emperor or negus for the sake of brevity. Hence, in order to differentiate between the king of kings and subordinate negus, these are identified with the extensive title: for example, bahr negus, literally “king of the sea,” who was the ruler of Ethiopia’s coastal domains. As to the names of some of the volume’s protagonists, whereas European sources usually identified Ethiopians by the closest equivalent to their Ethiopian names, whenever possible I opted to use the deducible Ethiopian name, both in the main text and when quoting sources, in order to acknowledge their identity. Whereas Ethiopian sovereigns have historically been identified in primary and secondary sources by both birth and reign names, I opted to use birth names consistently throughout the manuscript. For all characters of consequence, the dates listed correspond to the dates of birth and death, the only exception being the heads of the Ethiopian, Coptic, and Roman churches and heads of state, for whom the dates provided delimit their years in office. Finally, as a volume narrating events unfolding over three continents and based on sources in Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, French, German, and a variety of other vernaculars as well as Geez and Arabic, spelling, translations, and trans- literations called for some choices. In order not to encumber the text with hard to read phonetic symbols unknown outside of the field of Ethiopian studies and to facilitate keyword searches on the Web, I decided against a rigorous transliteration system and adopted instead a simple romanization of Ethiopian and Arabic names and terms according to the spelling most common in the literature. How- ever, a standardized transliteration consistent with the rules set forth by the Ency clopaedia Aethiopica, which has become the standard in the field, can be found in the index.39

Notes 1 Damião de Góis, Damiani a Goes equitis Lusitani Aliquot opuscula (Louanii: Ex officina Rutgeri Rescij, 1544), i. 2 Portolan charts were navigational charts based on empirical observation and were commonly used in association with a compass. They were usually devoid of information on the interior. On portolan charts and Carignano, see Gaetano Ferro, La tradizione cartografica genovese e Cristoforo Colombo (Roma: Istituto poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1992), 30–3; David Woodward and J. B. Harley, The History of Cartography, 6 vols (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 1:333; Francesc Relaño,

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 The Shaping of Africa (Burlington: Ashgate, 2002), 55–6; Evelyn Edson, The World Map, 1300–1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 33–7; Armando Cortesão, History of Portu- guese Cartography, 2 vols (Lisboa: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1969–1971), vol. 1 (1969), 216–20. 3 Carignano’s map disappeared in Naples during World War II; the discussion is based on a low-quality photostatic reproduction available in the British Library (Giovanni da Carignano, MS. map signed: “Iohannes Presbyter rector Sancti Marci de portu Ianuae me fecit,” drawn by Giovanni da Carignano between 1306 and 1333, n.d.) and on the observations of Renato Lefevre, who seems to have been able to examine the 14 Introduction map before its destruction (Renato Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte seconda,” Annali Lateranensi IX (1945): 341–4). On Carignano’s encounter with the monks see R. A. Skelton, “An Ethiopian Embassy to Western Europe in 1306,” in Ethiopian Itineraries circa 1400–1524, ed. Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1958), 212–15; Charles Fraser Beckingham, “An Ethiopian Embassy to Europe c. 1310,” Journal of Semitic Studies 34, no. 2 (1989): 337–46; Renato Lefevre, “Presenze Etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del 1439,” Rassegna di studi Etiopici 23 (1967–1968): 7–8. 4 Jacopo Filippo Foresti, Supplementum chronicarum Jacobi Philippi Bergomensis (Brixiae: per B. de Boninis, 1485), 153–4. 5 Steven Epstein, Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 20–3. 6 On Wedem Raad or Wedem Arad, emperor of Ethiopia 1299–1314, see Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527, Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), 130–1; Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 4:1177. 7 A possible exception could be an alleged Ethiopian embassy to Rome in 1351, as cited in Johannes de Hildesheim’s (1310–1375) Historia Trium Regum. However, as it finds no confirmation in any other source, the reference is, at best, to private pilgrims rather than an actual embassy. Enrico Cerulli, Etiopi in Palestina. storia della comunità etiopica di Gerusalemme, 2 vols (Roma: Libreria dello Stato, 1943), 1:146. Lefevre, “Presenze etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del 1439,” 11. 8 On the True Cross see Chapter 1. The farthest traveled broker of the encounter is João Bermudes (see Chapters 7 and 8). 9 On the notion of planetary consciousness, see Mary Louise Pratt, Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (London: Routledge, 1992), 11–35. 10 Otto of Freising et al., The Two Cities: A Chronicle of Universal History to the Year 1146 a.d. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1928), 443–4. 11 On the Letter of Prester, see John Karl F. Helleiner, “Prester John’s Letter: A Mediae- val Utopia,” Phoenix 13, no. 2 (Summer 1959): 47–57; Vsevolod Slessarev and Prester John, Prester John: The Letter and the Legend (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1959); Gioia Zaganelli, La Lettera del Prete Gianni (Parma: Pratiche Editrice, 1990); and B. Hamilton, “Prester John and the Three Kings of Cologne,” in Prester John, the Mongols and the Ten Lost Tribes, ed. Charles Fraser Beckingham and Ber- nard Hamilton (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1996), 180–6. 12 “In Tribus Indiis,” in Zaganelli, La Lettera del Prete Gianni, 54. Charles Fraser Beck- ingham, The Achievements of Prester John: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered on 17 May 1966 (London: University of London (School of Oriental & African Studies); distributed by Luzac, 1966), 17; Relaño, The Shaping of Africa, 1–72. 13 The reference is to the Franciscans Giovanni da Pian del Carpine (1180–1252) and William of Rubruck (1220–1293), who traveled, separately, through the Mongol Empire in the mid-13th century. 14 Jacopo da Verona and Ugo Monneret de Villard, Liber peregrinationis (Roma: La Libreria dello Stato, 1950), 32. 15 Translated from the transcription in Ernest Théodore Hamy and Angelino Dulceri, La Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Mappemonde d’Angelo Dulceri de Majorque (1339) (Paris: H. Champion, 1903), 365. On Angelino Dulcert, also known as Angelino Dalorto, see Relaño, The Shaping of Africa, 55–6; Cortesão, History of Portuguese Cartography, 2:222–3. 16 This is correctly pointed out in Andrew Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Pro- jected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings,” Journal of Medieval History 39, no. 3 (2013): 12, whereas previous scholars, starting with Cerulli, made the assumption that Carignano identified his interlocutors with Prester John; see Beck- ingham, “An Ethiopian Embassy to Europe c. 1310,” 339; Skelton, “An Ethiopian Embassy to Western Europe in 1306,” 213; Enrico Cerulli, “Giovanni da Carignano e la cartografia dei paesi a sud dell’Egitto Agli inizi del secolo XIV,”Atti del XIV Introduction 15 Congresso geografico italiano (Bologna: Zanichelli, 1949), 507; Cortesão, History of Portuguese Cartography, 2:257. 17 Pistola del Presto Giovanni all’Imperatore Carlo IV, in Leone del Prete, Lettera inedita del Presto Giovanni all’imperatore Carlo IV, ed altra di Lentulo ai senatori romani sopra Gesù Cristo (Lucca: Tipographia dei figli di G. Rocchi, 1857), 9–11. 18 Haggai Erlich, The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002), 15–48. 19 Although the head 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 Ethio- pian 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), 1:13–14, 1:56, 2:414, and 1:799. Henceforth cited as EA. 20 The Prester’s alleged power on the Nile was first mentioned in an Arab source in the early 1200s; see Emery Van Donzel, “The Legend of the Blue Nile in Europe,” and Richard Pankhurst, “Ethiopia’s Alleged Control of the Nile,” both in The Nile: Histo- ries, Cultures, Myths, ed. Haggai Erlich and Israel Gershoni (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000), 121–30 and 25–38, respectively. 21 Although by the mid-1500s most myths related to the Prester would be dispelled, some such vastly exaggerated extensions of his domain survived, as one can observe in Orte- lius’s Africae Tabula Nova (1570), in which the Prester’s domain, along with the Nile, extends well into central Africa. Abraham Ortelius, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Lon- don: Officina Plantiniana, 1608); Relaño,The Shaping of Africa, 62–3, 208–9. 22 The Jesuit mission to Ethiopia has benefitted from a substantial body of scholarship in recent decades. The definitive text is the recently published Andreu Martínez d’Alós- Moner, Envoys of a Human God: The Jesuit Mission to Christian Ethiopia, 1557–1632 (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Other key contributions are Hervé Pennec, Des Jésuites au royaume du Prêtre Jean, (Éthiopie). Stratégies, rencontres et tentatives d’implantation, 1495–1633 (Paris: Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian, 2003); Leonardo Cohen, The Missionary Strategies of the Jesuits in Ethiopia (1555–1632) (Wiesbaden: Harras- sowitz, 2009); along with Camillo Beccari’s 15-volume collection of primary sources, Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores occidentales inediti a saeculo XVI 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 Centu- ries): 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.illinois.edu/10.3/forum_salvadore.html; Matteo Salvadore,

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 “Muslim Partners, Catholic Foes: The Selective Isolation of Gondärine Ethiopia,” Northeast African Studies 12, no. 1 (2012): 51–72. 23 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. 24 In this regard, it should suffice to consider that for the period under consideration, Tad- desse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, remains, to this day, the only book-length contribution to Ethiopian historiography. 16 Introduction 25 Marcellino (da Civezza), Storia universale delle missioni francescane, 9 vols in 11 (Roma: Tipografia Tiberina, 1857–1895), vol. 1 (1861), hereafter cited as Marcellino, Storia universale; Teodosio Somigli, Etiopia Francescana nei documenti dei secoli XVII e XVIII Preceduti da cenni storici sulle relazioni con l’Etiopia durante I sec. XIV E XV, vol. 1 (Firenze: Quaracchi, 1928); Mauro da Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni Romano-Etiopiche (Città del Vaticano: Tipografia Poli- glotta Vaticana, 1929). 26 The reference is primarily but not exclusively to Carlo Conti Rossini (1872–1949), Enrico Cerulli (1898–1988), Ignazio Guidi (1844–1935), René Basset (1855–1924), and Jules Perruchon (1853–1907). 27 In particular, one of the scholars whose work will be quoted throughout the volume, Enrico Cerulli (1898–1988), was directly involved in the crimes of the Italian colonial regime in Ethiopia. Richard Pankhurst, “Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia: A History of Their Discussion, from the 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, but also his colonial past has been conveniently whitewashed by fellow Ethiopian studies specialists. See Lanfranco Ricci’s entry on Cerulli in EA 1:709–10, which bears no reference to Cerulli’s colonial responsibilities and attempted prosecution. 28 The most important works associated with the Hakluyt Society are Beckingham, “An Ethiopian Embassy to Europe c. 1310”; Charles Fraser Beckingham, “European Sources for Ethiopian History before 1634,” Paideuma 33 (1987): 167–78; Charles Fraser Beckingham, “Notes on an Unpublished Manuscript of Francisco Alvares : Ver- dadera informaçam das terras do Preste Joam das Indias,” Annales d’Éthiopie 4, no. 1 (1961): 139–54; Charles Fraser Beckingham and Bernard Hamilton, eds, Prester John, the Mongols, and the Ten Lost Tribes (Aldershot: Ashgate Variorum, 1996); Charles Fraser Beckingham 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 of the Galla (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954); Francisco Alvares et al., The Prester John of the Indies; a True Rela- tion of the Lands of the 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 (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1958); Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford, “Some Medieval Theories about the Nile,” The Geographical Journal 114, nos. 1/3 (1949): 6–29; George Wynn Brereton Hunt- ingford and Richard Pankhurst, The Historical Geography of Ethiopia from the First Century ad to 1704, Fontes Historiae Africanae Series Varia (Oxford: British Acad- emy, 1989); Luciano Lefevre’s many contributions are cited throughout the volume. Examples of scholarship on the African diaspora written primarily from an European studies viewpoint are Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings”; Benjamin Weber, “Gli Etiopi a Roma nel Quat- trocento: ambasciatori politici, negoziatori religiosi o pellegrini?” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Moyen Âge 125, no. 1 (2013), http://mefrm.revues.org/1036; Ben- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 jamin Weber, “La Bulle Cantate Domino (4 Février 1442) et les enjeux éthiopiens du Concile de Florence,” Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome – Moyen Âge 122, no. 2 (2010): 441–9. 29 Notable exceptions are Wendy Laura Belcher, Abyssinia’s Samuel Johnson: Ethiopian Thought in the Making of an English Author (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012); d’Alós-Moner, Envoys of a Human God. 30 Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Philadel- phia: B. F. French, 1830), 234. 31 Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, “African Diasporas: Toward a Global History,” African Studies Review 53, no. 1 (2010): 5. Introduction 17 32 Early examples 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 (Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1979); Ivan Van Sertima, ed., African Presence in Early Europe (New Brunswick: 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 University Press, 2002), which inspired this very work. Recent examples are Kate Lowe, “Africa in the News in Renaissance Italy: News Extracts from Portu- gal about Western Africa Circulating in Northern and Central Italy in the 1480s and 1490s,” Italian Studies 65, no. 3 (November 2010): 310–28; Kate Lowe, “ ‘Represent- ing’ 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. 1 (2007): 101–28; Kate Lowe, “Black Africans’ Religious and Cultural Assim- ilation 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 (Cambridge: 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 Dias- pora: 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 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009); James De Lorenzi, Guardians of the Tradition: Historical Writing in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2015). 34 Some eminent examples of this body of works, which offers priceless references to the encounter, are Gomes Eanes de Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, trans. C. Raymond Beazley and Edgar Prestage, Works of the Hakluyt Soci- ety, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963); João de Barros and Diogo do Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista dos mares, e terras do Oriente. 13 in 24 vols. (Lisboa: Regia Officina Typografica, 1777), hereafter Barros and Couto,Da Asia de João de Barros. 35 Examples of this corpus are publications such as Alvares, Prester John of the Indies; and Saga Zaab’s confession of faith, Damião de Góis, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Æthi- opvm Svb Imperio Preciosi Ioannis (Lovanii: Ex officina Rutgeri Rescij, 1540), see Chapter 7. 36 In this category are Comissão Executiva das Comemorações do v Centenario da Morte do Infante D. Henrique, Monumenta Henricina, 15 vols. (Coimbra, 1960–1974), 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 attivita romana nel sec. XVI,” Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 24 (1969): 74–133; Osvaldo Raineri, Let- tere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici (Roma: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2003).

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 37 EA 1: 59–65 and 162–5; 2: 948; Belcher, Abyssinia’s Samuel Johnson, 18–20. 38 On the issue, see Hervé Pennec and Dimitri Toubkis, “Reflections on the Notions of ‘Empire’ and ‘Kingdom’ in Seventeenth-Century Ethiopia: Royal Power and Local Power,” Journal of Early Modern History 8, no. 3/4 (2004): 229–58. 39 Siegbert Uhlig and Alessandro Bausi, eds, Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, 5 vols (Wies- baden: Harrassowitz, 2003–2014). This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Part I The Mediterranean way Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

0 250 500 750 1000 km

0 200 400 600 miles Cologne Antwerp

Y Constance D Dijon N U ATLAN TIC G R Trent U OCEAN B Murano Capodistria Padua Ferrara Venice Genoa Pisa Bologna Avignon Rimini Florence PAPAL A d Black Sea Santiago Ancona r STATES ia Bosphoros de Campostela tic Rome Se Strait Braga a Galata Trebizond Barcelona Naples Constantinople Coimbra Rio Tejo Valencia Santarem Majorca Lisbon e Palermo M d i t Messina e r Ceuta r Rhodes a Crete n e Cyprus a n (1487–1571) S e a

Alexandria Jerusalem

Canary Cairo Suez Islands Sinai Peninsula Tuat Oasis N Crown of Aragon i le R R iv Ottoman Empire in 1450 Venetian Republic e e r d

Ottoman gains by 1520s Kingdom of Portugal al-Qusayr S e Ottoman gains by 1566 Mamluk Sultanate, conquered by Ottomans 1512–20 a Medina

Map. 1.1 The world of the encounter: The Mediterranean, 1400–1550. Cox Cartographic Ltd. 1 Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459

On a spring day in 1402, a Florentine man named Antonio Bartoli and his African companions found themselves floating on Venice’s canals. Venetians dwelt on the frontier between Mediterranean reality and oriental imagination, and compared with the average European, were an open-minded and tolerant lot. Yet, even by Venice’s cosmopolitan standards, the party was unusual, as the visitors hailed from the land of the “Eminent lord Prester John, lord of the regions of India.”1 In the early 1400s, the world beyond the Muslim belt that stretched from Morocco to the Caspian Sea was still largely unknown, even to the worldliest merchants of the sprawling thalassocracy. Venetian merchants were well established in the most lucrative market cities of the Eastern Mediterranean, and their ears were familiar with tales of oriental wealth and refinement. Nonetheless, Africa south of the Sahara was still draped in mystery. It had been a source of precious commodi- ties, slaves, and curiosity since antiquity, but as to the knowledge of the region, much of the European discourse was still imbued with fantasies and rumors of ancient and medieval derivation. Hence, when a handful of dark-skinned visitors in monastic attire and accompanied by live leopards cruised the city’s canals, heads turned. If direct European-African contact was virtually nonexistent, how had an Ethiopian embassy come to Europe, and why, of all places, had the party chosen Venice as its destination? Anyone would be hard pressed to find two societies more geographically remote and culturally distant from each other anywhere in 15th century Chris- tendom. One was a sea-based merchant empire whose capital rested on shaky mud banks barely above sea level; Venetians knew little about agriculture, faith was an afterthought to commerce, and military power a safeguard to business, the city’s only true religion. The other was an ancient society with a proud tradition Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 of independence, feudal values, and Christian orthodoxy. Perched on some of the highest mountain ranges of the African continent, it looked down on its surroundings mostly with suspicion. On the Ethiopian Highlands, artisanship was held in such contempt that many crafts were left to the Beta Israel, the despised Ethiopian Jews. So little interest did Ethiopians have in engaging in trade that most long- distance commerce was left in the hands of foreigners barred from land tenure. In light of the chasm separating the two societies, the Ethiopian party must have found Venice puzzling: the visitors probably wondered why its denizens chose to 22 The Mediterranean way live a crammed life on such muddy and foggy islands and how they survived with no arable land in sight. A civilizational chasm separated Venetians and Ethiopians, yet Emperor Dawit (1379/80–1413) chose the Republic as its interlocutor and the destination of the first documented Ethiopian diplomatic mission to Europe.2

The Stato da Mar and the Christian Highlands Born as a minuscule republic in a forsaken corner of the upper Adriatic Sea, through an astute combination of crusading expeditions and commercial dealings with heretics and infidels, Venice emerged as one of the Mediterranean’s contend- ing powers. For much of the 14th century, Genoese and Venetians sparred for supremacy, until the Battle of Chioggia (1380) turned the city into the hegemonic thalassocracy of the Eastern Mediterranean – La Dominante, the dominant one. As epitomized by its distinctively transcultural Gothic architecture, 15th-century Venice stood at the crossroads between worlds. A shrewd mercantile class in firm control of the city’s politics had extended its shipping and trading services into the most lucrative recesses of the Eastern Mediterranean, establishing Venice’s Stato da Mar, its sea-bound empire. The city’s colonies were scattered throughout the Aegean Sea, and its fondaci – more or less self-sufficient and segregated communities of Venetian expatriates – dotted the Eastern Mediterranean. With merchants, diplomats, and a sizable diaspora of artisans scattered throughout the Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim Mediterranean, Renaissance Venice was one of Europe’s great centers of knowledge production about the non-Western world. The city teemed with a rich array of ethnic, linguistic, and religious subcul- tures: Greeks, Jews, Germans, Slavs, and Arabs journeyed to Venice to trade and make a living, establish communities, share knowledge, procure rare texts, and act as translators. Before the rise of Antwerp and Amsterdam, Venice was beyond any doubt Europe’s center for the gathering, production, and dissemination of Orientalist knowledge, and it was the bellwether of Christian-Muslim relations in the Mediterranean. More books would be printed in 15th-century Venice than in any other city in Europe, and once the age of exploration was well underway, it was where Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485–1557) would print Navigationi et Viaggi (1550–1556), setting the standard for anthologies of travel narratives decades before Richard Hakluyt (1552–1616) and Samuel Purchas (1577–1626) turned it into a genre.3 It was on Venetian mude – galley convoys – that most people, goods, and ideas crossed the border between East and West in the age of the Renaissance. In the Middle East, the Republic was probably the best-known Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 kingdom of Europe: for centuries, its merchants had been by far the most established European trading community in the Levant and Egypt, regions that through the Nile and the Red Sea were ultimately connected to the Horn of Africa. In the spring of 1402, a muda would carry representatives from the land of Prester John. On the other side of the Arab world, over 2,000 kilometers south of Alexan- dria and more than 2,000 meters above sea level, the Christian rulers of Ethio- pia were expanding the reach of their dominion. The crowning of Yekuno Amlak (1270–1285), who, according to Ethiopian lore, restored a descendant of King Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 23 Solomon for the first time since the destruction of the Kingdom of Axum in the tenth century, launched an era of unprecedented consolidation and expansion, mostly at the expense of the non-Christian societies at its fringes. The negus and his successors, first Yagbe Seyon (1285–1294) and then Wedem Arad, aggres- sively expanded their dominion by exploiting a partnership between military and religious elites. While soldiers brandished their swords against infidels, zealous monks planted crosses and built churches throughout the conquered lands, pro- moting and at times forcing conversion of the conquered populations. The dual military-religious nature of Ethiopian expansionism resulted in one of the most resilient polities in world history, but expansion came at a cost. After a remarkable era of unbridled conquest, by the late 1300s the military-religious thrust started to face multiple existential threats. Soon after his ascension, Emperor Dawit found himself mired in internecine theological disputes on the Highlands, at odds with the Mamluks in the Nile Valley, and at war with jihadists on the southeastern borderlands.4 Theological conflicts in Ethiopia usually cut to the heart of the political system, providing ideological cover for ethnic and regional struggles for power and for skirmishes between opposing cliques within the royal court. Since the time of Ewostatewos (1273–1352), one of Ethiopia’s most revered medieval saints, clergy and nobility alike had grown increasingly divided over theological disputes such as the observance of the Sabbath and the relationship between local clergy and the upper echelons of the Ethiopian Church. In the second half of the 14th century, the Ewostateans successfully disseminated their controversial ideas through a growing number of monasteries throughout the Highlands. Soon after his ascension, Dawit started to face this vocal and growing religious minority along with unruly cliques at court, and he called a council to solve the dispute. Telling of his tenuous grasp on power, the sovereign first supported a staunch repression of the Ewo- stateans but later acted to compromise and pacify the movement in order to avoid creating further fractures within the state and church apparatus.5 Equally or even more destabilizing for the domestic equilibrium were the Chris- tian polity’s relations with its neighbors. Until the end of the 13th century, Chris- tian Ethiopia had maintained a good record of coexistence with the Muslim world, both domestically and regionally. On the Highlands, foreign and local Muslims had long been an integral part of the local economy as facilitators of the kingdom’s interconnection to the regional economy of the Red Sea basin, whereas Ethiopian monks were accepted in Egypt and in the Holy Land.6 However, during Dawit’s reign and with the rise of the Burji dynasty under Sultan Barquq (1382–1399), Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 peaceful coexistence between Ethiopia and Mamluk Egypt started to falter, and relations turned increasingly sour. At risk was not so much the Ethiopian monarchy’s territorial integrity as its internal well-being, in particular the workings of the church and state apparatus: because of strained relations between the two countries, after abuna Salama II’s (1348/50–1388/90) death, the Mamluk sultan denied the dispatching of a new patriarch, and the seat remained vacant for a decade.7 Furthermore, Dawit’s expansion targeted the Muslim sultanates of the southeastern Highlands, in particular the Sultanate of Ifat, which had sparred with the 24 The Mediterranean way monarchy for much of the 14th century. When he opted to dispatch the mission to Venice, the negus was heavily invested in fighting Sultan Sadaddin (1386– 1402/15),8 and one can speculate that as he was fighting his foe, Dawit must have understood the strategic advantage that his antagonists enjoyed by virtue of their membership in the larger Islamic world as a source of manpower and technology and must have wondered whether his own country could benefit from a similar connection with the Christian world. It is in the context of this triple menace – domestic instability, the Mamluks in the north, and Ifat in the south – that the negus dispatched representatives to Europe, most likely hoping to elicit support from distant yet well-known co-religionists.

1402 The Florentine Antonio Bartoli’s intentions and fate remain unknown, but the experience of similar characters who reached Ethiopia in the following decades can help shed some indirect light on his experience. He was most likely an adventurous trader who found his way to Ethiopia sometime in the late 14th century, probably venturing through Mamluk Egypt. Like many other foreigners who would be entrusted with delicate and expensive diplomatic missions, Bartoli must have gained the negus’s trust over a prolonged sojourn in the country. By the time he left Dawit’s court in January 1402, he had probably been at the sovereign’s court for a few years. According to an Ethiopian source, he headed to Alexandria with his Ethiopian companions, whence he embarked for Italy, but a shipwreck forced him to return to the city:

The governor of Alexandria saw that he [Bartoli] was very concerned; he gave him a boat and then the ambassador boarded the ship, left and arrived in his [the governor’s] country and went to the King of Bandaqeya [Venice], whose name was Mikael.9

The “governor” was most likely the Venetian resident of Alexandria, whose fondaco – an inn where traders could lodge and store their merchandise – was one of the most active in the Mediterranean, and the ship that was “given” to him in all probability was passage on one of the frequent mude connecting the Egyptian port city to Venice. Bartoli’s original purpose and destination are unknown. In all likelihood, he had been instructed to seek allies, useful technology, and relics, but his mission could have been open to any destination in the Christian world Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 as opposed to a specific one. If so, once in Alexandria, he could have opted for Venice upon finding an easy passage to the city. After reaching the lagoon, the black visitors strolling along with leopards must have elicited a complex array of reactions from the city’s worldly elites and daring traders. What could they sell and what could they purchase in the distant land of Prester John? Was the country ripe for Venice’s first sub-Saharan fondaco? Were the tales of incredible riches and gem-laden riverbeds to be believed? Geopolitical considerations were probably also on the mind of the populace: if the almighty Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 25 Prester John existed and was Ethiopian, then the embassy could open the door to further inroads into the Nile Valley and the Red Sea. A solid relationship with a powerful Christian sovereign on the other side of the Mamluk sultanate could provide much-needed negotiating advantages to Venetians across the Middle East. Although the long history of forgeries and ploys surrounding Prester John must have cast doubts on the embassy, the party’s appearance and the substantial gifts it carried were sure to convince Venetian authorities to receive their guests as legitimate representatives. In addition to the four leopards, the visitors had brought “strange things, among them the skin of a savage man and that of a donkey of multiple colors,” probably the skins of an ape and a zebra.10 From the scant sources, it seems the mission was quite talked about, especially for their gifts, which not only established its legitimacy but also spoke to Dawit’s determination to establish relations with his European counterparts. The sovereign had made substantial investments in a mission that had few chances of success but could serve him well, by strengthening his position in relation to domestic and foreign foes. With the Ethiopian clergy and political class involved in theological disputes, drawing support from the world of Western Christianity could have strengthened Dawit’s position. In the context of religion-driven politics of 15th-century Ethiopia, establishing ties with fellow Christians in Europe – possibly with Rome – and acquiring valuable relics and religious texts were not simple matters of faith but were political tools of legitimacy. One particular relic, whose appearance in Ethiopia is in general related to Dawit, is the True Cross, to this day the most revered relic in Ethiopian Chris- tianity. Although sources offer contradicting accounts of its arrival, one version of the chronicles confirms that Dawit received the relic but does not adduce the circumstances, whereas another relates that the sovereign

ruled for 32 years and 7 months and took energetic action against Egyptians, Franks [i.e., Europeans] and Nubians, withheld their waters and tormented their men and livestock. And for these reasons he received a piece of Christ’s Cross, praise be to him.11

A devotional text dedicated to the finding of the True Cross relates that two merchants, supposedly representatives of a European sovereign, visited Dawit’s court and informed him of the whereabouts of the True Cross, explaining that “the kings of the Franks had divided its fragments among each other.”12 Because of Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 this and other testimonies, Dawit seems to have been persuaded to seek the relic and to dispatch a representative to Europe – most certainly Bartoli. After relating the circumstances of his journey through Egypt, the text explains that eventually the representative made it to Venice and that the “king of Bandaqeya, by the name of Mikael,” welcomed him and decided to dispatch a fragment of the True Cross, along with other gifts, to the emperor of Ethiopia.13 Although this tradition needs to be taken with caution, it can hardly be a coincidence that at the time of the visit, Venice’s Doge was Michele Stèno (1400–1413).14 26 The Mediterranean way The source indicates that Mikael dispatched the relic in the hands of his own representative, who traveled via Alexandria and, once in Ethiopia, was welcomed with elation: “when the king [Dawit] heard that the ambassador of the king of Bandaqeya had returned with the holy wood of the cross, he exulted with great joy, clapped his hands and danced with his feet.”15 Furthermore, the devotional text describes, as one of the gifts that accompanied the relic, a silver chalice that according to Venetian records was entrusted to Bartoli to be “donated to the representative of Prester John to reciprocate a twelve carat pearl received in 1402.”16 Not only did the item make it to Ethiopia but, more than a century later, another European broker would find himself contemplating its Latin inscriptions and wondering about its origin.17 Provided that Venetian sources offer different details as to who was entrusted with the gifts, and that Bartoli’s return to Ethiopia remains subject to speculation, there is little doubt that at least some of the Venetian gifts made it to Dawit’s court. Apart from the relics, equally or possibly more attractive for the sovereign was European technology: like many of his successors, Dawit was probably well aware not only of Ethiopia’s technological limitations but also of his limited options vis- à-vis his foes. Whereas Ethiopians were far and isolated from Christian Europe and its technology, their Muslim neighbors were close to and well connected with the more technologically developed Arab societies of the Red Sea basin. Accordingly, Dawit dispatched his representative to Europe to facilitate technological transfer: aware of the limitation of distance and of Mamluk interference, instead of investing directly in trade, he solicited the migration of skilled individuals to Ethiopia. Once in Venice, Bartoli scouted not only for relics but also for artisans, and he was officially authorized to escort some to Ethiopia. Hence, the negus displayed remarkable acumen by dispatching his representatives to procure not only guns and artifacts but also their makers – he was the first of a long series of Ethiopian sovereigns who understood the importance of sustainable technological transfer. By the time of their departure in August 1402, Bartoli and his companions had mustered substantial support. On 22 July 1402, the Maggior Consiglio – the city’s most important representative body – disbursed 1,000 ducats to reciprocate for the exotic gifts, and on 10 August it authorized the party to return to Ethiopia with precious relics and a group of Italian artisans. On 26 August 1402, the doge recommended the party to the Duke of Crete: Bartoli and his Ethiopian companions were ready to sail back, while the artisans were ready for a journey into the unknown, most likely attracted by the tales of wonder surrounding the figure of Prester John.18 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Maps and itineraries Before departing, Bartoli entrusted an unknown Venetian scrivener, possibly a merchant or a civil servant, with precious information regarding the path to Prester John. The short manuscript, which came to be known as the Iter de Venetiis ad Indiam, details how to travel from Venice to the court of “Prester John [who] in winter sits in his throne in Chaamara but who sits in his throne and Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 27 lives in Sciahua. His proper name is David.” It also offers several references to regional members of the nobility and provides details regarding their jurisdiction over specific Ethiopian territories, as well as a list of Amharic terms along with the corresponding Latin translation – the first Amharic-European dictionary.19 The Iter was the first, but not the last, contribution to the Ethiopianist library resulting from Venice’s exchanges with Ethiopia. While in the decades after the embassy to Venice, Ethiopian rulers found themselves attracted to other centers of European power, the city retained its central role in knowledge production about the non- Western world, and for the following two centuries it remained a key locus for the production and dissemination of Ethiopianist knowledge. Ethiopian pilgrims continued to transit through the city and, with their unusual appearance and exotic stories, solicited the interest of local erudites eager to record what they heard, in different forms. Of particular significance for the encounter were the efforts of two Venetians who operated between the mid-15th and the early 16th centuries. One gathered geographical knowledge about the non-European world from a multitude of sources, so as to paint on thick parchment what turned out to be one of the era’s most famous representations of the world. The other compiled an impressive collection of itineraries between Ethiopia and Venice at a time when the African world was still shrouded in mystery. In both cases, the city functioned as a cultural receptacle of geographical knowledge, socio-economic intelligence, and hearsay flowing in from the East. Like theIter ’s author, the two Venetians and their Ethio- pian informants continued to chip away at the Prester of European imagination and offered concrete evidence as to his existence and power. One of them, probably the most important beneficiary of Venice’s role as a transit point for Ethiopian visitors to Europe, was a Benedictine monk housed in the Camaldolese monastery of San Michele on the island of Murano. Monastic documents refer to him as Frater Maurus de Venetiis, but to posterity the cleric- cartographer would become known as Fra Mauro Camaldolese (n.a.–1459). In the late 1440s, the monk was at work on his magnus opus, which would be known as the Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi, an excruciatingly detailed and aesthetically impressive planisphere that has been regarded as the culmination of medieval cartography.20 Fra Mauro gathered and repackaged geographical knowledge that was rapidly changing, in particular with regard to the Atlantic frontier, which Portuguese sails were pushing further and further south. In the course of the 15th century, the contours of the known world would be constantly erased and redrawn to incorporate the accounts – and at times the fabrications – of traders, pilgrims, Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and seafarers. The Mappamundi resulted from the monk’s judicious combination of traditional Ptolemaic and Arab models with modern portolan mapmaking techniques, Chinese cartographical knowledge, and firsthand information.21 For the latter, the monk was in a perfect location, operating in a city that existed at the crossroad between worlds and attracted both foreign knowledge and distant visitors. The Mappamundi’s most impressive feature, unmatched by other maps of the era, is the degree of detail offered for Africa south of the Sahara, in particular the eastern regions of what was still a mostly unknown continent. 28 The Mediterranean way For North Africa and the lower Nile Valley, the monk could draw from Arabic sources, and for West Africa, he could rely on Portuguese and Spanish portolans, but for the rest of the continent there was little to go on other than hearsay and ancient myths. Yet Fra Mauro’s toponyms for much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly for the eastern regions, are mostly real locations in the Horn of Africa. Fra Mauro’s overall knowledge of the world south of the Sahara was limited, but his topographical knowledge of the Horn was impressively detailed. In fact, he knew of so many toponyms from the region that, as he was hard-pressed to fill up empty space in the rest of the continent, he used them freely. As a result, he turned Abassia [Abyssinia] into a far-reaching empire whose dominion extended over much of sub-Saharan Africa. For example, on the Mappamundi the central and westernmost African rivers are, respectively, the “Fiume Auasi” and the “Fiume Abaui,” in other words, the rivers Awash and the Abbay (or Blue Nile); while the southernmost river is marked “Fiume Galla,” an additional clear reference to another Ethiopian river – “Galla” being a derogatory term for the Oromos of Ethiopia.22 The exaggerated extension attributed to the Prester’s kingdom was probably the combined result of centuries of European fantasies – if the Prester was an almighty sovereign, he could not but preside over a vast empire – and a relatively large body of topographical information on the Horn. The latter can be traced to the serendipitous arrival in Venice of a small party of African visitors who gave the monk unmediated access to a mostly untapped body of knowledge:

For some it may sound like a novelty that I talk about this southern part [Africa] which was unknown to the ancients, but I answer that all I have drawn above [meaning south, as the map’s south was in the upper part] of Sayto I obtained it from those who grew up here [in Africa], who are prelates who drew for me with their own hands all these provinces, cities, rivers and mountains with their names.23

There is little doubt that his informants, “those who grew up here, who are prelates,” were indeed Ethiopian monks. Not only were Ethiopians the only African Christians at the time but also only Ethiopians could have told Fra Mauro that a region in the proximity of “Mogodisso” was at the time “recently conquered by the great king of Abassia in 1430 circa,” an unmistakable reference to Emperor Yeshaq’s (1413–1430) successful campaign against the Sultanate of Adal.24 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Unfortunately, no record of his visitors’ exact identity or the circumstances of their journey exist, but events unfolding elsewhere in the encounter world would suggest that the monks were transiting through Venice as pilgrims and, possibly, that they were the same Ethiopian monks who would be found at the Council of Florence in 1441. However, as traditional geographical knowledge was still dominant in the discourse on the non-Western world, neither Fra Mauro nor any other cartographer Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 29

Figure 1.1 The Kingdom of Ethiopia according to Fra Mauro. Mappamondo di Fra Mauro (1450 ca.), Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana di Venezia. Reprinted with permission of the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo.

could simply jettison notions that had endured for more than a millennium, especially when imbued with religious meaning. Hence, aware of the overall innova- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 tive character of his planisphere, the monk felt compelled to justify himself and explain that he had borrowed knowledge from indigenous informants. Despite his fortunate engagement, Fra Mauro could not free himself entirely from tradition: the dissonance between firsthand account and traditional knowledge resulted, as was often the case, in the coexistence on the Mappamundi of accurate topographical information with medieval notions such that of the “Iron Gates.”25 Fra Mauro, like many other cartographers before and after him, fell for the myth 30 The Mediterranean way of Prester John’s ability to control the flow of the Nile and ascribed to the Prester’s exceptional power over an incredibly vast collection of societies:

It is said that Prester John has more than 120 kingdoms under his dominion, in which there are more than 60 different languages [and that] this king of Abassia, called Prester John, has many kingdoms under his dominion; and his enormous power is held in esteem because of the numbers of his people, who are almost infinite.26

Whether the overestimated extent of the Prester’s empire and his power were the result of the monk’s own imagination or the overblown claims of his informants remains unclear. On the one hand, it was in the Ethiopian monks’ interest to exag- gerate their sovereign’s power; on the other hand, their interlocutors absorbed what they were told but mediated it through the reigning discourse – one mostly fantastic – about the Prester. The end result was a transcultural discourse with a tangible bearing on the age of exploration: the notion of a Christian kingdom extending throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa and ostensibly within reachable distance from West Africa would affect many explorers attracted to the mythical kingdom, more often than not with rather dramatic results.27 Eight decades after Fra Mauro drew his Mappamundi, a Venetian erudite by the name of Alex Zorzi started to collect information about the overseas; however, unlike the monk, he did not turn the information he collected into maps, nor would he enjoy much fame. Instead, he simply left behind itineraries and cartographical sketches of disparate faraway places and proto-ethnographic information that remained unpublished until modern times. Zorzi assembled an eclectic body of knowledge ranging from published travelogues, letters that explorers dispatched back to Europe from the least-known corners of the earth, and eyewitness accounts of visitors to Venice. His efforts resulted in two collections, one regarding the New World and the other regarding the Old World. The latter included a section on the African continent and the Muslim world in which, along with previously published travelogues of more renowned travelers of the time, one can find eight itineraries dedicated to Ethiopia’s connection to the Holy Land.28 With one exception, which appears to have been lifted from Fra Mauro’s Map- pamundi, the itineraries were original contributions that Zorzi probably jotted down between 1518 and 1524 on the basis of conversations he had with Ethiopi- ans.29 In all likelihood, his informants were pilgrims who transited through Venice Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 on their way to or from Rome, where, by the early 1500s, there was a growing community of Ethiopian monks. The itineraries read as straightforward step-by- step directions: they are for the most part lists of places through which one would travel to reach one’s destination. They mostly start from Barara in Shewa and detail transits through the Red Sea via Massawa and Suakin before concluding either in Cairo or Jerusalem, where the monks had presumably sojourned for some time before venturing into Europe. These itineraries and their toponyms confirm the existence of beaten paths between Ethiopia and the southern coasts of the Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 31 Mediterranean basin, which until the early 1500s would remain the only known paths to travel from the Mediterranean to the Horn. When Zorzi interviewed his first Ethiopian informant in 1518, the opportunity to debrief an Ethiopian traveler and learn of a way to reach the Prester’s kingdom must have appeared momentous. By then the Portuguese had ventured into the Red Sea, and the quest for the Prester’s kingdom was climaxing. How- ever, in the aftermath of Vasco da Gama’s epic journey, the entire Mediterranean system started to give way to the burgeoning Atlantic, and Venice’s ages-long hegemonic role in the spice trade was being challenged by the newly found oceanic routes to India and the Far East. With their focus on the Mediterranean, the itineraries represented a bygone era when the Red Sea and the Nile Valley were the only tenuous connections between Europe and Ethiopia. They would keep serving the needs of Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land, but they would be of scarce interest to traders, who would find the oceanic pathway to the region much more attractive. Although Zorzi probably compiled the itineraries to cater to traders and travelers, in hindsight his work read more as a retrospective description of obsolete beaten paths which Ethiopian and European agents involved in the encounter exploited for over a century but which were no longer preferred. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 1.2 Cosmographical sketch from Zorzi’s manuscript. Biblioteca Nazionale Cen- trale di Firenze, Banco rari 236: c. 30v. Reprinted with permission of the Minis- tero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo. 32 The Mediterranean way Tellingly, Zorzi’s last informant, interviewed in 1523, had reached Italy after sailing around the Cape.30

Venice retained its role as a commercial and cultural entrepôt for centuries to come, and Ethiopian travelers to Europe, particularly those from the Ethiopian communities in the Holy Land and Egypt, continued to take advantage of its transportation network, in the process stimulating and contributing to the production of Ethiopianist knowledge in the city. Ramusio would include multiple Ethiopianist texts in his collection of travel narratives, and in later years disparate relations – albeit mostly fantastic – about the country of Prester John would either be produced or find their way to Venice.31 For more than a century, Venice represented a prime destination for Ethiopian travelers as they made their first timid steps into the Christian world of the Northern Mediterranean – hardly a surprise in light of the city’s sprawling communication network. However, Bartoli’s party was the first and last known Ethiopian embassy to the Republic of Venice. Given that relations with Ethiopia never flourished, it would seem that he failed to return, although the arrival in Ethiopia of the True Cross and the silver chalice would suggest otherwise. Either way, no other representative of Prester John made it to the lagoon, and Venetians never established a fondaco in Ethiopia or on the southern shores of the Red Sea – a possibility that its merchant class may have entertained, at least for a fleeting moment. As for Ethiopia, while Dawit’s diplomatic efforts were ultimately inconsequential, the embassy fostered the encounter in a variety of ways. By returning to Ethiopia with gifts and a substantial group of artisans, Bartoli and his companions created a positive precedent for further missions to Europe, as they bore witness to the degree of respect and hospitality the mission had enjoyed in the distant republic. Beyond leaving traces in the chronicles, the feat must have produced vivid oral memories at the Ethiopian court and encouraged later sovereigns to follow Dawit’s footsteps. By the same token, Ethiopian pilgrims in Egypt and Jerusalem probably learned about the mission and the exchange of gifts – firstand foremost the True Cross – and were encouraged to venture further west. On the other side of the encounter word, although the embassy failed to trigger further contacts between Venice and Ethiopia, it proved, rather incontrovertibly, that a Black Christian sovereign identified as Prester John in fact existed and was to be found somewhere beyond the Muslim world. His location and even more so the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 extension and the topography of his domain were still unclear, but the Ethiopian Prester was beyond a doubt the Christian sovereign Europeans had been fantasizing about for centuries. Last, Bartoli’s embassy had left behind the Iter, a document that showed an unprecedented degree of familiarity with the distant country and that represented the second Ethiopian-inspired contribution to Ethiopianist library – Carignano’s map being the first. Unlike the latter, however, which seems to have included only toponyms of the Prester’s kingdom, the Iter included references to Ethio- pia’s geography as well as to its socio-political structure and language. As such, it marked the emergence, albeit in a very embryonic form, of a multi-faceted interest Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 33 in things Ethiopian that would eventually become a field of intellectual inquiry – that of Ethiopian studies. Although Venice did not receive further embassies, and eventually the city would give way to Rome as the ultimate center of Ethiopianist knowledge, Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi and Zorzi’s itineraries confirm that the city remained an important locus for the encounter as it continued to facilitate transits between worlds. However, as Venice began to lose ground to other regional powers, already in the 1420s well-informed Ethiopian rulers redirected their attention to other potential allies.

Notes 1 “Excellens dominus Prestozane, dominus partium Indie”, Nicola Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à l’histoire des croisades au XVe siècle,” Revue de L’Orient Latin, IV (1896): 252. This account of the visit is based on a handful of fragmentary sources edited in the following collections: Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à l’histoire des croisades au XVe siècle,” 252–3. Ester Pastorello, Il copialettere Mar- ciano della cancelleria Carrarese (Gennaio 1402–Gennaio 1403) (Venezia: Regia Deputazione Veneta di Storia Patria, 1915), 258–70; Carlo Cipolla, “Prete Jane e Francesco Novello da Carrara,” Archivio Veneto 6 (1873): 323–4; Osvaldo Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia (MS Raineri 43. Della Vaticana),” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 65 (1999): 363–448. For dated but still valuable commentary on the visit, see Carlo Conti Rossini, “Un codice illustrato eritreo del secolo XV (Ms. Abb. N. 105 Della Bibl. Nat. Di Parigi),” Africa Italiana 1, no. 1 (1927): 86–8; Lefevre, “Presenze Etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del 1439,” 11–15; Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à l’histoire des croisades au XVe siècle”; and Vittorio Lazzarini, “Un’ambasciata etiopica in Italia nel 1404,” Atti del Reale Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 83, no. 2 (1923): 23. For more recent commentary, see Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia”; Marilyn E. Heldman, “A Chalice from Venice for Emperor Dawit of Ethiopia,” Bul- letin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 53, no. 3 (1990): 442–5; Matteo Salvadore, “The Ethiopian Age of Exploration: Prester John’s Discovery of Europe, 1306–1458,” The Journal of World History 21, no. 4 (2010): 593–627; Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings”; Lowe, “Black Africans’ Religious and Cultural Assimilation to, or Appro- priation of, Catholicism in Italy, 1470–1520.” 2 The 1306 mission to Genoa most definitely involved Ethiopians, but circumstances suggest that it was most likely only a pilgrimage, not an official diplomatic mission. As to Dawit’s designation, some sources refer to him as Dawit I whereas others as Dawit II. The latter could be either a deferential reference to the father of Solomon or to the 6th-century sovereign Kaleb, also referred to as Dawit. See EA 2:112–13; Steven Kaplan, “Notes towards a History of Ase Dawit I (1382–1413),” Aethiopica 5 (2002): Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 71–88. 3 Giovanni Battista Ramusio and Marica Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi (Torino: G. Ein- audi, 1978). On Venice’s role as a center of global intelligence and print culture, see, respectively, Paolo Preto, I servizi segreti di Venezia. Spionaggio e controspionaggio ai tempi della Serenissima (Milano: Il Saggiatore, 2010); Peter Burke, “Early Mod- ern Venice as a Center of Information and Communication,” in Venice Reconsidered: The History and Civilization of an Italian City-State, 1297–1797, ed. John Jeffries Martin and Dennis Romano (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000), 390–401. 4 For an introduction to medieval and early modern Ethiopia, see: Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 1270–1527. Oxford Studies in African Affairs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972); Mordechai Abir, “Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa,” in The 34 The Mediterranean way Cambridge History of Africa 4, ed. Richard Gray (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975), 537–77; Mordechai Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea: The Rise and Decline of the Solomonic Dynasty and Muslim-European Rivalry in the Region (London: Frank Cass & Co., 1980); Carlo Conti Rossini, Storia d’Etiopia (Bergamo: Istituto italiano d’arti grafiche, 1928); Sergew Hable Selassie,Ancient and Medieval Ethiopian History to 1270 (Addis Ababa: Haile Sellassie I University, 1972). 5 On Ewostatewos and his acolytes, see EA 2:464–72; Kaplan, “Notes towards a History of Ase Dawit I (1382–1413),” 82–4; Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 201–19. 6 For an exhaustive discussion of Islam in Ethiopia, see J. Spencer Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952); for Ethiopia’s complex relationship with the Muslim world, see Haggai Erlich, The Cross and the River: Ethiopia, Egypt, and the Nile (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2002), 20–5. 7 Ethiopian sources explain the denial as the result of growing Muslim intolerance, whereas Arab sources justify it in response to Dawit’s 1382 incursion into the Nile Valley. Regardless of responsibility, the two polities were at odds with each other, and Dawit saw in the Mamluk an additional challenge to his rule. Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 255. 8 Conflicting viewson the dating of his death, at Dawit’s hands, range from 1402 to 1415. As Bartoli reached Venice in spring 1402, it is likely that Dawit decided to dispatch the mission as the conflict was climaxing. On the dating of Sadaddin’s death, see EA 4:444, EA 1:71–2; Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea, 26; Taddesse Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, ed. Roland Oliver, vol. 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975–1986), vol. 3 (1977), 153–4. 9 Bartoli is not explicitly mentioned, but the embassy’s timing and destination leaves little room for doubt. Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia,” 368–9. 10 Francesco Novello da Carrara to Francisco de Priulis and Paulo Mauroceno, 23 June 1402, Padova, in Cipolla, “Prete Jane e Francesco Novello da Carrara,” 323–4; Pastorello, Il copialettere Marciano della cancelleria Carrarese (Gennaio 1402–Gen- naio 1403), 258–9. 11 Francesco Béguinot, La cronaca abbreviata d’Abissinia: nuova versione dall’Etiopico e commento (Roma: Tipografia della Casa Edit. Italiana, 1901), 10, does not indicate the circumstances of the relic’s arrival. The reference found in Concetta Foti, “La cronaca abbreviata dei Re d’Abissinia in un manoscritto di Dabra Berhan di Gondar,” Rassegna Di Studi Etiopici 1, no. 1 (1941): 91, clearly refers to the negus’s alleged ability to halt the flow of the Nile. As to the listing of Franks next to Egyptians and Nubians, it is in all likelihood a mistake by the chronicler. 12 Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia,” 367. 13 Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia,” 367. 14 Cited in Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia (MS Raineri 43),” n.d., 381–3. As to the identity of the carrier, if it were not Bartoli, the relic could have found its way from Alexandria to Ethiopia in the hands of an Ethiopian monk or, if one wants to give more weight to this tradition, a Venetian representative, most likely associated with the fondaco in Alexandria.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 15 Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia,” 368. The source is far from definitive, as other traditions pertaining to the finding of the True Cross are silent on any Venetian involvement. See EA 4:357–8; Kaplan, “Notes towards a History of Ase Dawit I (1382–1413),” 76–7; Diana Spencer, “In Search of St Luke Ikons in Ethiopia,” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 10, no. 2 (1972): 77–8. 16 Quoted in Heldman, “A Chalice from Venice for Emperor Dawit of Ethiopia,” 443; Raineri, “I doni della Serenissima al re Davide I d’Etiopia,” 386; for the reference to the chalice in the manuscript, see 370. 17 In 1520, the chalice would be described as “On the foot it had the twelve Apostles, and round the bowl an inscription in well-made Latin letters which said Hic est calix novi Ethiopians in the lagoon, 1402–1459 35 testamenti and a message to say he sent it for us to drink to him. This chalice had no paten, nor did they understand the inscription; and the style of the chalice was not like theirs,” Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 298. 18 Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à l’histoire des Croisades au XVe siècle,” 253. For a discussion of the artisans and the reasons that may have attracted them to Ethiopia see Chapter 6. 19 A copy of the Iter, whose authorship remains uncertain, can be found in the Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze and has been reproduced in its entirety in Nicola Jorga, “Cenni sulle relazioni tra l’Abissinia e l’Europa cattolica nei secoli XIV–XV, con un itinerario inedito del secolo XV,” in Centenario della nascita di Michele Amari, eds. Guiseppe Salvo Cozzo and Giovanni Battista Siragusa (Palermo: Stabilimento Tipografico Virzì, 1910), 139–50. For an English translation of the itinerary alone and valuable commentary, see Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 28–40; citation from p. 147. 20 Woodward and Harley, The History of Cartography, 1:315–28; Edson, The World Map, 1300–1492, 141–64. 21 Piero Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World: With a Commentary and Translations of the Inscriptions (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), 95–7. 22 Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World, 103, 114, 203–7. 23 Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World, 201. 24 Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World, 99; Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” 154. 25 Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World, 267. 26 Falchetta, Fra Mauro’s Map of the World, 197–9. 27 See Chapter 4. 28 For a detailed discussion of Zorzi’s Itineraries and other works, see Crawford, Ethio- pian Itineraries; Laura Mannoni, “Notizie sull’Etiopia raccolte da uno studioso veneto del secolo XVI,” Bollettino della Società geografica italiana 69 (1932): 603–20; and Roberto Almagià, “Intorno a quattro codici fiorentini e ad uno ferrarese della erudito veneziano Alessandro Zorzi,” La Bibliofilia 38 (1936): 313–47. The manuscript can be found at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, Banco rari 236. 29 The itineraries are reproduced in Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 108–92. 30 Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 181. 31 For example, the Relatione del Paese del Pretejianni, Imperatore dell’alta Etiopia et de tutti i regni degl’Abissini fatta per Pietro Duodo l’anno 1578, and the Relatione dell Imperio degli Abissini Popoli dell’Etiopia fatta da Giovanni di Baldassar Abissino Cavalier di Sant Antonio (1597), both discussed in Renato Lefevre, “Fantasie del’ 500 sull’Etiopia (da una inedita relazione veneziana),” Rivista delle colonie 10 (1936): 870– 81; Paolo Revelli, “Una Relazione Sull’‘Abissinia’ del 1578,” Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana 11, no. 5 (1910): 607–24; Munro-Hay, Ethiopia Unveiled, 30. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 2 The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453

In late 1450, a Dominican novice intent on preparing for his ordination was visiting his brothers at the monastery of San Pietro Martire in Naples. During his stay, he heard

a rumor that an ambassador had come from the furthest boundaries of Ethio- pia to Alfonso, regarding which king many things are to be recorded by me in their proper place, having been sent by David [Zara Yaqob],1 the most powerful king of the Ethiopians.2

The young cleric, about to devote his life to a missionary order, was familiar with the hopes and dreams that many learned Europeans projected on Prester John and his alleged power. Furthermore, having sojourned and studied in Florence and Rome throughout the 1440s, he was also likely to be aware of some of the Ethiopian monks who had been meandering over the Italian peninsula seeking relics and salvation. The young Sicilian friar was rather excited about the possibility of meeting the ambassador, and he prepared accordingly. He would later narrate that he expected to

find a man of most loathsome color, with pointy hair, speaking a barbarian tongue, since, before I saw him, I believed him to be an Ethiopian. I took with me also a certain Ethiopian, who had been raised in Italy from his youth, who, when I was in the presence of the ambassador, would serve as their interpreter. . . . Having been conducted to him, therefore, I saw a man, whose face although he was exerting himself was, if you like, suffused with color: just as the Egyptians seem to us. By his face, you would say he was a well-born and solemn kind of man: long-bearded, tall of stature, and with a dress so long and honorable that it Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 was similar to the toga of Italy.3

Hence, the cleric set out with his Ethiopian acquaintance, most likely a monk, to meet the ambassador, but once in his presence he quickly realized that his prepa- rations had been for nothing. “I began to pay my respects to this man,” the cleric recollects, “indicating to the interpreter that he should speak the words of greet- ing. Rising most courteously, he said to me that we would by no means need an interpreter. [He] speaks the Italian tongue.”4 The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 37 The novice quickly realized that he was speaking not to an Ethiopian but to a fellow Sicilian, who introduced himself as Pietro Rombulo from Messina. Rom- bulo claimed that he had left his homeland for Spain at age 15 and had traveled ever since, eventually reaching Ethiopia more than three decades earlier. The occasion of this unexpected rendezvous was Rombulo’s mission to King Alfonso V (1416–1458), ruler of the Crown of Aragon, who had moved his court to Naples in 1443. The mission was the second Ethiopian attempt to establish relations with the composite Iberian monarchy, whose Catalan traders reached deep into the Mamluk sultanate and the Red Sea world. Its origin lay in the geopolitical and commercial developments that were affecting both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea basins in the first half of the 15th century. About three decades earlier, on the Ethiopian Highlands, Dawit’s death in 1413 had ushered in the brief interregnum of his older son Tewodros I (1413–1414), followed by the long reign of his second born, Yeshaq (1414–1429). Along with his father and his younger brother Zara Yaqob (1434–1468), Yeshaq was one of three negus who defined the history of 15th-century Ethiopia. As he opted to continue his father’s policy of consolidation and expansion, he reorganized the kingdom’s army and administration and dealt swiftly with both internal and external threats, in particular Mamluk Egypt and the resurgent Sultanate of Ifat. After Dawit’s sacking of Zeila and Sadaddin’s death, the sultan’s heirs had fled to Yemen, but they quickly returned to reclaim their family’s domain, which started to be known as the Sultanate of Adal and confront Yeshaq’s aggressive activities in the region. The negus followed in his grandfather’s footsteps and encouraged a policy of settlement and forced conversion: he deployed military garrisons and Christian colo- nists who persecuted the Muslim populations, quickly turning into the scourge of Islam. According to the Egyptian historian Makrizi (1364–1442), “the Hati [King of Ethiopia] and the Amhara settled in the country that had acquired [Ifat] and from the mosques they had ravaged they made churches. Muslims were har- assed for twenty years,”5 while his disciple Ibn Taghribirdi (1410–1470) recorded Sultan Tatar I’s (1412–1421) indignation upon learning of the fate of Muslims in Ethiopia:

The Sultan summoned the Patriarch of Christians . . . and rebuked him, threatened him and reprimanded him for the degradation to which Muslim Abys- sinians had been subject to under the rule of the king of that country. And the patriarch was threatened with death.6 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 These references in Arabic sources – rarely concerned with events in Ethiopia – speak to both the complex arrangement between the two countries and even more so the aggressiveness of Yeshaq’s policies. For the sovereign and his polity, what was at stake was not only valuable land and souls but also, most important, his kingdom’s access to transregional commercial networks. Throughout the early modern era, Massawa on the Ethiopian coast and Zeila on the northern Somali coast represented Ethiopia’s principal gateways to the Middle East and the Indian Ocean world, as they were both connected to the Highlands through caravan 38 The Mediterranean way routes mostly operated by Muslim merchants. The two Muslim ports, respectively under the sovereignty of the Sultan of Dahlak and the Sultan of Adal, were key components of a complex and ever-changing arrangement between Ethio- pia’s neighboring sultanates and their Arab patrons. As Yeshaq pursued expansion and challenged his neighbors’ interests, he looked for allies beyond his familiar surroundings. In the early 1400s, on the opposite side of the encounter world, the Crown of Aragon rose to challenge the status quo in the central Mediterranean and vied for supremacy in the Italian peninsula. The overseas expansion of this composite monarchy, whose fulcrum was the medieval union between the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona, had started in the late 13th century with the acquisition of the Balearic Islands from Muslim rule. By the time of Alfonso’s ascension in 1416, the Crown’s overseas presence had expanded to Sardinia and Sicily, from where the sovereign would make his bid for the Italian peninsula starting from a failed attempt to take over the Kingdom of Naples in the early 1420s. Two decades later, in 1442, Alfonso was ultimately victorious in his quest for southern Italy, but a mixture of military failures and geopolitical developments precluded further expansion in the peninsula. With Sultan Mehmed II (1444–1481) advancing into European territory and ultimately conquering Con- stantinople, the Roman Church persuaded Alfonso and his adversaries to sign the Treaty of Lodi (1454) and redirect their attention beyond Italian shores, towards what was turning into an Ottoman lake.7 In more than one way, Alfonso sailed against the historical current. While other dynasties that had emerged from the Reconquista were making the first timid but momentous steps into the unknown Atlantic, Alfonso moved in the opposite direction and selected Naples as his capital. Like fellow Iberian monarchs, he was ultimately interested in the East, but while the Portuguese and later the Castilians took an indirect approach via the Atlantic, Alfonso opted for a more direct engagement with the Muslim world. Ostensibly, Alfonso’s intentions toward the Ottomans were belligerent: the sovereign schemed with the Despot of Morea, Demetrius Palaeologus (1436–1460), to seize power in Constantin- ople and preempt the city’s imminent fall to Mehmed. Later, he pledged support to the Hungarian general John Hunyadi (1407–1456) and to the Albanian rebel George Skanderbeg (1405–1468) in their struggle against the Ottomans. Beyond this crusading façade, however, Alfonso’s true intentions remain debat- able: Hunyadi never received the promised support and was defeated in the Battle of Kosovo (1448), the plan to assert control over Constantinople never material- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ized and, although he did support Skanderbeg, the initiative was probably more anti-Venetian than anti-Ottoman. Furthermore, Alfonso also established ties with other eager crusaders such as Henry VI (1422–1461) of England and Philip III (1419–1467), Duke of Burgundy, but the crusade remained a mirage.8 These half-hearted initiatives suggest that Alfonso had little interest in going beyond a ceremonial display of support for the notion of crusade, and was instead much more preoccupied with bolstering his commercial interests in the East – and guaranteeing the well-being of the Catalan fondaci that dotted the Mamluk The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 39 sultanate. His acquisitions in the central Mediterranean became the ultimate platform for the commercial penetration of North Africa and the Levant, and Catalan merchants set out to claim some commercial space next to their Genoese and Venetian counterparts. Accordingly, Alfonso’s military initiatives in the Mediter- ranean were mostly surgical operations aimed at protecting and extending commercial rights in the sultanate at the expense of both Mamluks and his European competitors. It is in the context of this engagement in the Eastern Mediterranean that Alfonso welcomed and sought contacts with the kingdom of Prester John. An alliance with the legendary sovereign would have provided him with valuable anti-Mamluk leverage and also would have bolstered his standing in Europe as the man responsible for completing the age-long quest for the sovereign of European imagination.9 Hence, the rulers of Ethiopia and of the Crown of Aragon had reasons to invest in an alliance, but first they needed to become aware of each other. In the early 15th century, European-Ethiopian contacts were limited and ines- capably mediated through the Middle East. Much of what Ethiopians knew about Europe came from their clerical communities in Jerusalem and Alexandria, from where Ethiopian monks learned about and sometimes traveled to Europe. With Catalan trading communities reaching into the sultanate, their shipping networks became transportation options for Ethiopian pilgrimaging north of the Mediter- ranean, and in particular to Santiago de Compostela. Either through the tales of European pilgrims to the Holy Land or by word of mouth among Eastern Chris- tians, Ethiopian monks became aware of the Camino de Santiago, and many of them walked it all the way to Galicia, at times leaving traces of their transit. In 1407, a Bolognese annalist recorded the arrival of “men from India, where St Thomas apostle preached and converted, who are good Christians” and were directed to “San Jacomo and Santo Antonio [Padua] and Rome.”10 In 1430, five Ethiopian monks reached Alfonso’s court in Valencia and asked for a safe passage to Santiago, while ten years later authorities in Barcelona extended their support to one “Philipp of the Indies” as he was leaving the city for his next destination.11 Although the scant evidence prevents any estimate of how many undertook the pilgrimage, the transit of Ethiopian pilgrims must have contributed to the emergence of a reciprocal awareness. Similarly, Catalan traders active in the Middle East were also likely candidates for the circulation of knowledge between Europe and Ethiopia. Although no Cata- lan presence would be recorded in Ethiopia until 1482, earlier visits at the negus’s court cannot be excluded. Furthermore, other Europeans who found their way to Ethiopia could have informed their hosts about the growing reach of the Crown Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 of Aragon and of its Catalan merchants. Thanks to either Ethiopian pilgrims, or foreign traders, Ethiopian rulers became aware of the Christian kingdom and its traders and opted to invest in an exploratory mission.

Valencia In this context, “two ambassadors of Prester John, one Christian and the other infidel came to Alfonso king of Aragon in the year of our Lord 1427.”12 Leading the 40 The Mediterranean way Ethiopian party to Valencia was Ali Tabrizi, a Cairo-based Persian merchant who had been conducting business with Ethiopian rulers and their entourage for years, providing them with religious artifacts, weaponry, and valuable intelligence. At some point in the 1420s, Tabrizi seemingly opted to move to Ethiopia, where he became Emperor Yeshaq’s trusted advisor. While traveling back and forth from Egypt to Ethiopia, Tabrizi seems to have kept Yeshaq abreast of developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, until he was dispatched to Europe:

He [Ali Tabrizi] became a trusted man of the negus. The latter invited Ali to start corresponding with the kings of Europe. He [the negus] had learned about the conquest of Cyprus and the capture of King Janus: the moment seemed to him favorable to attract the sovereigns of Europe to attack Egypt, for the purpose of suppressing Islam and re-establishing the prestige of the Christian name. He himself [the negus] will invade Egypt by land while the Europeans will land on the Muslim shores: the two operations would have to be simultaneous. Tabrizi, with letters and unwritten instructions, leaves Ethiopia . . . and embarks for Europe. He accomplishes the mission: most European sovereigns make him promises.13

Apart from the rather imaginative crusading scenario, one that spoke more to Muslim anxieties than the reality of the Mediterranean, even the extent to which Tabrizi coached Yeshaq into forging an anti-Mamluk alliance is hard to gauge, and it is likely an exaggeration on part of the chronicler. At any rate, regardless of the specific dynamics that led to his dispatch, once in Valencia, Tabrizi was granted, along with his Ethiopian companions, hospitality and diplomatic credit. News of the visit quickly reached Rome, where the learned Cardinal Guillaume Fillastre (1344–1428) deemed the news worth recording in his annotations to Ptolemy’s Geography:

Christians of Prester John, who is said to reign over seventy-two kings, of which twelve are infidels, the rest Christians yet different in rituals and mores. Little is known of [what is] beyond the equator with the exception of the great region of Agisimba [Abyssinia], which is included in this map and drawn in the south end.14

Upon arriving at court, Tabrizi and his companions seem to have advanced multiple requests on Yeshaq’s behalf, but the one that stands out for its peculiarity Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 as well as for the response it triggered was a double marriage proposal between members of the two royal families. Yeshaq’s is the first recorded proposal for an African-European marriage between royals in world history, one whose epochal meaning could be hardly overestimated. For the Ethiopian sovereign, a blood tie with a European dynasty would have meant leverage against the sultanate, heightened political standing in Ethiopia, and improved access to European technology. The embassy and the momentous proposal warranted a well-planned mission, whose contours are delineated in a long memorandum that is also the principal Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 2.1 Alfonso’s memorandum. España. Ministerio de educación, cultura y deporte, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Real Cancil- lería, Registros, 2677, fol. LIIIIr–fol. LVv. 42 The Mediterranean way source of information about the visit.15 Alfonso instructed his representatives to reassure Yeshaq of his good disposition and to collect additional intelligence on the Ethiopian bride and groom while guarding themselves from divulging excessive information:

Item: Find out about the wish[es] and good disposition of the said Lord King [Yeshaq] concerning his marriage with his [Alfonso’s] relative Johana. Item: In case they [Alfonso’s representatives] receive a proposal of marriage for the Infante Dom Pedro they must hear and must give no information of our side and [then] report it and inform [Alfonso] concerning the personality of the Lady and of that which will be done and be given [the dowry] to the said Infante [Dom Pedro] in order to consider the said matrimony.16

The references are to Joana d’Urgell (1415–1445) and Alfonso’s brother Pedro (1406–1438), both high-ranking members of the royal house. Under the adumbrated arrangement, the former would have become Yeshaq’s consort, while the latter would have married an unnamed Ethiopian princess.17 As both brides would have traveled to the other side of the world, Alfonso instructed the representatives to seek advice on how to best arrange for their transportation and suggested to “take information about which way and manner they can find to come secretly in a safe way from there to here in case the affair comes to a conclusion.”18 In light of these inquiries and precautions and the investment in resources, it is clear that Alfonso welcomed the proposal and opted, albeit cautiously, to incorporate it into his Eastern strategy. In fact, the memorandum concluded with a not- too-cryptic reference to a “secret enterprise,” in relation to which

they [the representatives] are to inform [Prester John] concerning the customs, the power and the time, and of that which the Lord King [Alfonso] is able to perform by sea, and what aid he could have in money from the said Prester John and in what secure way he could take it.19

Alfonso’s recommendation that his agents were to let Yeshaq know that their sovereign could “perform by sea” could hardly be more explicit. Especially when read along another section of the document that details the mission’s overall purpose, Alfonso’s long-term intentions are quite apparent:

When they have arrived in the land of the Sultan and from there forward through Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 all the road[s] until [the land of] Prester John, on the way and indeed on the return, they should make mention of the disposition of the land and its fertility, [its] life and water and, likewise, of the population, strength and communications and [together] with all this and with the [local] circumstances, they should make a very secret report, explaining the customs of the people and their life.20

Hence, the double marriage was part of an effort to assess and facilitate the sealing of an anti-Mamluk alliance, for which purpose Alfonso’s agents were expected to collect intelligence on the entire region. The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 43 However unlikely, the plan is notable as the first recorded tangible attempt, on the part of a European sovereign, to form an anti-Muslim alliance with an Afri- can counterpart. Alfonso was deploying once again the discourse on the crusade – one to which Emperor Yeshaq and his representatives were susceptible – to foster an alliance for much more practical reasons. Although a call for a joint crusade was little more than a rhetorical exercise, an alliance with Ethiopia could have gained Alfonso leverage vis-à-vis the Mamluk sultanate. By the same token, the negus was hardly convinced of the possibility of mounting an all-out operation against the Mamluks but, rather, was probably interested in securing leverage on the other side of the sultanate. The two agents originally entrusted with the mission were the monk Phelip Faiadell (n.a.–1444), who at the time was Alfonso’s confessor, and one Pere de Bonia, an obscure character probably chosen for his knowledge of Arabic.21 The two were to accompany not only Tabrizi but also a group of artisans who were being dispatched to fulfill what seems to have been Yeshaq’s other main request. The negus could have been interested in welcoming artisans either because those from Venice never made it to Ethiopia or because they had, and their contributions had stimulated the sovereign’s appetite for European technology and craftsman- ship. Either way, the negus must have been eager to facilitate additional technological transfer. For unknown reasons, of the two representatives only Bonia left with the party and headed to Alexandria via Rhodes and Cyprus.22 Although the party disappeared from Aragonese records, Tabrizi’s fate was recorded in Egypt, where Mamluk authorities got wind of the mission and acted swiftly – the party was too exotic to remain unnoticed:

In 832 (1429) a trader from Tauriz called Nour Eddin Aly who appeared to be Muslim, was arrested. The king of Abyssinia sent him to the Franks to invite them to join him for the purpose of destroying Islam and building Christianity on its ruins. Actually, the prince who had thought of the project of invading the countries ruled by Muslims wanted that while he attacked them by land the Franks attacked them by sea. . . . Having been denounced by one of his slaves, he was arrested on his ship and taken to the Sultan together with the two monks and his possessions. . . . The fourth day of the first jumada (28 February 1429) . . . the qady [judge] to whom the affair had been assigned interrogated the prisoner and became fully convinced of his culpability and did not hesitate to order his death. Therefore, the day after, the wretched man was put on a camel in the streets of Cairo, preceded by a man who cried “this Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 is the punishment for those who bring the armies of the enemies and plays with two religions!” Then, they brought him to the foot of the platform of the college of Saleh and cut his head, under the eyes of an immense crowd.23

Given that the chronicler endorsed the execution, he is likely to have exaggerated the nature of the mission to justify Tabrizi’s fate at the hands of the Mamluk executioner. However, in light of the memorandum, Mamluk accusations levied against Tabrizi seem to have been hardly off the mark. As far as the 13 artisans and Bonia, they can be imagined doing their best to dissociate themselves from 44 The Mediterranean way Tabrizi, most likely to no avail. The mission had failed and, at least for the time being, the double-marriage proposal remained dead.24 The apprehension and execution of Tabrizi in Cairo coincided with Yeshaq’s death and a brief period of dynastic instability, which continued until the crowning of his younger brother Zara Yaqob (1434–1468), who pursued further ties with Alfonso after more than two decades of diplomatic silence.

Naples Upon his ascension, Emperor Zara Yaqob continued in the footsteps of his predecessors with expansion and consolidation throughout the Highlands: like his brother, he was determined to solidify his empire and understood the need to har- ness faith as a political tool for the state-building process. Internally, he targeted both peasantry and clergy with calls for orthodoxy, through a combination of negotiation and retribution. In order to secure the clergy’s compliance, he authored a substantial collection of political-religious treatises in which he admonished his subjects against the dangers of heresy, while he persuaded the illiterate peasantry with blunter means.25 While restoring cohesion within his kingdom, Zara Yaqob also unleashed the power of his military-religious apparatus beyond the lands under his domain, resuming old conflicts and initiating new ones, first and foremost to secure control of the caravan routes leading to Massawa and Zeila. In the southeast, he continued the confrontation with the resurgent Sultanate of Adal, which had turned once again into a threat. The struggle went on throughout the late 1430s and 1440s until the two confronted each other in the battle of Egubba (1445) where, according to Ethiopian tradition, the negus personally killed Sultan Badlay (1432–1445) and dispatched pieces of his body throughout his domain to admonish potential dissenters.26 In the north, the geopolitical condition was more complicated as Zara Yaqob found himself negotiating his expansionism with both local rulers and the far-reaching influence of the Mam- luk sultanate. Eager to expand his domain throughout the northern Highlands, but also cognizant of the importance of peaceful coexistence with the powerful sultanate, in the first half of his tenure, Zara Yaqob seems to have privileged the latter. He dispatched an embassy to Sultan Barsbay (1422–1438) that carried “a gift, made of gold, civet and other precious objects, together with a letter in which he advanced to this prince the most friendly concerns and invited him to treat Christians favorably and to have their churches respected.”27 By the turn of the decade, relations seem to have quickly deteriorated, as growing intolerance was Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 recorded on both sides of the Christian-Muslim divide. To assert his control over the caravan route connecting the Highlands with Massawa, the negus encouraged Christians to settle throughout the region at the expense of the indigenous Muslim population. Meanwhile, in Egypt, the Coptic patriarch lamented the destruction of an ancient church and, more generally, the persecution of Christians, possibly in response to the negus’s policies.28 In turn, Zara Yaqob reacted by dispatching a threatening letter to the Mamluk sultan Jaqmaq (1438–1453) in which he The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 45 demanded good treatment for the Copts and the construction and renovation of churches throughout the sultanate. He lamented that Christians in Egypt were treated like “dogs,” and had the sultan not made amends he could have decided to stop the Nile.29 When Jaqmaq rejected the negus’s accusations and demands, Zara Yaqob detained the latter’s envoy and proceeded with further reprisals against the Muslim community in the country – in turn, the sultan threatened the Coptic patriarch with death and forced him to plead to the emperor for the release of the envoy.30 The diplomatic escalation echoed in the Mediterranean and was vividly cap- tured in a letter that Jean de Lastic (1371–1454), Grand Master of the Knights of St John in Rhodes, sent to King Charles VII on 3 July 1448:

Moreover, certain Indian priests who had sailed here to Rhodes told us through reliable interpreters that Prester John, emperor of the Indies, reported great butchery and slaughter by his neighbors the Saracens, and most of all by those who claimed to be descended from the line of Mohammed, such as could scarcely be believed: for on a journey of three days the corpses of the slain were seen scattered all around. This same King of the Indies intended, moreover, to send an ambassador with gifts to the Sultan of Babylon, as is the custom among those of the East, announcing that unless he desisted from persecuting Christians, he himself would bring destruction and war against the city of Mecca, where the tomb of Mohammed is said to be located, as well as against Egypt, Arabia, and Syria, which are subject to the rule of this Sultan, and threatening also that he would seize the entire river Nile, which irrigates Egypt and without which nothing would be able to survive in that place, and that a second journey similar in kind would be given him. This ambassador was at first well received and provided for, means being given to him that he might visit the holy sepulcher of our Lord: but when he had returned to Cairo he was imprisoned by the same Sultan, with the design that he would not release this man if his own ambassador, sent to India and held there, were not to return.31

The report is representative of the way in which discursive formations of Euro- pean derivation pertaining to the Prester and his alleged powers – in this case, the ability to stop the Nile – began shaping current intelligence coming from the Red Sea and the Horn. Apart from the gruesome details, the passage is significant because it conveys the type of expectations that dominated the discourse on Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Prester John. Although it was one still drenched in fantasy, it was increasingly informed by real, albeit uncertain, notions pertaining to a real sovereign. Even more interesting, it was a discourse that was becoming increasingly transcultural as Ethiopian agents began to influence its development, further paving the way of the encounter. In 1450, when more Ethiopian visitors landed in Rhodes, de Lastic must have been exceedingly excited: at the party’s helm was Pietro Rombulo, who seems to have traveled with two companions – a monk from Shewa named Mikael and one 46 The Mediterranean way Abu Omar, most likely a translator. Like de Lastic’s previous visitors, the party must have sailed off from Alexandria, transited through Rhodes, and landed either in Venice or in another Italian port on the Adriatic. On the way to Naples, Rom- bulo and his companions visited Rome, where they obtained safe conduct from Pope Nicholas V on 20 May 1450:

Since for certain weighty matters, which concern furthermore the honor of the holy Apostolic See, it comes to pass that the beloved sons Pietro Romulo [Rombulo] da Messina, and Michaele the prior of the Church of Holy Maria de Gudaber, and Abumar Elzend, set out in person as ambassadors of our most dear son in Christ, Constantine [Zara Yaqob], illustrious Emperor of the Ethiopians. We are desirous that these ambassadors, together with their escort and personal attendants, both cavalry and foot soldiers, to the number of fifteen persons, and also with their pack-saddles, books, scriptures, materials, and personal property, might enjoy whatever pertains to traveling, residing, and returning, as well as full security, immunity, and favorable treatment.32

Apart from the cryptic reference to “certain weighty matters,” which indicates that the pontiff was made privy to the party’s intentions, the visit does not seem to have triggered an official response. In fact, years later, when Pope Callistus III (1455–1458) wrote to Zara Yaqob, he did not refer to it.33 Rombulo and his companions were hosted and sent on their way to Naples with an endorsement but, probably out of skepticism or simply because the negus had not addressed an official communication to the pontiff, their presence in Rome seems to have been treated as nothing more than a devotional visit as opposed to a formal embassy. Either way, by late July 1450, the party was in Naples: the excitement the embassy generated can hardly be overestimated. At the time of their arrival, Rom- bulo and his companions were celebrated with a royal parade in which they occupied a leading position second only to Alfonso himself, his son Ferdinand – later Ferdinand I of Naples (1458–1494) – and a handful of high-ranking officials – a welcome that speaks to the consideration they were afforded.34 How Rombulo and his party spent their days at court is unknown, but they can be imagined entertaining a variety of personalities from the city and the region with tales about Ethiopia and the countries they had visited on their way to Naples. Their presence must have elicited a diverse array of reactions: cultural interest in the non-European world, political considerations, and simple attraction for the exotic, as “all the aristocracy of the kingdom of Naples, and many ambassadors of princes who were living in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Naples at that time” went to see the ambassador and his companions.35 The novice who made a point of meeting with Rombulo was Pietro Ranzano (1427–1492), a young Dominican who would later rise to high office in the Roman Church, serving as provincial in Sicily, commissioner for the crusades, Bishop of Lucera, inquisitor of Sicily, and papal nuncio to Hungary.36 One can imagine that among young novices about to swear their allegiance to a missionary order, hearsay about the Indies, Prester John, and growing concern for the burgeoning Ottomans were topics of daily conversation. By the mid-1400s, a still modest but growing number of traders and pilgrims to the East had been returning The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 47 to Europe with up-to-date information that, albeit still imbued in fantasy and legend, was quickly chipping away at the standard-bearers of the ancient world. Like Fra Mauro, who by the time of Rombulo’s visit to Naples was completing the Mappamundi, Ranzano must have been grappling with facts and legends – trying to understand which was which. Especially in light of his lifelong interest in the non-European world, one that Ranzano cultivated as a scholar for the remainder of his life, it is no wonder that he was, in his own words, “fired with vehement ardor” at the thought of meeting with the Ethiopian ambassador, all the more so as he expected him to be Ethiopian.37 Although his interlocutor turned out to be a fellow Sicilian, Ranzano must not have been too disappointed as he conversed with someone coming from one of the most remote places in European imagination. The visit made such a strong impression on his young and curious intellect that Ranzano recorded a significant and extensive account of Rombulo’s journeys along with a description of Ethiopia in his magnum opus, the unpublished Annales Omnium Temporum, in which he explains that

in Ethiopia (since Christ is worshipped in that place) there are innumerable Christians, among whom he both would be able to dwell and lead his life safely, and would pass [his time] honorably. There reigns David [Zara Yaqob], the most civilized, the most just, and the most pious of all princes.38

As for Rombulo’s mission, Zara Yaqob had probably dispatched it in the context of the heightened reprisals between Ethiopia and its Muslim neighbors, hoping to revive the connection with Aragon that his brother had pursued more than two decades earlier. Although no record of the sovereign’s requests exists, Alfon- so’s reply offers several clues as to the mission’s purpose:

With regard to the master craftsmen and artisans that our excellency is requesting, we would send you as many as you like, if the journey were to be secure and without danger, but it remains unclear in many ways, especially because of the loss of those thirteen men masters of different arts, who had been requested to us a long time ago by your most serene brother and whom we sent and who could not pass [Mamluk land] and died on the way.39

The quest for artisans would remain one of the encounter’s leitmotifs, as Ethio- pian sovereigns requested technical support time and again. However, although more than two decades had gone by, the fate of Tabrizi’s mission seems to have still been vivid at Alfonso’s court, making the sovereign hesitant about investing – Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and possibly wasting – additional lives and resources. Furthermore, in light of the increasingly confrontational relations with the Mamluks and, further to the north, the constant expansion of the Ottoman Empire, the chances of a safe journey to Ethiopia were slimmer than they had been for Tabrizi’s party. In the end, the desire to pursue relations with Zara Yaqob prevailed, and Alfonso opted to

send some of our artisans whom you requested, those we could find despite the perils that they will face. . . . With the help of God we will soon send over the sea about one hundred and fifty vessels between sailboats and galleys to 48 The Mediterranean way Jerusalem. We hope you will promptly stop the waters that run to Cairo and have people along your frontiers.40

This is the first recorded proposal and plan for a joint European-Ethiopian strike to the heart of the Arab world, one ostensibly hinged, once again, on Ethiopian ability to stop the Nile. Like any other crusading pledge Alfonso had made throughout his career, this one too remained unfulfilled. In early 1450, an Aragonese fleet had sailed to the Eastern Mediterranean – but its purpose and size departed from those adumbrated in the letter. At the helm of a dozen vessels was no crusader but, rather, a corsair, Bernat de Vilamari (n.a.–1463), tasked not with conquest but with raiding any vessel – Muslim or Christian alike – sailing under any flag other than the Aragon- ese. The ultimate purpose was to fill Alfonso’s coffers and pressure the Mamluks into extending more favorable concessions for Catalan traders in the Levant and Egypt: it was never a crusade but, rather, an exercise in commercial extortion.41 Three months after his arrival, Rombulo was ready to leave with Alfonso’s letter for “Zara Yaqob, son of David of the house of Solomon, Ethiopian Emperor, our very dear friend and brother,” in which the sovereign outlined his optimistic plans for a joint crusade and also acknowledged the visit of the “noble men Pero Rombolo de Messina, our vassal and servant and subject of your excellency, fratre Michele, prior of Sancta Maria de Cadabere, Anamer Jundi your ambassadors.”42 Rombulo left Naples for Rhodes with his old and new companions in late September 1450, but instead of retracing his steps through the sultanate, he was instructed to seek an alternative way to Ethiopia, ostensibly out of concern that he and his companions would meet the same fate as Tabrizi. Accordingly, Rombulo was handed credentials to John IV Megas Komnenos (1429–1459), Emperor of Trebizond on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, Constantine XI Palaiologos (1449–1453), the last Byzantine ruler of Constantinople, and Jean de Lastic of Rhodes. Obviously, the party was expected to reach Rhodes first, then sail to Constan- tinople, then to Trebizond, and from there find a path to Ethiopia through Meso- potamia, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea.43 The Persian road to Ethiopia would have been a remarkably longer journey, one whose safety was far from proven. One wonders whether it represented the party’s first option or a secondary one to be enacted in case of need – possibly after having consulted the authorities in Rhodes on the opportunity of venturing into Mamluk territory. In any case, the Persian option, which presumably resulted from the combined knowledge of what Rombulo had learned over a lifetime of travels, and what was known about the East at Alfonso’s court, did not suffice. Despite all the planning and precautions, Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the party disappeared after leaving Naples, not to be seen or heard of again. Hints about Rombulo’s failure must have quickly reached Naples, because already in January 1452, just over a year after the mission’s departure, Alfonso entrusted a new mission to Ethiopia to one Michele Desiderio. Like his predecessor, the new envoy also carried credentials addressed to the rulers of Constantino- ple, Trebizond, and a vague “Most Serene Cobla. . . . Catayo,” an unspecified ruler in the East.44 Unfortunately for Desiderio, his journey coincided with one of the most momentous events in world history. By the time of his arrival in Constan- tinople, Mehmet II had asserted complete Ottoman control over the Bosphorus The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 49 Strait and had stripped the Byzantine Empire of one of the last vestiges of its millennial history, its ability to control trade in and out of the Black Sea. Although Desiderio’s fate is unknown, it is hard to imagine a less likely scenario for his safe journey to Trebizond and his mission’s success. So thought Alfonso, who on 3 July 1453, a little more than a month after Constantinople’s fall in 29 May 1453, entrusted one Antonio Martinez with his third and final letter to Zara Yaqob. Con- stantinople being no longer an option, Martinez was given a safe-conduct for John II of Cyprus (1432–1458), which would suggest a plan to travel through the northern Levant but, like his predecessors, Martinez was never heard of again.45

After the repeated failures, the Aragonese-Ethiopian encounter came to a close, as neither monarch attempted further contact. Alfonso passed away in 1458, while Zara Yaqob became increasingly occupied with internal unrest before passing away in 1468. Despite the lack of tangible results, to contemporary observers and interested parties, the exchanges confirmed beyond any doubt the existence of a Christian kingdom beyond the Muslim world, one most certainly located south of Egypt. Furthermore, the incomplete exchanges and unfulfilled pledges show that, following the first timid steps into Europe in the early 15th century, Ethiopian rulers developed an understanding of the Mediterranean sufficiently sophisticated to seek an anti-Mamluk alliance with the Crown of Aragon. How- ever unrealistic, the efforts confirm that Ethiopians were the first movers and proactive agents of the encounter: they dispatched two diplomatic missions entrusted with very significant requests for technological transfer, a military alliance, and an unprecedented double marriage between African and European royals. The latter is probably one of the most significant aspects of Ethiopian-Aragonese relations: that it remained unfulfilled should not take away from the profound meaning of the Ethiopian proposal, and even more so of the Aragonese reaction. Not only had Alfonso made substantial investments of men and resources and detailed orders to facilitate the double marriage but also, even more telling of his receptivity, he identified specific candidates for the project among the highest ranking of his relatives, Joana and Pedro.46 Given that the negus could have hardly been able to pinpoint Joana and Pedro as specific candidates and must have advanced a generic proposal instead, Alfonso’s selection speaks to his determination to see the double marriage through. Mixed marriages were a rarity in the early modern era, but they did occur. In the mid-16th century, at least one Kongolese Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 nobleman residing in Lisbon married into the Portuguese royal house, and in the early 1600s, the Christian heir to the Kingdom of Warri married a Portuguese noblewoman.47 These two cases, along with the one under consideration, suggest that for the Portuguese nobility, their African interlocutors’ faith, class, and status trumped considerations relative to their color.48 Instead, the insurmountable obstacles to fulfilling the proposal were likely of a geographical and political nature. Until the early 1500s, one of the key limitations to the encounter was that the only known paths connecting Ethiopia and Europe – either through the Nile and the Red Sea or the Black Sea and the Persian 50 The Mediterranean way Gulf – were policed by either Mamluk or Ottoman authorities. However, eventually another monarchy that had emerged from the Reconquista would find a completely different alternative, but for the time being, pilgrims and representatives interested in reaching the other side of the encounter world had few options but to trail through the Middle East.

Notes 1 Several European sources from the 15th and 16th centuries refer to the emperor of Ethiopia as “David.” The confusion probably stems from the long tenures of Dawit and Lebna Dengel (whose throne name was Dawit) as emperors, which turned the name into a general moniker for the ruler of Ethiopia. 2 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 91r. 3 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 91r. 4 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 92v–r. 5 Ahmad ibn ‘Ali Taqi al-Din Al-Maqrizi and Fri Theod Rinck, Macrizi Historia regum Islamiticorum in Abyssinia (Leiden, 1790), 27. In fact, Yeshaq’s campaigns were by no means limited to waging war against the Muslim world, as his conquest and forced conversions cut across religions lines: Muslims, polytheists, and Jews were all fair game; see Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 153–5, 201–2. 6 Quoted in Enrico Cerulli, “L’Etiopia medievale in Alcuni Brani di scrittori Arabi,” Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 3 (1943): 292. 7 For an overview of Alfonso’s rise, see David Abulafia, “Genoese, Turks and Catalans in the Age of Mehmet II and Tirant Lo Blanc,” in Quel mar che la terra inghirlanda: in ricordo di Marco Tangheroni, ed. Marco Tangheroni, Franco Cardini, and Maria Luisa Ceccarelli Lemut (Pisa: Pacini, 2007), 49–58; Francesco Cerone, “La Politica Orientale Di Alfonso d’Aragona,” Archivio Storico per Le Provincie Napoletane 27 (1902): 3–93; Alan F. C. Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous: King of Aragon, Naples, and Sicily, 1396–1458 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Alan F. C. Ryder, The Kingdom of Naples under Alfonso the Magnanimous: The Making of a Modern State (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976); J. N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250–1516, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), 239–67; Thomas N. Bisson, Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 133–62. 8 On the issue of Alfonso’s true intentions, see Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous, 300–4. 9 This was the reason behind the Aragonese takeover of Kastellorizo in 1461, an ideal starting ground for further incursions in the Levant. Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous, 297. For additional references to the fondaci, see Cerone, “La Politica Orientale di Alfonso d’Aragona,” 25. 10 Cited in Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à l’histoire des croisades au XVe siècle,” 291. The reference to St. Thomas stems from the identification of Ethiopia as part of the Indies and of Indian Christians with the missionary activity of Thomas the Apostole. 11 The five monks claimed to have been sent by Yeshaq on an official mission, but it is more likely that they claimed an official investiture to obtain support from their hosts.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Cited in Constantin Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, roi de Naples (1416–1458) (Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans, 1994), 18–25. 12 From Guillame Fillastre’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geography to Ptolemy’s Cosmogra- phy, cited in Raymond Thomassy, Guillaume Fillastre considéré comme géographe; à propos d’un manuscrit de la Géographie de Ptolémée (Paris: Impr. de Bourgogne et Martinet, 1842), 148. In 1482, a visitor to the Eskender’s court in Shewa recorded the presence of a Catalan by the name of “Miser Consalvo Cathalano”; see Chapter 6. 13 Cited in Gaston Wiet, “Les relations Égypto-Abyssines sous les sultans mamlouks,” Bulletin de la Société d’archéologie Copte 4 (1938): 127. 14 Thomassy, Guillaume Fillastre considéré comme géographe, 148. The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 51 15 “Memorial pa Mestre Phelip Faiadell, confessor del senyor rey, e en Pere de Bonia, missatgers per lo dit senyor rey trameses a Preste Johan de les Indies e altres parts,” A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2677, fol. LIIIIr–fol. LVv. The memorandum can be found in Monumenta Henricina, 3:209; English translation in Peter P. Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” Rassegna di Studi Etiopici, no. 37 (1993): 40–1, all quotations are from the latter. 16 A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2677, fol. LVv; Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 41. 17 Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, 21; Charles Germain Marie Bourel de La Roncière, La découverte de l’Afrique au Moyen Age: Cartographes et explorateurs, 3 vols (Société royale de géographie d’Egypte, 1924–27), vol. 2 (1927), 116. 18 A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2677, fol. LVv; Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 41. 19 A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2677, fol. LVv.; Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 41. 20 A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2677, fol. LII r; Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 41. 21 Faiadel became bishop in 1441. His name is recorded alternatively as Phillip or Felix and as Faiadell, Fajadell, or Fajadelli; Víctor Balaguer, Los frailes y sus conventos: su historia, su descripción, sus tradiciones, sus costumbres, su importancia, 3rd ed., 2 vols (Barcelona: Llorens Hermanos, 1851), 2:431; Francisco Diago, Historia de la provincia de Aragon de la orden de predicadores, desde su origen. Hasta el año de 1600. Com- puesta por el presentado fray Francisco Diago (Barcelona: S. de Cormellas, 1599), 141. As for Bonia, according to Marinescu he could have been Joan Bonia, a Valentian with knowledge of Arabic; Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, 18. 22 The mission’s itinerary can be deduced from the memorandum. Bonia’s departure as sole representative can be deduced from Alfonso’s letter to Yeshaq, from which Phelip Faiadell was erased. Alfonso V to “Petri de Bonia,” 13 May 1428, Valentia, A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2681, fol. 175r; Alfonso V to Yeshaq, 15 May 1428, Valen- tia A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2680, fol. 165r; transcriptions in Portuguese, Monumenta Henricina, 3:207–9. For a discussion of the documents, see also Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, 22, who was the first to observe that Phelip Faiadell’s name was erased from the copy of Yeshaq’s letter. 23 Cited in Etienne Marc Quatremere, Mémoires géographiques et historiques sur l’Egypte et sur quelques contrées voisines (Paris, 1811), 276–8. Maqrizi refers to Ali Tabrizi as “Nour Eddin Ali from Tabriz,” whereas Taghribirdi calls him “Ali Tabrizi.” Maqrizi and Taghribirdi are the only known sources on Tabrizis’s transit through the Mamluk sultanate. 24 The failure is confirmed in later correspondence between Alfonso and Zara Yaqob; see below. 25 For Zara Yaqob’s ecclesiastical and theological reforms, see Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 206–50; Steven Kaplan, “Zara Yaqob o l’apogeo dell’impero,” in Nigra sum sed formosa: sacro e bellezza dell’Etiopia cristiana, ed. Mario Di Salvo, Giuseppe Barbieri, and Gianfranco Fiaccadori (Venezia: Terra Ferma, 2009), 175–82;

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Jules François Célestin Perruchon, Les chroniques de Zar’a Yâ’eqôb et de Ba’eda Mâryâm, rois d’Éthiope de 1434 à 1478, Bibliothèque de l’École pratique des hautes études, Sciences Philologiques et Historiques, Fasc. 93 (Paris: É. Bouillon, 1893), 6–7, hereafter cited as Perruchon, Les chroniques de Zar’a Yâ’eqôb. 26 Enrico Cerulli, “L’Etiopia del secolo XV in nuovi documenti storici,” Africa Italiana 5 (1933): 80–99. EA 1:158. 27 Cited in Quatremere, Mémoires géographiques et historiques sur l’Egypte et sur quelques contrées voisines, 279. 28 Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 261. Perruchon, Les chroniques de Zar’a Yâ’eqôb, 56. 52 The Mediterranean way 29 Wiet, “Les relations Égypto-Abyssines sous les sultans mamlouks,” 125. 30 Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” 262. 31 Luc d’ Achery, Spicilegium sive collectio veterum aliquot scriptorum qui in Galliae bibliothecis delituerant (Parisiis: Montalant, 1723), 777. Lastic had been informed by three Ethiopian monks who made it to Alfonso’s court in October 1448; Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, 199. 32 Nicholas V, 20 May 1450, Rome, in C. M. De Witte, “Une ambassade éthiopienne a Rome en 1450,” Orientalia Christiana Periodica 22 (1956): 295. Here Rombulo’s companions are recorded as “Michaele” and “Abumar Elzend.” In Alfonso’s letter and safe-conducts (see below), they are referred to as “Fratre Michele” and “Anamer Jundi.” 33 Callistus referred instead to the Ethiopian visit to Florence. See Chapter 3. 34 Cartas de los enviados de Barcelona a los conselleres, Naples, 17 July 1450, in Josep María Madurell i Marimon, Mensajeros barceloneses en la corte de Nápoles de Alfonso V de Aragón, 1435–1458 (Barcelona: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1963), 305. For a translation of the brief expert concerning the parade, see Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 43–4. 35 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 94r. For similar interest in Africans on the part of the European nobility, see Earle and Lowe, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe; Honeck, Klimke, and Kuhlmann, Germany and the Black Diaspora. 36 For an overview of Ranzano and his work, see Pietro Ranzano, Descriptio Totius Italiae: Annales XIV–XV (Firenze: SISMEL edizioni del Galluzzo, 2007); Ferdinando Attilio Termini and Pietro Ranzano, Pietro Ransano, umanista palermitano del sec. XV / F.E. Termini (Palermo: Libreria editrice Ant. Trimarchi, 1915); Henry Charles Lea, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies: Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, Milan, the Canaries, Mexico, Peru, New Granada (New York: Macmillan Company, 1908), 2. 37 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 91r. 38 Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 92r. 39 Alfonso V to Zara Yaqob, 18 September 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco) A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2658, fols 57r–58v; transcribed in Portuguese, Monumenta Henricina, 10:288–91; Cerone, “La politica orientale di Alfonso d’Aragona,” 64–5. 40 Alfonso V to Zara Yaqob, 18 September 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco) A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2658, fols 57r–58v. The dispatching of artisans is also confirmed in Ranzano’s account: “he [Rombulo] had brought with him [to Ethiopia] many of our craftsmen, hired for money – by whom the homeland of the Ethiopians [was] furnished with the arts they gave, which were to that people the most necessary among all.” Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55, fol. 65v. 41 Ryder, Alfonso the Magnanimous, 298–330. 42 Alfonso V to Zara Yaqob, 18 September 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco), A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2658, fols 57r–58v, and n. 2658, fol. 57r. 43 Alfonso V to John IV Megas Komnenos, 18 September 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco), Alfonso V to Constantine XI Palaiologos (1449–53), 18 Septem-

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ber 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco), Alfonso V to Jean de Lastic, 8 September 1450, Castello Turris Octave (Torre del Greco), all in A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2658, fols 58v–58r. 44 “Serenissimo Cobla cabirani[?] Magno catayo” seems a conflation of various myths and hearsay about the various khans of the East and Cathay (China). Alfonso to Zara Yaqob, Naples, 18 January 1552, in A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2658, fols 178r–179v. 45 Alfonso to Zara Yaqob, 3 July 1453, Naples, in A.C.A.R.C. Registros n. 2661, fol. 21v. See also Cerone, “La politica orientale di Alfonso d’Aragona,” 79–80; Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, 200. The Crown of Aragon, 1427–1453 53 46 While Ethiopian authorities were certainly privy to the growing power of the Crown of Aragon, it is hard to imagine that they could name specific members of the royal family. Garretson’s speculation, albeit imaginative, seems far-fetched; Garretson, “A Note on Relations between Ethiopia and the Kingdom of Aragon in the Fifteenth Century,” 42. 47 On the Kongolese Antonio Vereira, see John Thornton, “Early Kongo-Portuguese Rela- tions: A New Interpretation,” History in Africa 8 (1981): 191. On the Warri Domingos, see Alan F. C. Ryder, “Missionary Activity in the Kingdom of Warri to the Early Nine- teenth Century,” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria 2, no. 1 (December 1, 1960): 5–6. See also Northrup, Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 11. 48 For a different view see K.J.P. Lowe, “Introduction: The Black African Presence in Renaissance Europe,” in Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, ed. T. F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 9; Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings,” 8–9. Lowe argues that the lack of any African-European marriage alliance throughout the era suggests the primacy of racial discrimination among the European nobility. Although this thesis could be correct in relation to other European countries, in light of the marriages discussed above it hardly applies to Portugal. Kurt supports Lowe’s argument on the bearing of color on the ground that “Alfonso was indeed willing to marry his sister Joana to the Ethiopian emperor, but was clearly hesitant about the marriage of his brother, the Infante Don Pedro, to an Ethiopian princess.” However, that Alfonso was more hesitant about Pedro’s marriage than Joanna’s marriage hardly supports the author’s argument on the primacy of color. In light of the age-long resistance to interracial marriages involving a black man and a white woman, had color mattered, Alfonso would have hesitated about Joana’s more than Pedro’s. A more likely explanation for Alfonso’s hesitation about Don Pedro was his brother’s value in the many possible marriage schemes of the era. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 3 Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484

In 1404, “three black Ethiopians from India” reached Rome and claimed to have orders from Prester John to ascertain “whether the pope had received certain gifts previously dispatched to him.”1 A few years earlier – they claimed – Emperor Dawit had sent a representative to Rome, equipped with generous gifts to be bartered for relics and indulgences. When, years later, he returned to Ethiopia empty-handed, the negus suspected him of embezzlement, imprisoned him, and dispatched a new party to Rome to ascertain whether his gifts had reached the pontiff. The doubts could have been well founded, as there was no trace in Rome of a previous gift-carrying mission: most likely the first party had never made it to Italy, and the gifts and resources were used for other purposes. Upon reaching Rome, the three monks making up the new delegation were welcomed as “good Christians” and were hosted at Cardinal Antonio Caetani’s (1360–1412) mansion. As they began scouting the city for religious relics, they attracted much interest, especially among Roman prelates eager to learn more about their brothers beyond the Islamic world:

As a sign of their Christian faith they always carry in their hands a small iron cross, and in their attire they resemble Friars Minor. It is of great amusement to meet with them and hear about their customs, the Catholic faith they observe there, their celebration of divine offices, their life, their customs and their government. Their tales fully agree with what is narrated in the book of the three King Magi owned by Angelo da Perugia, whose content they are happy to hear. While the interpreter explains it to them they hug each other, they laugh and they enjoy what westerners know and appreciate about them.2 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 By the early 1400s, notions relating to the African identity of one of the three kings who, according to tradition, had visited infant Jesus became increasingly common and, at times, they would intertwine with the discourse on Ethiopia and Prester John. What transpires from the rather limited record is that, like the representatives who had visited Venice a few years earlier and the many more who would sojourn in Europe in the ensuing decades, the visitors played along with European fantasies about distant Christians – in this case, the myth of the Three Magi and, in particular, the black Magus.3 Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 55 The Ethiopian visit to Rome in 1404 is only one of dozens in the early 1400s, when a growing stream of pilgrims started to journey to the city either as a destination or a stepping-stone toward further pilgrimages. Moved by devotion and desire to visit some of the most sacred loci of the Christian world, Ethiopian pilgrims walked on beaten paths connecting their country to Egypt and the Holy Land, and from there sailed to the northern side of the Mediterranean on Venetian, Genoese, or Catalan ships. Once in Rome, they could benefit from both the generosity of local personalities such as Caetani and more official support. In addition to being provided with the necessities pertaining to their stay – a practice that eventually evolved into the assignment of a monastery in Rome – the pilgrims were usually handed letters of indulgence through which the pontiff invited generous strangers to extend material support to the pilgrims in exchange for redemption. As such, the letters offered vital support to pilgrims as they approached either their voyage of return or further pilgrimages to other shrines. For example, on 11 February 1407, Pope Gregory XII (1406–1415) penned a letter of indulgence on behalf of “priest Thomas Mathie, Nicolaus Barnabe and Johannes Georgii from India,” for their pilgrimages throughout Italy.4 Later that year, in Bologna, some more “Indians” – possibly the same group of clerics – greatly impressed their hosts when they celebrated Mass:

At the beginning of November [1407] came to the city of Bologna four or five men from India, where San Thomas apostle preached and converted; they are good Christians. . . . Two of them were priests like us, the other two were dea- cons and the other one was a lay brother. One of these priests held mass in the square, in the church of the choir, on Sunday 4th December. The church was full of men and youngsters, and four of them sang the mass, as it was expected; and they read the mass from their books as we do. They spoke devotedly, and even though we did not understand what they read and said, we understand many things such as Jesus Christ, Amen, Alleluia and many of the prophets and apostles they prayed to the good Lord the Merciful like we do; these Christians came from Jerusalem to go to a pilgrimage, in fact they are going to Saint James and Saint Antony and to Rome and so many other things I will not write about.5

When considered along the material support that the letters of indulgence extended to the pilgrims, these circumstances are rather telling of the ecumenical spirit of the time. These “good Christians” could celebrate Mass in a Catholic church according to rites that were recognizably different from Catholic ones but still Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 could be praised for their devotion. In fact, their exotic rituals garnered interest from the local audience who could not understand their language but still regarded them as members of the same community of faith. In a Christian world that had yet to witness the trauma of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, transcultural openness and ecumenism were the norm, and Ethiopian monks were a welcomed lot – supported in spite of their theological idiosyncrasies. Although rather laconic, the letter of indulgence offers valuable glimpses of their mendicant lives and pious journeys that Ethiopians experienced in the era. 56 The Mediterranean way For example, a few years later, a letter of indulgence was penned for one Yaqob, who seems to have been stranded, without resources, in Italy:

When, therefore, we heard the following, that the esteemed Jacob of India, canon of the greater monastery of Saint Antony of Ethiopia of the order of Saint Augustine, and bearer of the present letter, desired to return to the aforementioned monastery, and that on account of the extreme poverty which he endures, he would not be able to fulfill such a desire, there were on this account voices raised among the faithful Christians exceedingly advantageous in his regard. Pitying with pious compassion this man Jacob, who is, as he asserts, a presbyter, we request and keenly urge your Society, charging you in the remis- sion of sins that you might take a collection to the extent of your own resources from God, and might provide this same Jacob with monetary support, for the sake of holy almsgiving and charity, so that, through such assistance on your part, he might be able to return to the monastery we have mentioned; and that you, through these and other good deeds which you will perform at the inspiration of the Lord, might be able to arrive at the joy of eternal blessedness. For, trusting in the mercy of the all-powerful God and in the authority of his apostles, the blessed Peter and Paul, to all those who truly repent and have confessed, and who have in this way collected funds for this man Jacob, for the sake of alms-giving and charity, we compassionately absolve one hundred days from those assigned to penance, the present [letter] being to no effect after five years, which [letter] we strictly forbid to be sent through the commissioners, decreeing that this [letter] lacks authority if otherwise delivered.6

The letter, whose general form and content would be replicated countless times on behalf of dozens of other monks, sheds light on the practical aspects of pilgrim life in 15th-century Italy, and it speaks to both the duress the pilgrims would often suffer as well as the necessity to rely on strangers. As to Yaqob’s identity, given that the Jesuit was the first religious order to establish a presence in Ethiopia in the second half of the 16th century, he could not have been an Augustinian.7 The characterization could have resulted from honest misunderstanding caused by either Yaqob’s attire or miscommunication. It also could have been the result of universalist pretensions on the part of his Catholic interlocutors, or a practical expedient to encourage potential almsgivers to support the monk via well-known monastic categories. Either way, it worked in the monks’ favor, as it presented them as part of the same community of faith regardless of their exotic aspect, Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 practices, and language. Although the vast majority of the letters were bestowed on pilgrims who were traveling privately – hence, the limited resources – from time to time, Ethiopian monks found themselves involved in official Church initiatives and at times carved out important roles for themselves, emerging as key brokers between worlds. The first such case dates to 1417, when a party of three Ethiopian monks, “Petrus, Bar- tholomeus, and Antonius” found itself at the Council of Constance, where Pope Martin V’s election (1417–1431) put an end to a century-long Western Schism Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 3.1 Copy of the letter of indulgence bestowed to the Ethiopians in Constance. Martin V, 1 January 1418, Constance, Reg. Vat. 352, 021v–022r, (© 2015 Archivio Segreto Vaticano). Reprinted with permission of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. 58 The Mediterranean way involving claimants in Rome, Avignon, and Pisa. The monks seem to have been simple auditors without an official investiture – most likely invited to assist at the Council while on their way to Santiago. The nature and length of their participation is unknown, but when on 1 January 1418 they set out to leave, the newly elected pontiff bequeathed them a letter of indulgence.8 While their presence in Constance had been marginal and most likely unplanned, it set a precedent for further Ethiopian involvement in Rome’s ecumenical efforts, which would intensify in the ensuing decades. Together with the growing number of pilgrims traveling through Italy in the early 1400s, the Ethiopian presence in Constance represents the first timid prologue to Ethiopian-Roman relations. Rome would become the stage of the longest and most dramatic chapter in the encounter: here it would first be taken to a new height and then run into the ground.

Ethiopians at the Council of Florence Roman interest in Ethiopia first bore fruit in 1441 when Church officials sought to invite Ethiopian representatives to a formal participation in the ongoing Coun- cil of Florence (1431–1449). Originally convened to settle disputes within the Roman Church, Pope Eugene IV (1431–1447) turned the unprecedented initiative into a comprehensive ecumenical effort aimed at reuniting Rome with various Eastern Churches.9 Its evolution took place against the backdrop of the epochal events that were shaking the traditional balance of power in the Eastern Mediter- ranean. By the late 1300s, the Ottomans had already solidified their grasp on the Eastern Balkans and were thrusting into Serbian territory while eyeing expansion north of the Danube. The future of the Christian world appeared increasingly bleak, and calls for Christian unity intensified. By the late 1430s, the Council started to welcome delegations from a variety of Eastern Churches and aspired to become a locus where communities that had been divided since the early centuries of Christianity could settle their differences and find a much-needed unity against the Ottoman menace. One important step in this direction was the approval, on 6 July 1439, of a Decree of Union between the Greek and Roman churches. The initiative was the brainchild of John VIII Palaeologos (1425–1448), who, from the capital of the ever-shrinking Byzantine Empire, attempted to garner support against the Ottomans. Although the Greek Church would later reject the initiative, its representative at the Council signed the decree, stimulating Rome to pursue similar initiatives with both the known churches in the Near East and the mostly unknown churches beyond the Muslim world.10 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 On 28 August 1439, Eugene IV penned a letter to “Presbyter John Emperor of Ethiopia” and entrusted it to Alberto da Sarteano (1385–1450), a Franciscan missionary who had sojourned in the Holy Land from 1335 to 1337 and was familiar with the Ethiopian community in Jerusalem. The bull Dum Onus appointed Alberto as “apostolic commissioner in the Eastern regions of India, Aethiopia, Egypt, and Jerusalem,” a rather sweeping title that made the Franciscan responsible for reconnecting with any Christian in the Near and Far East; in addition, it speaks to the confusion and ignorance still characterizing Europe’s knowledge of the overseas.11 Sarteano left Rome with a small retinue in late 1439 and, after Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 59 sailing via Rhodes, reached Alexandria by early 1440, where he must have realized the difficulty of any further traveling. Not only was the location of Christian communities beyond the Muslim world still uncertain but also Mamluk authorities were clearly not inclined to facilitate contacts between Eastern and Western Christians. Franciscan hagiographers depicted the friar as a heroic missionary who spent his days engaging Mamluk court clerics in theological diatribes, even attempting to convert Sultan Jaqmaq (1438–1453), but the real Sarteano probably opted for more prudent behavior.12 At some point during his stay, he successfully introduced himself to the Coptic patriarch in Alexandria, Yohannes XI (1427–1452), and convinced him of the opportunity to dispatch a delegation to Florence. In his conversations with Sarteano, the patriarch seems to have claimed complete ecclesiastical authority over the Ethiopian Church and explained to the friar that his delegate, Endreyas, would represent both churches.13 However, an unconvinced Alberto opted to discuss the matter with the Ethiopian monks in Alexandria, who in turn sent word to their compatriots at the Dayr al-Sultan monastery in Jerusalem, part of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher’s complex.14 Nicodemus, the monastery’s abbot, seized the opportunity and agreed to send his own separate delegation to the Council, headed by one Petros. To avoid attracting unwanted Mamluk attention, the Ethiopian and the Coptic delegations traveled separately to Rhodes, where they reunited in the spring of 1441, and from there they sailed to Ancona, crossed the Apennines, and reached Florence by mid-August. During their sojourn in Florence and later in Rome, the Ethiopians were the object of much interest, as they were assumed to come from the long-sought land of Prester John. Although the party had originated in Jerusalem rather than Ethio- pia, the visit was a watershed for the encounter, as it confirmed once again the Christian kingdom’s existence:

On 16 August 1441 came to Florence about 40 Indians of India Major sent by Prester John, between them were three ambassadors of the Most Illustri- ous Prester John. . . . They were black and skinny and quite different from the posture and the type from here. . . . They come to Pope Eugene to make a union of their faith with ours. They enter Florence through the door of Saint Nicholas, accompanied by three courtiers of the pope.15

Before being allowed to meet the pontiff and participate in the Council, the monks were thoroughly questioned by a commission of three cardinals assigned to confirm their identity and claims.16 After the initial inquiries, two weeks after his Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 arrival at the Council, Petros could finally address Eugene IV with a “speech [that] was recited through two translators, one of whom was [translating into] Arabic and the other [into] Latin, speaking in turns.”17 The monk reassured his audience that “there are no other people on earth capable of more devotion, faith, and reverence towards the pope than we are,” boasted the “great power of our empire, which we believe to be much bigger than others, being our emperor in charge of 100 kings of the same faith as ours,” and went so far as to offer an intriguing parallel between his visit to the Council and the journey of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon.18 60 The Mediterranean way Once again, the Ethiopian visitors proved capable and willing to entertain the confused notions of their interlocutors and possibly exploit their expectations about the distant land from which they hailed. The extent to which Ethiopians embraced and informed the discourse on Prester John is hard to fathom: not only are sources scant and rather cryptic, but also, given the language barrier between the visitors and their hosts, sincere misunderstandings cannot be excluded. In the first inter- courses, the discourse on the Prester could have simply been overlaid on the exotic visitor; however, as the visits started to intensify, Ethiopians seem to have adopted an increasingly proactive attitude, co-opting the discourse to their own benefit and turning it into a transcultural product. Whether by confirming that their sovereign could control the waters of the Nile, hold sway against the Muslim world, or even trace his lineage back to the Magi, time and again Ethiopian pilgrims contributed to the mythology of Prester John and his kingdom with their own notions – in Petros’s case, the myth of Solomon and Sheba. Mentioning the myth and offering a comparison between his visit to the Council and the Queen’s visit to Solomon also served the double purpose of recognizing papal superiority – Petros offered that Eugene IV was “much more” than Solomon – while vindicating the legitimacy of Ethiopian faith by drawing its origin from the Old Testament. Petros’s prolusion represents the first documented case of a practice that would define the encounter and, in particular, Ethiopia’s relationship with Rome: heading the papacy’s calls for reunification between the two churches while preserving ecclesiastical independence. The tension between the desire to reconnect and benefit from a preferential relation with Rome after centuries of isolation, while asserting independence and legitimacy, transpires clearly also in Nicodemus’s letter for the pontiff:

When your message about faith came, we greatly rejoiced. We also desire to be one thing, as Paul says: “One God, one faith and one baptism.” Even the negus once he’ll hear this, will rejoice. He also desired that one be the faith. I would have come to you but I was afraid of Muslims, as my journey would have been evident. For this reason I sent my children to you, bearers of this script, the 14 of teqemnt, so that they can come back to me soon by Easter and that they can then go to the negus of Ethiopia to relate what you will have said. . . . Finish your work: the vile pagans have one faith and the Judeans who crucified Christ have one faith. Christians instead have abandoned the doctrine of the Apostles and went on according to the wishes of their hearts. Everyone says: “My faith is the best!” This is not from God but from Satan. But you instead try to reunite all Christians so that one be the faith: like the three hundred and eight of the right Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 faith reunited in Nicaea. Act like them so that we will be one faith. If only one will be the faith, God will kick our enemies out of Jerusalem, Holy Land; he will disperse like grains of tef in the wind, by the strength of Our God Jesus Christ and not by our strength. Finish what you started! Therefore, honorable Father, as far as the love that will be between us, I add: be certain that we and our great negus really desire this, but without our negus we cannot. . . . Your Holiness has our king’s trust. What you planned will be accomplished. Furthermore, the way to our land through land and sea is deadly dangerous to Franks. We Ethiopians, Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 61 after many torments, can now go among Muslims; because of the strength of our king, the Muslims cannot argue with us. The king can destroy them without much effort. As far as our coming to Your Holiness, our Patriarch [the Coptic patriarch] ignores it. Our envoys came unbeknownst to him and the Muslims because they are used to oppose the works of [our] faith. These sons of mine did not come to you to discuss the questions of faith, but to hear and accept everything that you will explain to them and to docilely obey in the questions of faith: desiring what you desire. . . . Once he [the negus] has heard what you want, he will not deny you: anything you want, he will listen to and do. He will greatly rejoice for your precepts because he loves the precepts of the Christian faith. Anything that concerns Christian clergymen, our king will embrace.19

Nicodemus characterized Emperor Zara Yaqob as eager to establish relations and possibly accept the Church’s call for unity, but he stopped short of making any commitment and made clear that any initiative in such a direction would be a prerogative of their sovereign. Therefore, no matter how inclined to the project the Ethiopians in Jerusalem were, neither the abbot nor his representative could negotiate unification, let alone accept to be bound by a decree of union. Because of these limitations, the Ethiopian participation at the Council resulted in little more than a timid first step toward more complex relations which neither Petros nor Nicodemus were equipped to conduct, and the delegation left without reaching any formalized agreement. Nevertheless, the party was immortalized on the bronze doors that Antonio di Pietro Averlino (ca. 1400–ca. 1465), better known as Filarete, cast for the old St. Peter’s Basilica soon after the visit.20 One bas-relief shows the Ethiopian and the Egyptian delegations at the Council in Florence, while the other shows their arrival in Rome. Petros and his companions would be the first of a long list of fellow countrymen to be deemed worthy subjects by the artists operating in Rome throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 3.2 Antonio di Pietro Averlino (aka Filarete), “Porta del Filarete,” St. Peter’s Basilica, 1445. Detail of the bas-relief showing the arrival of the Ethiopian-Egyptian legations in Rome (October 1441). Photo by the author. 62 The Mediterranean way Because no other delegation reached the Council before its conclusion in 1449, and it would not be until 1481 that additional Ethiopian representatives would make it to Rome, the visit seems to have had no consequence in Ethiopia. However, news of the hospitality and interest that Roman authorities had reserved to the Ethiopian envoys reached the Ethiopian court: when decades later Lebna Dengel (1508–1540) wrote to Pope Clement VII (1523–1534) and became the first Ethiopian Emperor to directly address a pontiff, he referred to a letter received from Rome at the time of Zara Yaqob.21 Why the latter did not pursue further relations remains unknown, but it can be assumed to have been for reasons of domestic politics. With his legitimacy largely dependent on the support of the Ethiopian Church, he was probably wary of furthering relations with Rome. As it would become clear years later when Eskender (1478–1494) became the first negus to host Catholic clerics at court, the hospitality and interest that Ethiopians, particularly the elites, nurtured for foreigners did not quite extend to the Church and its representatives. Unlike their counterparts in Jeru- salem and in Europe, who operated as brokers between worlds, Ethiopian clerics in Ethiopia were concerned with preserving the status quo and clearly saw the presence of Catholic clerics as a threat. Although Ethiopian participation in the Council was rather inconsequential from either a political or ecclesiastical viewpoint, much like the episodes of the encounter centered in Aragon and Venice, it nevertheless resulted in important cultural by- products. As a gathering point for some of the most learned personalities of the time, the Council turned Florence into an important locus for the circulation of humanist knowledge. In particular, given its cosmopolitan character, the Council attracted the interest of scholars seeking to satisfy their curiosity about the non-European world, and it shed light on some of the pressing questions of the age. In this learned and curious environment, the Ethiopian delegation, probably the most exotic among those partaking in the Council, elicited a great degree of interest and played an important role in the dissemination of information about a still largely unknown region. Among the scholars who interacted with Petros and his companions was Gio- vanni Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380–1459), a lay humanist who had been in the service of pontiffs since the late 14th century.22 While attending to Eugene IV during the Council years, Bracciolini authored De Varietate Fortunae, an eclectic work concerned with disparate historical and geographical themes, including a long section on the overseas.23 He collected and edited various eyewitness accounts from travelers who had journeyed beyond the Muslim world, among them that of a Venetian merchant who had traveled through the East for more than two decades: Niccolò de’ Conti (1395–1469). The serendipitous encounter between the erudite Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and the traveler occasioned in 1439, when Bracciolini was with the pope in Florence and Niccolò reached the city seeking forgiveness for his apostasy:

A certain Venetian named Niccolò, who had penetrated to the innermost parts of India came to Pope Eugenius (he being then for the second time at Flor- ence) for the purpose of obtaining pardon, inasmuch as, when on his return from the Indians, he had arrived at the confines of Egypt on the Red Sea, he was compelled to renounce his faith, not so much from the fear of his own death, as from the danger which threatened his wife and children who Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 63 accompanied him. Since I was very eager to hear him (I had already heard of many things related by him which were worth knowing), I questioned him carefully, both in the meetings of learned men and at my own house about many matters which, it seemed, ought to be remembered and written down.24

Although much of Conti’s reported narrative focuses on his wanderings in south Asia, the merchant also related the conditions of his return voyage through the Middle East. He referenced in particular both his transit through Socotra off the Somali coast and through Aden, from where Conti

sailed over to Ethiopia, where he arrived in seven days, and anchored in a port named Berbera. Then, after sailing for a month, he landed at a port in the Red Sea called Jidda and subsequently near Mount Sinai, having spent two months in reaching this place from the Red Sea, on account of the difficulty of the navigation.25

Hence, the seasoned traveler claimed to have traversed the Red Sea, but only after a brief sojourn on the African coast. Although he reportedly shared with the erudite no more than this fleeting reference, the latter’s interest in the region and likely familiarity with the discourse on Prester John must have stimulated him to learn more. Rather serendipitously,

about the same time some men came to the pope from Ethiopia about matters regarding the faith. When I questioned them, by means of an interpreter, about the position and source of the Nile, and whether it was known to them, two of them asserted that their country was near its sources.26

Thanks to these other informants, who are most likely to be identified with Pet- ros and his companions, Bracciolini managed to add to his account an impressive amount of information pertaining to Ethiopia, one in which authentic references are intertwined with the inevitable fantasies of the era. Bracciolini described exotic plants and wildlife as best he could, using comparisons his audience could understand: in his narrative, the Ensete ventricusum – better known as false banana – becomes a plant producing “a fruit similar to chestnut with which through milling one makes a white bread,” and hyenas are described as “dogs larger than our asses, which will hunt down lions.”27 Next to these authentic references is typical hearsay, such as the notion that Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

the Ethiopians live much longer than we, for they live to be more than a hundred and twenty years old; many even reach the age of one hundred and fifty years, and in some places they live for two hundred years

and that the water of the Nile “cleansed from the itch and leprosy.”28 To Braccio- lini, like Ranzano and Fra Mauro, the production of knowledge about the overseas was first and foremost a process of negotiation among classical notions, medieval fantasies, groundless rumors, and the word of eyewitness interlocutors. 64 The Mediterranean way Despite its brevity and fallacies, Bracciolini’s account seems to have enjoyed much interest. Although previous contributions to the Ethiopianist library such as the Iter would be printed only in modern times, and Ranzano’s account sur- vives only in manuscript form to this day, the sections of De Varietate Fortunae devoted to Conti and the monk were excerpted and printed in 1492. It was issued under the title India Recognita and, although primarily concerned with Asia, it became the first printed European text discussing Ethiopia. Quickly translated into Portuguese (1502) and Spanish (1503), Giovanni Ramusio deemed it worthy of inclusion in the first volume of his Navigationi et Viaggi (1550), while Samuel Purchas would include an abridged translation in his Hakluytus Posthu- mus (1625). This success is easily explained by the growing European interest in the East – especially in the Iberian peninsula, where the Portuguese and Spanish reading public was developing a taste for the overseas. The first printing coincided with not only Columbus’s voyage but also ongoing efforts to find a way to India from the southern Atlantic – Bartolomeu Dias had already rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, and Vasco da Gama would find a way to India in 1498.29 At the time of the Council, as the Portuguese were making their first waves off the West African coast, information on any region beyond the Muslim world was still a rare commodity, and Bracciolini was most likely not the only erudite attracted to the Ethiopian delegation. Although unconfirmed, Petros and his companions seem to have informed two of the most important planispheres of the era, Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi and the Egyptus Novelo, which was included in a Florentine atlas issued in 1454.30 Although the Venetian monk remained silent on the identity of his informants, and provided that Ethiopian pilgrimages to Italy and through Venice were becoming increasingly common by the mid-15th century, the timing of the interview and that of Petros’s return journey to Ethiopia suggest a connection. Given the precautions the delegation had taken on its way to Florence, it is likely that the monks opted to return to the Holy Land through a different route: if they transited through Venice, their presence would have easily come to the attention of the friar and his network of acquaintances. As far as Egyptus Novelo, it is remarkable in that it combines a traditional representation of the lower Nile Valley – one that mostly adheres to traditional Ptole- maic notions – with a surprisingly innovative representation of the upper Nile. In particular, the rendering of the Ethiopia’s riverine system and the use of authentic Ethiopian toponyms still mostly unknown in Europe at the time suggests that the author had access to reliable informants. Although there is no evidence to confirm it, the map’s dating and the author’s Florentine basis of operations suggest that Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Petros and his companions could have been the informants.31 Therefore, despite the lack of tangible diplomatic results, the Ethiopian presence at the Council seems to have made substantial contributions to the European understanding of a still largely unknown region and further drag Prester John out of the realm of fantasy. The Ethiopian presence at the Council generated excitement and chatter well beyond the boundaries of Renaissance Italy: much of what the party discussed with his interlocutors found its way to the Iberian peninsula. Shortly before dying in 1458, a relentless King Alfonso acquired a copy of the Egyptus Novelo, probably hoping to find additional clues as to the ostensibly unreachable Prester.32 The Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 65 map could have been brought to Alfonso’s attention by Flavio Biondo (1392– 1463), the papal secretary who recorded much of the information available on Petros’s visit. Introduced to the Aragonese sovereign, Biondo had exchanged correspondence with the sovereign since his entrance into Naples in 1443, seeking support to track down chronicles relating to the history of the Iberian Peninsula. As he seems to have been greatly interested in the Ethiopians and their accounts, and to have trusted their word over the preconceived notions of ancient derivation even when they clashed with the Ptolemaic views held dear by the Catholic establishment, it is not far-fetched to imagine that he discussed his interest in Ethiopia with the sovereign and recommended acquisition of the map. In Biondo’s mind, the unsubstantiated opinion of an Ethiopian traveler seems to have carried more weight than centuries of European geographical tradition.33 As far as the Church and its interest in the Prester, contacts with Ethiopia went on a hiatus after the Council’s mixed results until the mid-1450s, when shortly before his death, Pope Nicholas V (1447–1455) entrusted the Franciscan Ludovico da Bologna with a new mission, probably inspired, at least partially, by Rombulo’s visit. When the friar returned to Rome after having failed to make headway, the newly elected Pope Callistus III must have been persuaded of the impossibility for a European prelate to journey through Mamluk lands, and thus he opted for a different strategy.34 Hoping that their identity would afford them better chances, the pontiff entrusted a new letter for Zara Yaqob to two Ethiopian pilgrims who were visiting Rome – Pawlos and Tewodros. The document, dated 1 December 1456, speaks to the anxieties reigning over the Church and, more generally, the European establishment – anxieties that also explain the renewed interest in Ethiopia:

Immediately after leaving the conclave [8 April 1455], our soul oppressed by the fall and misfortune of Constantinople [1453], we made a vow to embark on a war against the Turks, to those who are iniquitous usurpers of Christian lands. Therefore, given that our funds are not enough, we decided to gather the armies of all the princes of the earth who profess the religion of Jesus Crucified – you among them. . . . Between Westerners and Easterners we have organized two good armies of land and sea, of sufficient valor: . . . we plan to add to the enterprise your important cooperation, with which we will have enough strength not only to defeat the unholy Turk, but to take away from the infidel the holy land of Jerusalem. . . . Because God wanted you to have, under your sublime rule, a powerful army, the river Nile whose inundations fertilize the land where our enemies feed and you at your own pleasure can take that away from them.35 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Not only did Pope Callistus commend the Prester for his faith and convey his concerns for the future of Christianity but he also issued an explicit call to arms. The letter addresses the recipient as Christianity’s last hope against what at the time appeared as Sultan Mehmed II’s (1444–1481) unstoppable army. To convey the gravity of the situation, the pontiff related to Zara Yaqob of the sultan’s campaigns in southeastern Europe and with details of the Christian victory in the dramatic siege of Belgrade of 1456 – one of the momentous events in the history of Otto- man expansion in the Balkans. 66 The Mediterranean way The clear purpose of the letter was to entice an intervention that would have fulfilled long-standing European fantasies on the Prester. The image ofpiety and greatness the letter conveyed was not Callistus’s own creation but, rather, the evolving result of a myth that had been growing and mutating for more than three centuries. Pontiffs had written to the Prester before, but this time the letter included a clear call to arms. Furthermore, the letter was the first to be entrusted, along with a collection of valuable relics, to monks who had been clearly accepted as the Prester’s subjects. Although the call went unheard and the entrusted monks probably failed to deliver the letter, the episode outlines the shape of things to come. Slowly but steadily, the confidence in the Prester and his kingdom’s existence was growing, and along with it the degree of investment that the Church was willing to make: the encounter terrain was ripe for progress and was awaiting additional Ethiopian initiatives.

Ethiopian initiatives In Ethiopia, Emperor Baeda Maryam (1468–1478) succeeded Zara Yaqob and continued the policy of confrontation against the Muslim world, while the Mam- luks continued to deny safe passage to the Coptic bishop who was supposed to fill the abun’s seat. The vacancy, which started with the death of abuna Mikael and abuna Gabriel (1438–1458) and would last for 20 years, had serious implications for both Church and state.36 By virtue of their external source of legitimacy and foreign identity, throughout Ethiopian history abuns would contribute to safeguard the kingdom’s unity against different factions of the Ethiopian nobility, each vying for the Church’s support. The vacancy proved particularly destabilizing in the aftermath of Baeda Maryam’s death, when the lack of a clear successor of age and of automatic primogeniture-based succession mechanism triggered competing claims among the nobility. As different factions fought to impose their own candidate in a bitter struggle for power, the strongman Amda Mikael emerged as the ultimate king-maker. He secured the crowning of his protégé, Baeda Maryam’s seven-year-old son Eskender, and turned himself into a hegemonic court figure.37 However, the lack of an abun meant no anointment for the ascended negus, which in turn meant limited legitimacy and leverage against political opponents.38 Furthermore, the abun alone could ordain priests, sorely needed throughout the expanding kingdom where the dwindling numbers of clergy resulted in a reduced ability to administer acquired territories, fewer clerical personnel to build and man new churches, and Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 a slower and more difficult process of conversion among the newly incorporated populations. The double threat to his protégé and to himself, ultimately ascribable to the vacant abun’s seat, is likely to have been the leading cause behind Amda Mikael’s renewed efforts to obtain a new abun. Hence, he dispatched representatives to Egypt, unwittingly giving way to a new chapter in Roman-Ethiopian relations.39 In 1481, an Ethiopian envoy reached Jerusalem and made inquiries with the Franciscan community at the St Francis Monastery of Mount Zion. Among the Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 67 monastery’s dwellers was Paul Walther von Guglingen (1422–n.a.), who recorded, in his Itinerarium in Terram Sanctam et ad Sanctam Catharinam, that the ambassador

came to Jerusalem, piously visiting the Holy Places and our brothers at Mount Zion, and liked their life and custom of living very much. He enjoyed great intimacy in talking, eating, and drinking with the brothers; and at last he revealed his business, which was of course that he wanted to go into Greece and to conduct [to Ethiopia] a Christian prelate to crown his master.40

According to the pilgrim, his inebriated interlocutor shared the purpose of his presence: he was in Jerusalem on his way to Constantinople, where he hoped to elicit the dispatch of a bishop to Ethiopia from the Greek Church. Upon learning the plan, the friars must have sensed an opening for their missionary activity and convinced the envoy to see their prior – Giovanni Tomacelli (1478–1481) – who, after learning of his purpose, asked the ambassador “my lord, why do you want your king to be crowned by the Greeks who are not real Catholics, but instead heretics and schismatic excommunicated by the true Church?” He suggested instead to “cross the sea and go to Rome: there you will find the pope, the true representative of Christ, the head of the Universal Church and the prelate of all Christians.”41 In other words, Tomacelli argued that a Rome-sanctioned abun would have been by far more prestigious than a Greek one. Of course, for Tomacelli, the issue at stake was not the negus’s legitimacy but, rather, the possibility of exploiting the circumstance to the purpose of reunification. Accordingly, he invited the Ethio- pian to seek travel to Rome and beseech the pontiff to dispatch a bishop to Ethio- pia. The envoy accepted the offer, but only to a degree, arguing that

[Rome] is too far . . . I will be happy to dispatch some of my people with full powers as if was myself, provided that your clerics can accompany them. As far as I am concerned, I will wait for five months in the Great Cairo for their return, impossible to delay it further.42

One can only speculate whether Tomacelli’s interlocutor was part of the Ethio- pian mission to Cairo, although the timing and the context of his visit to Jerusalem would suggest so. However, because seeking an abun in Constantinople would have contradicted Ethiopia’s well-established ecclesiastical tradition, if the envoy was indeed part of the Cairo mission, he had not been entirely truthful with the Franciscan: he could hardly have been charged with seeking an abun in Constan- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 tinople. The most likely explanation is that the envoy considered the Greek abun a fail-safe option, or not even an actual option but simply a lure to attract the interest of his Catholic interlocutors. The envoy could have been frustrated with the situation in Cairo, but he hardly could have had the authority to pursue an abun in either Constantinople or Rome. Accordingly, when offered to travel to Rome, he acted with circumspection: he agreed to dispatch two Ethiopian monks but avoided personal involvement, opting instead to return to Egypt, most likely to complete his mission. Regardless of his ultimate intentions, the envoy must have 68 The Mediterranean way also been wary of alerting Mamluk surveillance and endangering both his life and a delicate geopolitical equilibrium with a reckless diplomatic initiative. The Ethiopian representatives charged with the mission to Rome left Jerusalem in spring 1481, in the company of Giovanni Battista Brocchi da Imola (n.a.–1511). Hailing from one of his city’s most prestigious families, throughout the 1470s Broc- chi had served the papacy in a range of capacities. In 1479, while in France as papal ambassador, he was recalled to Rome after his mission turned sour, and because of either personal disappointment or pressure from within the curia, he decided to undertake the pilgrimage to the Holy Land and leave behind his diplomatic career. Little did he know that once in Jerusalem he would be selected, probably because of his extensive diplomatic experience, for a new diplomatic mission.43 By November, Brocchi and his Ethiopian companions were at Pope Sixtus IV’s court (1471–1484). In the words of Jacopo Gherardi da Volterra (1434–1516), papal diarist:

During these days, the ambassadors of the king of India have entered the City in traditional dress and in the sight of the whole City on account of their strangeness. Their companion was Giovanni Battista da Imola, of great authority in the presence of the pope and the count a short time earlier, now with none. I hear that they had not been sent by their king, but by his secretary, the foremost man of his kingdom, who desires to enter into treaty and friendship with the pope and to live by the rites of Roman Christians. Although there are Christians ruled by the king whom we commonly call Prester John, their rites are very different from ours. This was chief among their petitions: that a bishop of Roman law and tongue should be sent to them, who might both show them our sacred practices and sow the seeds of Christian doctrine in their land. No one who wanted to entrust himself to them could be found; nonetheless, they were religiously advised in the name of the pope, and hope was given them also in their petitions. But for as long as they were at Rome, they were supported by the generosity of the pope, given certain gifts, and honored with public acts. Moreover, they were often piously and lovingly given audience by him through an interpreter.44

In addition to outlining both the curiosity and hospitality that the party attracted, the passage speaks to the misguided expectations that were reigning among prelates in Rome. The delegation – Volterra suggests – was in Rome to obtain a bishop who would be able to amend the peculiarities of Ethiopian faith. Along the same lines is a letter that two ambassadors from the Duchy of Milan dispatched to their sovereign: Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

An Ambassador of Mister Prete Janni came to His Holiness Our Lord and in front of a private consistory explained that having his great lord passed away and having elected a successor among the eligible ones, the latter, in order to remain true to customs, sent to Jerusalem and to some other place to look for a venerable religious man who can go crown him and do other ceremonies, according to their custom . . . that cousin and representative [the Ethiopian representative in Jerusalem] of said Prete Janni sent them here to ask His Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 69 Beatitude, if he could consent to dispatch some people of authority and some who could remove and eradicate those errors and crown his lord.45

In the mind of their interlocutors, the Ethiopians were in Rome to recognize papal supremacy, obtain the dispatch of a Catholic bishop to guide the Ethiopian Church, and find allies against the Mamluk sultanate. As it would soon appear clear to the emissaries who reached Prester John’s capital a few months later, this reading of Ethiopian disposition could have hardly been more wishfully fallacious. While prelates in Rome were fantasizing that the “Prester will come to Rome to be crowned as he is still young, because when it will happen it will be a great joy for the Apostolic See and for our Christian religion,”46 the Ethiopian envoy in Egypt negotiated a treaty with Sultan Qait Bay (1468–1496) and obtained the dispatch of two bishops – Yeshaq and Marqos – along with additional clerics.47 Of course, the development was unknown to both the envoys in Rome and to the pontiff, who included a variety of diplomatic and ecclesiastical fantasies in the letter for the Prester he entrusted to Brocchi:

We [Sixtus IV] rejoice most of all that opportunity has been given during our times for uniting you to the Roman Church, the mother of all faiths, who has always desired this with the highest zeal, just as we have heard that the greater part of your ancestors likewise desired [emphasis added]. But the far distance of the regions between us makes it such that neither your men have been able to reach us in safety, nor our men you, on account of which the arrival of this man Antonius [one of the two Ethiopian monks], your ambassador, was all the more gratifying, from whom we learned abundantly of your steadfastness of soul, piety toward God, and ardor toward the Catholic faith [emphasis added], which were sources of such consolation for us that there could have been no greater. . . . We desired that he might learn the rites of the Roman church, that he might participate in the holy offices . . . , since that the more zealously he paid attention, the more carefully he might report these things back to Your Majesty. We send, therefore, to you this same man as our own ambassador, with the intention that you will send to us together with him your uncle, through whom we might thereafter transmit to you all the things we have in might to send as pledge and testimony of our love toward you. For when he comes to us together with Antonius, we will send a crown, a sword, a bishop who will crown you in our name, theologians, preachers, artisans and other things you desire, so that it might be possible to recognize our love Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 for you and that all things might come about that pertain to our mutual union [emphasis added]. For both to us and to this Antonius it seemed more advis- able and secure that nothing should be sent at the present moment, but that he should go alone and that on his return to us together with your uncle, all those things which we have already prepared might be brought into fulfillment.48

Although Sixtus IV maintained a careful tone, one that stressed mutuality as opposed to imposition, his letter for Emperor Baeda Maryam by and large shares 70 The Mediterranean way the whimsical thinking of the mentioned bystanders. The pontiff optimistically refers to Baeda Maryam’s “ardor toward the Catholic faith” and suggests arrangements for his anointment by a Catholic bishop whose journey to Ethiopia was to be planned through the exchange of further embassies. Hence, as Prester John was moving closer to the papacy and the idiosyncrasies of his faith became better known, the blind desire to find the legendary sovereign was very slowly turning into a more qualified interest: as the attraction to the Christian kingdom was growing, so was concern over its faith – not necessarily in line with Roman expectations. The discourse was still an ecumenical one, stressing understanding and mutuality, but in the decades to come it was destined to change. For the time being, the letter was entrusted to Brocchi, who left his Ethiopian companions in Rome and traveled to Cairo. A few months earlier, while Brocchi’s party was traveling to Rome, an enthusiastic Tomacelli had instructed two other Franciscans, Giovanni da Calabria and Francesco Sager, to reach Cairo and prepare the journey to Ethiopia, where they would have investigated the country’s disposition toward Catholicism.49 However, by the time Brocchi returned to Cairo, Sager had passed away. The two friars chose a beaten path well known among traders: they first sailed to Qena in Upper Egypt, where the Nile is closest to the Red Sea, and from there they journeyed to al-Qusayr and sailed to Massawa via Suakin. Once on the coast, they left for the Highlands and undertook a demanding journey of no fewer than 1,200 kilometers to reach their destination in Shewa. In December 1482, they reached Barara, an important commercial town that for much of the late 15th and early 16th centuries hosted the negus’s itinerant camp. They became the first Catholic clerics, as well the first representatives of the Church or of any other European kingdom, to make it to the Ethiopian court – and also the first diplomatic mission of the Catholic Church toward a sub-Saharan African ruler.50 Unfortunately for the two, the climate at court was hardly consistent with what they had been led to believe. An Ethiopian source offers a rare insight into the problematic nature of their visit:

And in those days there came Franks from Rome. One of them was a priest called Yohannes. And (the king) received them with honor. When the [Ethio- pian] priests saw this, they grumbled and spoke ill of him saying “The king has joined the religion of the Franks.”51

Time and again in the history of the encounter, while Ethiopia’s lay establishment would prove rather enthusiastic in welcoming Europeans, court clerics seem to Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 have remained rather suspicious of any European presence. Not only were Ethio- pians not interested in reunification but also the simple presence of Roman representatives at court would cause acrimony among Ethiopia’s political and religious elites. This is all the more true with regard to ordained visitors such as the two clerics, who were obviously received with scorn because of their doctrines. It can also be imagined that because of their limited grasp on power, Amda Mikael and his young protégé Eskender opted to welcome them and at the same time keep them at a distance. Because the arrival of the new abuns had certainly boosted their legitimacy and somewhat stabilized his precarious position, Amda Mikael Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 71 must have been wary of compromising the status quo with risky extensions of favor to the visitors. After an eight-month sojourn and frustrating attempts to make inroads with the Prester and his patron, Giovanni da Calabria sent Brocchi back to Jerusalem to inform the prior of their problematic condition and receive further instructions. In Jerusalem by late 1483, Brocchi learned of Tomacelli’s death and informed the new prior, Paolo Canedo, of their disappointing reception in Ethiopia. The latter seems to have been little discouraged and opted to contact Eskender and persuade him to adopt a different stance toward the two clerics, have the Ethiopian clergy amend their theological errors, and work for unity with the Catholic Church. By 1484, Brocchi was back at Eskender’s court, but the letter failed to elicit a reply, and the missions proved diplomatically inconsequential. Ethiopia’s church and state system seemed impermeable to either reform or submission to Rome – the two clerics could only acknowledge the status quo and head back to Rome.52

The establishing of Santo Stefano degli Abissini Despite the diplomatic failure, the first bout of relations between the Catholic Church and the Kingdom of Ethiopia had a profound impact on the future of the encounter, starting from the condition of the Ethiopian diaspora in Rome. The presence of Ethiopian clerics in the city can probably be traced back to the 12th century, but it was only in the 15th century that a permanent community started to take hold in the city and be associated with the Church of Santo Stefano Maggiore,53 one of four church-cum-monasteries within the Vatican walls and used as a dwelling for personnel assigned to duty in St Peter’s Basilica.54 Although the origins of the association with the Ethiopian community remains unclear, the structure is likely to have hosted Ethiopians, albeit probably not exclusively, already in the early 1400s. In all likelihood, the vast majority of Ethiopian pilgrims who are recorded as receiving letters of indulgence in the era visited and possibly stayed in the complex. For some monks, it became somewhat of a permanent residence, whereas for others, it was a temporary abode where they could rest and gather resources before undertaking further pilgrimages to other sites of Christian piety such as Santiago de Compostela. The church would be known primarily as Santo Stefano degli Abissini, with Abissinia being the most common Italian synonym for Ethiopia, but also as Santo Stefano degli Indiani, dei Mori, and degli Egiziani. The three characterizations stemmed, respectively, from the identification of Prester John’s land as one of the three East Indies, from the branding of black Africans in early modern Europe Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 as “moors,” and from either the conflation of Ethiopian and Egyptian monks or the concomitant presence of both. Probably no other reference to Santo Stefano’s dwellers better epitomizes the confusion surrounding Ethiopians and their country than a now-lost epigraph that appeared in Santo Stefano in the early 1500s: “In the Egyptian [church of] Santo Stefano are the Indian friars.”55 By the time of Brocchi and his Ethiopian companions’ arrival in 1481, the church’s association with the clerical community must have been rather consolidated. On this occasion, Pope Sixtus IV ordered the church repaired and seems to have officially assigned it to the Ethiopian community.56 The church was also decorated 72 The Mediterranean way with papal seals and a fresco representing a friar whom a plaque identified as “Fra Antonio Abissino” – in all likelihood, one of the monks who had traveled to Rome with Brocchi and had remained in the city for a few years at the pontiff’s behest.57 The renovation process lasted a few years and also received support from Innocent VIII (1484–1492), Sixtus IV’s successor: on 22 September 1487, his office paid a carpenter, Tommaso Materazzi, 100 florins and 10 carlinos for his work on the “Egyptian factory.”58 After these uncertain beginnings, by the early 1500s Santo Stefano hosted not only the largest Ethiopian community in Europe but probably also the most educated cohort of Africans in the continent. As such, it became the most important hub for the production of Africanist knowledge in Europe, one that saw extensive collaboration between Ethiopians and European intellectuals. Their work resulted in the addition of several volumes to what in the early 1500s became a fast-growing Ethiopianist library, turning what had been a whimsical interest in Prester John into nothing less than a field of study – the oldest field of European inquiry into Africa south of the Sahara. Learned Ethiopians began collaborating with European scholars – as informants, translators, and editors of ancient Geez manuscripts – discussing theology with European scholars and socializing with Rome’s clerical and lay elites. The oldest recorded example of such collaboration is the Psalter, the Ethiopian Book of Psalms, which in 1513 became the first-ever Ethiopian text to be printed in Europe.59 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 3.3 View of Santo Stefano degli Abissini in the 1750s. Source: Giuseppe Vasi, Delle magnificenze di Roma antica e moderna, vol. 9 (Roma: Stamperia di Niccolo e Marco Pagliarini, 1759). Reprinted with permission of the Biblioteca Apos- tolica Vaticana (© 2015 BAV). Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 73 In the early 1500s, a German officer in the curia, Johannes Potken (1470–1524), developed an interest in Ethiopia and in particular in Geez, which he erroneously believed to be Chaldean, in other words, Syriac:

Having seen a few Ethiopians in Rome who called themselves Indians, recogniz- able by both their attire and their color . . . I could understand not without effort that they used the Chaldean language. . . . I soon searched for an interpreter to communicate without difficulty. Unfortunately, not even among the Israelites was I able to find such a person, in this city which was already a teacher of nations. Therefore, I was resolved to learn directly from them as well as I could. My hope was not in vain, so much so that I can witness for myself that having taken advantage of their lessons, with God’s help, I am able to edit the Psalter of David in true Chaldean language [sic], and to offer it to lovers of foreign languages.60

Determined to learn more about the mysterious language and the Ethiopian community, Potken first searched for an interpreter to communicate with the monks and later decided to learn the language himself, probably after finding the Ethio- pian text in the Vatican library and considering it worth his study. Unbeknownst to Potken, who did not make any reference to its origin in the printed version, the volume had most likely reached Rome in the hands of either Brocchi or his companions, a clear testament to the important cultural consequence of an otherwise limitedly consequential diplomatic interaction.61 Eventually Potken introduced himself to the monks in Santo Stefano and befriended one of them in particular, Tomas Walda Samuel, who became his chief collaborator – most likely helping the erudite with the text’s transcription and the production of the Geez typeset necessary for the printing. In Tomas’s own words,

the German Johannes Potken, priest of S. George’s Church in the city of Cologne in Germany, had this Dawit printed in the city of Rome, and I with him printed it, Tomas, son of the recluse Samuel, pilgrim to Jerusalem, the 7th day of the month of hamlé, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, son of God and the Virgin Mary 1513. Amen.62

The brief note made Tomas the first Ethiopian to publish an autobiographical statement in Europe and, by virtue of his contribution, one can argue that he was the first Ethiopian editor of a printed text. Shortly after collaborating with Potken, Tomas opted to undertake a pilgrimage Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 to Santiago, and on his way to Portugal he stopped in Pisa, where he sojourned in the Dominican monastery of Santa Caterina. He made a lasting impression on his hosts, who decades later related memories of the visit to Serafino Razzi (1527– 1613), foremost hagiographer of the Dominican order. In his Vite dei santi (1577), Razzi relates that

on 29 September [1516] . . . came to our said convent of St Catharine two Indian friars, dressed in black and ostensibly of the same observance as ours, 74 The Mediterranean way that of predicant friars, but much nobler in Christ, and they stayed until mid- November. One was a Deacon, of about eighteen years of age, and the other a priest, of about thirty two years of age, and called Brother Tomas.63

The text further relates that a few years before his transit in Pisa, Tomas had traveled via Jerusalem to Rome where he had been introduced to Pope Leo X (1513–1521). He claimed that

the pope had him elected as prior to the church of Santo Stefano, by about thirty priests, who were residing here from various orders . . . it was this father who was well-versed in the Caldean tongue which for them is the same as Latin is for us.64

Therefore, for Potkem, Tomas was an ideal interlocutor: not only was he Santo Stefano’s prior but also, by virtue of his sojourns in Jerusalem and in Rome, he must have been among the best-versed Ethiopians. Because he died shortly after returning from Compostela in 1518, one is left wondering whether the collaboration with the German scholar would have resulted in additional projects,65 all the more so in light of Potken’s continuous interest: the scholar used his Geez typesets to issue a new version of the Psalter in four languages – Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and Chaldaic – in 1518 and seems to have worked on additional projects until shortly before his death in 1524.66 With Tomas’s support, he inaugurated a new era that saw the rapid production and diffusion of an unprecedented body of Ethiopianist knowledge to the benefit of a reading public scattered throughout continental Europe, one increasingly intrigued by the Prester’s kingdom.

By the end of the 15th century, dozens of Ethiopians had been welcomed to Rome and sent on their way with letters of indulgence; others had found in Santo Stefano a more permanent home. By the turn of the century, Santo Stefano had become a permanent abode for a growing Ethiopian diaspora, probably the largest Afri- can community in Europe. The growing Ethiopian presence had begun to attract the attention of some of the many artists active in the city. Three decades after Filarete immortalized the Ethiopian participation to the Council of Florence in his bas-reliefs, four African figures were included in the wall frescoes of the Vati- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 can’s Magna Cappella, built by order of Pope Sixtus IV and completed in the fall of 1481. The timing of the frescoes’ realization strongly suggest that the Ethio- pian visitors may have inspired and possibly served as models, as the party was sojourning in Rome right in the same months. Among the painters contracted was Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510), who was responsible for multiple biblical scenes, and among them the Temptation of Moses, where two of the four African figures can be found in the vicinity of Moses. The other two can be seen, also in the proximity of Moses, in Biagio d’Antonio Tucci’s (1445–1510) Crossing of the Red Sea, completed in the same months.67 Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 75 To authorities in Rome, growingly anxious about Ottoman expansion, the possibility to establish relations with a long-lost Church and an ostensibly powerful Christian kingdom must have appeared momentous, while the growing number of Ethiopian visitors transiting to Rome either as pilgrims or representatives enticed further investment in the long quest for the Prester. In this regard, the Council of Florence marked the beginning of a concrete Roman effort to bring Ethiopia into the Catholic fold, but one that was by and large rather ecumenical and pragmatic in attitude. On their part, Ethiopian clerics hailing from Jerusalem, dwellers between worlds, were equally eager to establish relations. Brokers such as Petros were conscious of the chasm between the two churches and opted to postpone the discussion of thorny theological and ecclesiastical discussions to future exchanges, claiming a lack of authority to do so themselves. A few decades later, Brocchi’s companions opted to not contradict or disappoint his interlocutors and went along with Rome’s dreams of reunification as epitomized in Sixtus’s letter. Time and again, Ethiopian brokers on the very frontier between Ethiopia and Europe raised the expectations of their interlocutors by playing along the European image of the Prester and his presumed desire to reunite with Rome and his European co- religionists. These liminal characters elicited interest in Ethiopia and attracted European missionaries and diplomats to the Highlands, who in turn would find Ethiopian reality frustrating and far removed from the imagined land of the Prester. As for European brokers, in Jerusalem after his first visit to Ethiopia, Brocchi shared part of his difficult experience with Franciscan Francesco Suriano (1450– 1529), to whom he conveyed mixed perceptions. Brocchi seems to have told Suri- ano that Ethiopians were “ugly people; boorish and without talent. . . . [They are] pusillanimous people and physically very weak, yet [they are] proud” but to also have added that they were “zealously religious and fervent in spirit, above all other Christians.”68 Brocchi’s mixed feelings about Ethiopians most likely reflected an equally mixed attitude on the part of his interlocutors. Ethiopian elites, increasingly knowledgeable about the Franks thanks to returning pilgrims and European visitors, seem to have been rather eager to cultivate relations, chiefly to facilitate technological transfer. However, as they started to learn about the Roman Church and its skeptical stance toward the Ethiopian faith, they probably began to wonder about the inherent risks of welcoming Catholics, especially Catholic clerics, in their country – and for a good reason. Following a script that would be acted out over and over by countless missionaries across the continent, once at court the two clerics became agents of instability for the already precarious church and state apparatus. For the time being, the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Ethiopian system proved to be equipped with the necessary antibodies to reject the foreign intromission and safeguard the status quo, but the clerics’ attempt at proselytizing, however minor and quickly aborted, adumbrated the destabilizing potential of European missionarism in Africa. Brocchi’s journeys among Rome, Jerusalem, and Barara represented the first direct Catholic foray not only into Ethiopia but also into sub-Saharan Africa, as it predated the activities of various missionary orders under Portuguese patronage in West Africa. For the time being, when the two returned to Rome, they became the first European representatives to journey to the Kingdom of Ethiopia and back. 76 The Mediterranean way Their journey marked the culmination of the Mediterranean as the principal stage of the encounter. It had begun with the first Ethiopian devotional visits to Rome and the diplomatic mission to Venice, continued on the territories of the Crown of Aragon, and eventually found in Rome a fertile stage where a variety of brokers facilitated diplomatic and cultural exchanges. By the late 1400s, what had been the ultimate locus for exchange between worlds since antiquity started to lose ground to a much larger body of water, and new European agents of the encounter began looking for alternative ways to foster Ethiopian-European relations.

Notes 1 Niccolò di Gagliano to Corrado Bojani, 5 August 1404, in Lazzarini, “Un’ambasciata etiopica in Italia nel 1404,” 842. The letter of this bystander is the only known source for the visit. 2 Niccolò di Gagliano to Corrado Bojani, 5 August 1404, in Lazzarini, “Un’ambasciata etiopica in Italia nel 1404,” 842. Angelo degli Ubaldi (1328–1407) was an academic and office-holder in Perugia; see Jane Black,Absolutism in Renaissance Milan: Pleni- tude of Power under the Visconti and the Sforza 1329–1535 (Oxford: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 2009), 62. 3 For a discussion of the history of the black Magus in European thought see Paul H. D. Kaplan, The Rise of the Black Magus in Western Art (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985), especially 19–78. 4 Lefevre, “Documenti pontifici sui rapporti con l’Etiopia nei secoli XV e XVI,” 21. The letters of indulgence are mostly written on behalf of “priests” from “India,” but the circumstances, the monks’ names, and the details of their journeys leaves no doubt about the beneficiaries’ identity. See the cited article for a survey of the letters. For an overview of the Ethiopian visits to Rome based on the available literature, see Ben- jamin Weber, “Gli Etiopi a Roma nel Quattrocento: ambasciatori politici, negoziatori religiosi o pellegrini?” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome – Moyen Âge 125, no. 1 (2013), http://mefrm.revues.org/1036. 5 Annali di Bologna, cited in Jorga, “Notes et extraits pour servir à L’histoire des Crois- ades au XVe siècle,” 291. 6 Gregory XII, 1 April 140, Gaeta, Reg. Vat. 133 fol. 183r; partially transcribed in Lefe- vre, “Presenze etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze Del 1439,” 19–20. 7 On the misidentification of Ethiopians as members of Catholic orders, see Carlo Conti Rossini, “Sulle missioni Domenicane in Etiopia nel secolo XIV,” Rendiconti dell’Accademia Reale Dei Lincei 7, no. 1 (1940): 71–98; Lefevre, “Presenze Etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del 1439,” 20–1. 8 Martin V, 1 January 1418, Constance, Reg. Vat. 352, 021v–022r. For a background on the visit, see Lefevre, “Presenze Etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 1439,” 21. 9 On the Council of Florence, see Joseph Gill, The Council of Florence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959); and Morimichi Watanabe, “Pope Eugenius IV, the Conciliar Movement, and the Primacy of Rome,” in Church, the Councils, and Reform: The Legacy of the Fifteenth Century, ed. Gerald Christianson, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Christopher M. Bellito (Baltimore, MD: Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 177–93. 10 On the Council’s political implications, see Jonathan Harris, End of Byzantium (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 137–54; and Gill, The Council of Florence, 10–15. 11 Eugenio IV to Iohanni imperatori Aethiopium, 28 August 1439, Florence. It must be noted that Ethiopia is meant as Africa. An identical copy of the letter was addressed Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 77 to “Thomae imperatori Indorum,” a clear indication of the enduring vagueness surrounding Ethiopia and Prester John. Eugenio IV to Thomae imperatori Indorum, 28 August 1439, Florence; “Dum Onus Universalis,” Eugenio IV 22 August 1439, Flor- ence, in Georg Hofmann, Epistolae pontificiae ad Concilium florentinum spectantes 3 vols in 1 (Roma: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1940), 2:98–101. 12 Marcellino, Storia universale, vol. 4 (1860), 569–72. For a more likely reconstruction, see Somigli, Etiopia francescana nei documenti dei secoli XVII e XVIII preceduti da cenni storici sulle relazioni con l’Etiopia durante i sec. XIV e XV, 1:xlviii–liv. 13 Alberto da Sarteano to Eugene IV, 1 December 1440, Rhodes, Patricius Duffius and Franciscus Haroldus, Beati Alberti a Sarthiano: opera omnia in ordinem redacta, ac argumentis, et adnotationibus illustrata a F. Haroldo (Romae: Apud J. B. Bussittum, 1688), 327–9. See discussion of this point in Salvatore Tedeschi, “Etiopi e Copti al Concilio di Firenze,” Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum 21, no. 2 (1989): 387. 14 On Dayr al-Sultan, see Salvatore Tedeschi, “Profilo storico di Dayr as-Sultan,”Journal of Ethiopian Studies 2, no. 2 (1964): 92–160. 15 The passage is found in a Florentine chronicle, transcribed in Enrico Cerulli, “Euge- nio IV e gli Etiopi al Concilio di Firenze nel 1441,” Reale accademia nazionale dei Lincei – Rendiconti della Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche ser. 6, vol. IX, fasc. 5–6 (1933): 349. For the Ethiopian participation in the Council, see Tedeschi, “Etiopi e Copti al Concilio di Firenze”; Cerulli, “Eugenio IV e gli Etiopi al Concilio di Firenze nel 1441”; Cerulli, “L’Etiopia del secolo XV in nuovi documenti storici,” 58–80; Weber, “La Bulle Cantate Domino (4 Février 1442) et les enjeux éthiopiens Du Concile de Florence.” 16 The record of the inquiry is in Flavio Biondo’s Historiarum ab inclinatione Romano- rum (1583). The commission comprised Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini (1398–1444), Cardinal Juan de Torquemada (1388–1468), and the Dominican Jean de Montenero Flavius Blondus; see Scritti inediti e rari di Biondo Flavio (Roma: Tipografia Poli- glotta Vaticana, 1973), 21–2. 17 Blondus, Scritti inediti e rari di Biondo Flavio, 20. 18 Petros’s speech can be found in Blondus, Scritti inediti e rari di Biondo Flavio, 20–1. For alternative versions, see Cerulli, “Eugenio IV e gli Etiopi al Concilio di Firenze nel 1441,” 351–3; Somigli, Etiopia francescana nei documenti dei secoli XVII e XVIII Preceduti da cenni storici sulle relazioni con l’Etiopia durante i sec. XIV e XV, 1:liv–lx. 19 Nicodemus to Eugene IV, Jerusalem, 1441. For a list of the available transcriptions and translations of the original, see Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 32–3. For a photostatic reproduction along with a Latin and Italian translation, see Cerulli, “L’Etiopia del secolo XV in nuovi documenti storici,” 60–9. Tef is Ethiopia’s staple cereal. 20 Cerulli, “Eugenio IV e gli Etiopi al concilio di firenze nel 1441,” 354–68; Cerulli, “L’Etiopia del secolo XV in nuovi documenti storici,” 70–6. 21 See Chapter 7. 22 On Bracciolini and his thirst for knowledge and ancient books and his paradigmatic role as “midwife to modernity” see Stephen Greenblatt, The Swerve : How the World Became Modern (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011).

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 23 Poggio Bracciolini, “The Indies Rediscovered,” in Travelers in Disguise: Narratives of Eastern Travel by Poggio Bracciolini and Ludovico de Varthema, ed. Lincoln Davis Hammond, trans. John Winter Jones (Harvard University Press, 1963), 6. 24 Latin original in Niccolò de Conti et al., India recognita: [Poggii Florentini De varietate fortunae] ([Mediolani]: [Uldericus Scinzenzeler], 1492). The citation is from the English translation in Richard Henry Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century: Being a Collection of Narratives of Voyages to India, in the Century Preceding the Portu- guese Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; from Latin, Persian, Russian, and Italian Sources, Now First Translated into English (London: Hakluyt Society, 1857), 3. For a more recent Italian translation and commentary, see Tedeschi, “L’Etiopia di Poggio Bracciolini,” Africa 48, no. 3 (1993): 343–7. There is no consensus on the time of his 78 The Mediterranean way arrival, but 1439, as suggested in Kennon Breazeale, “Editorial Introduction to Nicolò de’Conti’s Account,” SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research 2 (2004): 100, seems the most likely; other options are 1441 by Francis Rogers, The Quest for Eastern Christians (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962), xii; Bracciolini and Varthema, Travelers in Disguise, xii; 1444 by Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century, lx. An apocryphal version of the story, probably originating with the Portuguese translator and mostly accepted by scholars until recent years, has Pope Eugene absolving Conti and ordering him to relate his story to Bracciolini as penance; see Breazeale, “Edito- rial Introduction to Nicolò de’Conti’s Account,” 104–5. The most extensive discussion of Conti’s travels which, however, accepts the story of the penance at face value, is Joan-Pau Rubies, Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India through Euro- pean Eyes, 1250–1625 (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 85–124. 25 Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century, 21. 26 Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century, 34. 27 Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century, 34–9. 28 Major et al., India in the Fifteenth Century, 35–6. 29 However, despite mounting interest in the Prester in late 15th-century Portugal, the Lisbon-based Moravian printer Valentin Fernandes, who later made additional contributions to the Ethiopianist library, opted to exclude the monks’ relation from his printing of Bracciolini’s account. Because the latter served as the basis of all subsequent editions until 1723, the monks’ relationship is also missing from all other 16th- and 17th-century editions – scholars such as Purchas and Ramusio probably ignored its existence. By the time it was rediscovered and published again, it had little to no value when compared with the dozens of extensive accounts on Ethiopia by then available. See Tedeschi, “L’Etiopia di Poggio Bracciolini,” 341; Breazeale, “Editorial Introduc- tion to Nicolò de’Conti’s Account,” 104–9. 30 The Atlas was the result of a collaborative effort by the French illuminator Ugo de Comminellis da Mezieres and the Florentine painter Pietro del Massajo. For details on the Atlas, see Laura Mannoni, Una carta Italiana del bacino del Nilo e dell’Etiopia del secolo XV (Roma: Istituto di Geografia della R. Università di Roma, 1932). 31 Other options, such as borrowing from other works and being informed by a Euro- pean traveler to the region, are to be excluded. No other preexisting text or map from printed work from the era could have provided him with comparable information on the region; see Crawford, “Some Medieval Theories about the Nile,” 8–9. 32 For the transaction’s details, see Giuseppe Mazzatinti, La biblioteca dei re d’Aragona in Napoli (Rocca S. Casciano: Licinio Cappelli Editore, 1897), xxii. 33 Blondus, Scritti inediti e rari di Biondo Flavio, xcii–xcvi. 34 Called Luigi, Ludovico (also spelled Lodovico). For further details on his appointment, see Somigli, Etiopia francescana nei documenti dei secoli XVII e XVIII preceduti da cenni storici sulle relazioni con l’Etiopia durante i sec. XIV e XV, 1:LXII–LXIII. Luke Wadding et al., Annales Minorum: seu Trium Ordinum a S. Francisco institutorum (Typis Rochi Bernabò, 1735), Tmous XII, 290. See Callistus’s bull in Wadding et al., Annales Minorum, Tomus XIII, 26–7.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 35 Callistus III to Zara Yaqob, 1 December 1456, Rome. Latin transcription in Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 37–41. Italian translation in Marcel- lino, Storia universale (1861), 5:159–64. 36 At times the abun’s seat was occupied by a diarchy: by 1458, both abuns seems to have been dead. 37 On Amda Mikael’s position during Zara Yaqob’s reign, see Perruchon, Les chroniques de Zar’a Yâ’eqôb, 15. According to the chronicle, Amda Mikael “ruled Ethiopia on his own;” Jules Perruchon, Histoire d’Eskender, d’Amda-Seyon II et de Nâ‘od, rois d’Éthiopie (Paris: E. Leroux, 1894), 353–4. On Amda Mikael, see Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 286–95; EA 5:235–6. Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 79 38 The effects of the vacancy probably explain at least in part Baeda Maryam’s interest in turning the Ethiopian Church into a fully autonomous institution, to which purpose he convened a council in 1477. The proposal was sidelined, and the Ethiopian depend- ency on Alexandria was confirmed; see Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 245–6. 39 Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea, 36; Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 290. 40 Paulus Walther and Matthias Sollweck, Fratris Pauli Waltheri Guglingensis Itiner- arium in Terram Sanctam et ad Sanctam Catharinam (Tübingen: Litterarischer Verein in Stuttgart, 1892), 39–40. 41 Walther and Sollweck, Fratris Pauli Waltheri Guglingensis Itinerarium, 40. 42 Walther and Sollweck, Fratris Pauli Waltheri Guglingensis Itinerarium, 40. 43 On Brocchi and his involvement in the encounter, see Renato Lefevre, “G. B. Brocchi da imola diplomatico pontificio e viaggiatore in Etiopia nel ’400,” Bollettino della Reale Società Geografica Italiana, no. agosto–settembre (1939): 639–60; Renato Lefevre, “Ricerche sull’imolese G. B. De Brocchi: viaggiatore in Etiopia e curiale pontificio (sec. XV–XVI),” Archivio della Società romana di storia patria, 3, 12, no. 1–4 (1958): 55–118. On the Ethiopian delegation in Rome, see Pietro Ghinzoni, “Un’ambasciata del Prete Gianni a Roma nel 1481,” Archivio Storico Lombardo 6, no. 16 (1889): 146–54. 44 Jacopo Gherardi da Volterra, Diarium Romanum, in Lodovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores, vol. 23 (Città di Castello: S. Lapi, 1904), Parte III, 79. 45 Branda Castiglioni, Antonio Trivulzio, Branda Castiglioni to Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 16 November 1481, Rome, in Ghinzoni, “Un’ambasciata del Prete Gianni a Roma nel 1481,” 151–2. 46 Branda Castiglioni, Antonio Trivulzio, Branda Castiglioni to Gian Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 16 November 1481, Rome, in Ghinzoni, “Un’ambasciata del Prete Gianni a Roma nel 1481,” 151–2. 47 The royal chronicles recorded the arrival in Ethiopia of two Coptic abuns, Yeshaq and Marqos, in 1480/1/2; see Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 290. EA 5:62; Trim- ingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 82. 48 Sixtus IV to Presto Joanni, 13 May 1482, Rome; see Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 42–3. 49 Francesco Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, ed. Girolamo Golubovich (Milano: Tipografia editrice Artigianelli, 1900), 80. 50 The only Catholic initiative in sub-Saharan Africa that predates the mission to Ethiopia was that of Alfonso da Bolano, dispatched to Portuguese Guinea as nuncio in 1472. However, whereas Brocchi and Giovanni da Calabria had been entrusted with a specific mission and a letter for the Ethiopiannegus, Bolano had been tasked with a much vaguer proselytizing effort. See Marcellino, Storia universale, vol. 6 (1861), 514–15; Joseph Abraham Levi, “Portuguese and Other European Missionaries in Africa: A Look at Their Linguistic Production and Attitudes (1415–1885),” Historiographia Linguistica 36, no. 2/3 (June 2009): 367. 51 Cited in Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 291. 52 The text of the letter according to Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, 81–3. Neither one of the two Giovanni left a written record of their Ethiopian experi-

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ence, but on the occasion of his first return from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, Brocchi related his experience to the Franciscan Francesco Suriano (1450–1529), who included it in Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, first compiled in 1485. The quotations are from Golubovich’s edition, Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, 86–7. See the introduction for the manuscript’s complex history. Suriano’s own dating is off by at least two years – either a slip in Suriano’s memory or an error of transcription. Ghinzoni, “Un’ambasciata del Prete Gianni a Roma nel 1481,” confirms that the Ethio- pian embassy was in Cairo and Jerusalem in early 1481 and in Rome by November of the same year. In January 1482, Brocchi left for Egypt, where he would rejoin with Giovanni da Calabria. The journey to Ethiopia took 11 months, and the sojourn at the 80 The Mediterranean way Prester’s court lasted eight months. Brocchi traveled back to Jerusalem on 27 Decem- ber 1483, on which occasion Suriano interviewed him, then he returned to Ethiopia in 1484. 53 What is known about Santo Stefano comes primarily from marginalia in Ethiopianist texts to which some of the monks contributed, letters between prelates and scholars connected to the community, recorded financial transactions from the Vatican Archives, and funerary inscriptions to be found in the church. Most scholarship on Santo Ste- fano is rather dated: the only monograph dedicated to the monastery is by the Italian Franciscan Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni romano- etiopiche. Other important works are P. M. Chaine, “Un monastère éthiopien a Rome aux XV et XVI siècle, Santo Stefano dei Mori,” Mélanges de la Faculté Orientale V (1911): 1–36; Francesco Gallina, “Iscrizioni Etiopiche ed Arabe in S. Stefano Dei Mori,” Archivio della R. Società romana di storia patria 11 (1888): 281–95; Alberto Zucchi, “Santo Stefano Dei Mori Ed I Domenicani Abissini,” Memorie Domenicane 53 (1936): 163–220; and multiple works by Renato Lefevre, in particular “Appunti Sull’ospizio di S. Stefano degli ‘Indiani’ nel Cinquecento,” Studi Romani 15, no. 1 (1967): 16–33; “Documenti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua attivita romana nel sec. XVI”; “Monaci e pellegrini d’Etiopia nella Roma dei papi,” Rassegna Italiana, 1937, 7–10; “Note su alcuni pellegrini etiopi in Roma al tempo di Leone X,” Rassegna Di Studi Etiopici 21 (1965): 16–26; “Nuovi documenti sulla comunità abissina in Roma dal sec. XV al XVIII,” L’Urbe 3, no. 5 (1938): 32–9. For an extensive bibliography and more recent commentary, see EA 5:525–8. 54 Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni romano-etiopiche, 1–63. 55 In 1521, the printer Jacopo Mazzocchi published a list of extant Roman epigraphs: Epigrammata antiquae Urbis auctore Jacobo Mazochio (Rome: In aedib. Jacobi Mazochii, 1521), 164. 56 Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni romano-etiopiche, 171. Other sources identify Eugene IV (1431–1447) as the pontiff who assigned Santo Ste- fano to the Ethiopian community in Rome, possibly because he welcomed the Ethio- pian legation at the Council of Florence in 1439; see Lefevre, “Presenze Etiopiche in Italia prima del Concilio di Firenze del 1439,” 5. For a discussion of the complex’s legal status, see EA 4:528–32. 57 Francesco Cancellieri, De secretariis basilicae Vaticanae veteris, ac novae, libri II (Romae: Ex Officina Salvioniana ad Lyceum Sapientiae, 1786), 1526. Leonessa,Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni romano-etiopiche, 176. 58 Quoted in Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli Abissini e le relazioni romano- etiopiche, 177. 59 Johannes Potken, Psalterium David et cantica aliqua in lingua Chaldea (Rome: Mar- cellus Silber, 1513); Alberto Tinto, Gli annali tipografici di Eucario e Marcello Sil- ber (1501–1527) (Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1968), 92. Years later in Germany, Potken issued a synoptic edition in four languages – Latin, Geez, Greek, and Hebrew: Psalte- rium in quatuor linguis: Hebraea, Greca, Chaldaea, Latina (Coloniae: Soter, 1518). 60 Potken, Psalterium David et cantica aliqua in lingua Chaldea. On Potken’s misla-

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 beling of Geez as Chaldean see Alastair Hamilton, “Eastern Churches and Western Scholarship,” in Rome Reborn, ed. Anthony Grafton (Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1993), 225–49. On the complex history of Chaldean Christians see Wilhelm Baum, “The Age of the Ottomans,” in The Church of the East a Concise History, ed. Wilhelm Baum and Dietmar W. Winkler (New York: Routledge, 2003), 112–34. 61 The identification of Brocchi as the source is likely but unconfirmed, and it was first suggested in Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte seconda,” 438–9. As Brocchi is recorded checking out the Ethiopian manuscript in 1487 and returning it in 1493, Lefevre speculated that the length of the Rome via Jerusalem, 1439–1484 81 loan could only be justified by Brocchi’s special role as actual procurer of the text. Given the nature and timing of his journey, this seems the most plausible explanation for the arrival of the text in Rome. 62 Potken, Psalterium David et cantica aliqua in lingua Chaldea, 97. French translation in Chaine, “Un monastère éthiopien a Rome aux XV et XVI siècle, Santo Stefano dei Mori,” 14. 63 Serafino Razzi,V ite dei santi, e beati cosi uomini, come donne del Sacro ordine de’ FF. predicanti (Firenze: B. Sermartelli, 1577), 292–7; Lefevre, “Note su alcuni pellegrini etiopi in Roma al tempo di Leone X.” It has been suggested that Thomas of Shewa corresponds with one of the Thomases that Zorzi interviewed, but this cannot be the case (Carlo Conti Rossini, Storia d’Etiopia [Bergamo: Istituto italiano d’arti grafiche, 1928]), 10; Mannoni, “Notizie sull’Etiopia raccolte da uno studioso veneto del secolo XVI,” 605–6). Thomas of Ganget, interviewed in 1523, was from Angot and not from Shewa. Thomas of Barara would be a better candidate geography wise, but was interviewed in Venice in 1524 and told Zorzi of the Portuguese and Andrea Corsali’s presence in Ethiopia, so he cannot be the same as Thomas of Shewa who was in Europe from at least 1513, for the Portuguese and Corsali would be in Ethiopia earlier than 1520 – see Chapter 5. 64 Razzi, Vite dei santi, 294. See also Alberto Zucchi, “Un frate piombatore domenicano,” Memorie Domenicane, 1931. 65 Razzi, Vite dei santi, 295. 66 Hendrik Fredrik Wijnman, An Outline of the Development of Ethiopian Typography in Europe (Leiden: Brill, 1960), xiii–xv. 67 The connection between the paitings and the Ethiopian visit has been persuasivly argued in Marco Bonechi, “Four Sistine Ethiopians? The 1481 Ethiopian Embassy and the Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican,” Aethiopica 14 (2011): 121–35. 68 Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, 86–7. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 4 Lisbon, 1441–1508

In the first half of the 15th century, Ethiopians and Europeans peered at the horizon over the Arab world as ambassadors, pilgrims, traders, and adventurers weaved the canvas of the encounter throughout the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. Ethiopians journeyed to some of the most important centers of the Italian Renais- sance – Rome, Genoa, Venice, and Naples – cities whose commercial and religious reputation was well known throughout Arab and Ottoman lands. They found their hosts intrigued and interested in developing relations, but guardedly so: the land of Prester John still appeared distant and out of grasp, not only because of the still- limited knowledge of the overseas but also because of the complex commercial and political arrangements that defined the Eastern Mediterranean. As of the mid- 15th century, Europeans were grossly limited in their ability to forge connections through the Muslim world. Whereas for Ethiopians, the trails that connected their homeland with Cairo, Alexandria, and Jerusalem were well beaten; for Europe- ans, they were not easy ones to walk. Not only were Mamluk authorities, who had become privy to Ethiopian and European desires for partnership, actively policing against any initiative but also the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean was changing, and Ottoman expansion further limited the already narrow path to Ethiopia. On the outskirts of the Western Mediterranean, however, the rising tide of the Reconquista had produced a Christian kingdom eager to engage in overseas expansion for commercial, political, and religious reasons: by the mid-1400s, the Kingdom of Portugal was emerging as a prominent power in the Atlantic and was about to play a leading role in the quest for Prester John and in Ethiopian- European relations. Starting in 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast, the House of Avis initiated a process of overseas expansion that in less than a century trans- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 formed a small kingdom on the outskirts of continental Europe into a global thalassocracy whose feitorias and fortalezas would eventually dot the most important coastal regions of the southern Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The taking of Ceuta on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar inaugurated a season of Portuguese overseas expansion that would last for more than five centuries. Among the Avis directly involved in the successful siege was King João I’s third child, the young Henrique (1394–1460).1 In the ensuing decades the infante became one of the Lisbon, 1441–1508 83 architects of Portuguese expansion and one of the most celebrated figures in Por- tuguese history. Chroniclers would identify him as a chivalric figure who single- handedly masterminded Portugal’s engagement with the unknown by dispatching explorers whose only purpose was to map the unknown and claim the overseas for God and the king. The reality, of course, was rather different, and despite the chroniclers’ efforts to glorify expansion, Portuguese reconnaissance of the African coast was anything but a glorious enterprise.2 Certainly, various institutions and practices of medieval derivation – for example, the Order of Christ, of which Henrique became governor in 1420 – had a profound bearing on expansion and conferred on it a distinct chivalric flavor. However, Portuguese expansion can hardly be considered either an idealist undertaking or the brainchild of a single mind: instead, it was the product of much more complex and pragmatic dynamics, many of which would become the staple of European expansion for the ensuing five centuries.3 For many, expansion meant agricultural opportunities on the islands off the African coast, where a combination of climate and soil fertility turned some of the first Portuguese overseas outposts into lucrative wheat, wine, and sugarcane plantations. Since the late 13th century, a variety of southern European merchants from the Italian and Iberian peninsulas had been trading along North Africa’s Atlantic coast, pushing as far into the Atlantic as the Canary Islands no later than the 14th century.4 Furthermore, despite their disappointing beginnings, the Avis never let go of their crusading ambitions in the Maghreb. By exploring the African coast, many hoped to find direct access to West African gold and bypass the Muslim traders operating the trans-Saharan routes. In the early stages of expansion, Portuguese interests in these Atlantic outposts were secondary and instrumental to the bid for Muslim North Africa, where the monarchy, Henrique, and the Order could satiate their thirst for Christian glory and Portugal’s merchants could tap into the lucrative slave and gold markets of the Sahara. However, despite many attempts and much investment in this new crusade, the Avis failed to make headway on the Moroccan coast. Instead, decade after decade, Portuguese expeditions kept pushing southward along the African coast, looking for direct access to West Africa, which would have brought not only higher profits for Portuguese merchants but also the curtailment of trans-Saharan trade and a loss of revenue for the Muslim kingdoms of the Maghreb.5 No less important was the desire to find an Atlantic route to the East to avoid competition with other European trading communities in the central and East- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ern Mediterranean, bypassing the Mamluk and the Ottomans altogether. By the mid-1400s, the latter had also monopolized trade in the Black Sea, limiting European access to a commodity that the bourgeoning plantation system in the Mediterranean and Atlantic was making all the more valuable – slaves. Hence, the Portuguese and European traders in general turned to Africa’s Atlantic coast as an alternative source of slave labor, making exploration synonym with slave- trading and raiding. Therefore, Portuguese expansion was the result of multiple 84 The Mediterranean way expectations and desires – of personal quests for short-term profit cultivated side by side with crusading ambitions – that through the 15th century pushed explorers and traders further and further south into the Atlantic.6 By the 1450s, Henrique had been investing in Atlantic exploration for more than three decades, unintentionally revealing to potential rivals the extraordinary commercial, political, and religious potential of the region. Expectedly, the West African coast, whose exploration would slowly progress southward for the rest of the century, was quickly attracting a variety of European interests, including the burgeoning Kingdom of Castile. In order to shield his interests from intrusion, Henrique besought the Roman pontiff to warrant Portugal a monopoly on the newly discovered isles and coastal territories of the Atlantic. Pope Nicholas V obliged by issuing Romanus Pontifex (1455), one of the founding documents of European expansion overseas:

We have lately heard, not without great joy and gratification, how our beloved son, the noble personage Henry, infante of Portugal, . . . has aspired from his early youth with his utmost might to cause the most glorious name of the said Creator to be published, extolled, and revered throughout the whole world, even in the most remote and undiscovered places, . . . [and how] the said infante being neither enfeebled nor terrified by so many and great labors, dangers, and losses, but growing daily more and more zealous in pursuing this so laudable and pious purpose, has peopled with orthodox Christians certain solitary islands in the ocean sea. . . . Believing that he [Henrique] would best perform his duty to God in this matter, if by his effort and industry that sea might become navi- gable as far as to the Indians who are said to worship the name of Christ, and that thus he might be able to enter into relation with them, and to incite them to aid the Christians against the Saracens and other such enemies of the faith, and might also be able forthwith to subdue certain gentile or pagan peoples, living between, who are entirely free from infection by the sect of the most impi- ous Mahomet, [. . . to which purpose] he has not ceased for twenty-five years past to send almost yearly an army of the peoples of the said kingdoms with the greatest labor, danger, and expense, in very swift ships called caravels, to explore the sea and coast lands toward the south and the Antarctic pole. And so it came to pass that when a number of ships of this kind had explored and taken possession of very many harbors, islands, and seas, they at length came to the province of Guinea, and having taken possession of some islands and harbors and the sea adjacent to that province, sailing farther they came to the mouth Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 of a certain great river commonly supposed to be the Nile [emphasis added].7

The bull provided the legal framework for Portugal’s claims over any land south of Cape Bojador and its heathen inhabitants, by granting the Avis exclusive rights to African conquest and ecclesiastical patronage.8 It also acknowledged unequivo- cally Henrique’s relentless dedication to exploring the Atlantic and supporting proselytism, with language that underlines the very essence of early modern Euro- pean imagination about the overseas. Lisbon, 1441–1508 85 With multiple references to the existence of Christian “Indians” who can “aid the Christians against the Saracens” and the characterization of the Nile as stretching to West Africa, the bull epitomizes the geopolitical discourse of the era. It spoke to the anxiety emanating from the recent fall of Constantinople and foreshadowed Portugal’s imminent and definite debunking of ancient and medieval geographical conjectures. Ultimately, Romanus Pontifex legitimized a model of overseas expansion that, albeit still in its embryonic phase, would define world history for centuries to come. A few crusaders and explorers and a vast community of profit seekers spearheaded a process of expansion that was poised to continue for decades and turn Portugal into the first truly global empire of the modern era. Among the immediate consequences of these ventures was the coming and going of merchants, explorers, and settlers along the African coast, who allowed Portuguese elites to make unprecedented inroads in the acquisition of knowledge about sub-Saharan Africa. As the interest in the Atlantic grew, so did the value of geographical information about the region. Like any other European royal house invested in the overseas, the Avis proactively acquired maps and texts that could shed light on unknown worlds and foster their kingdom’s reach in the southern Atlantic. Lisbon quickly turned into not only the terminal of a sprawling commercial network but also one of the most important locales for the production and circulation of knowledge of the overseas, including the discourse on the Prester. By the mid-1400s, the body of knowledge available on the Prester had grown considerably and was readily accessible to the Avis through various channels.9 One was the connection to the Crown of Aragon, in particular, after King Duarte’s (1433–1438) marriage with Eleanor of Aragon, whose son, the future Alfonso V (1438–1477) came of age while his uncle, King Alfonso of Aragon, was exchanging embassies with Ethiopia.10 Given the proximity between the two families as well as a common interest in the overseas, the Avis must have been familiar with Alfonso’s dealings with Ethiopia and with the intelligence available to him. Further, much of what the Ethiopian delegation to Florence shared with their hosts must have found its way to the Avis through their delegates, in particular through the Camaldolese monk Dom Gomes Eanes (1383–1459), who was deeply involved in the overtures toward Eastern Christians and can be assumed to have briefed Henrique on the Ethiopian visitors at the council.11 Bracciolini is another likely conduit, as he was well known to Dom Gomes and the rest of the Portuguese delegation and was also an enthusiastic supporter of Henrique’s African endeavors. As he exchanged correspondence with the infante and commended his exploratory efforts in Africa, Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 it is easy to imagine that at some point after the Ethiopian visit the humanist shared either with Gomes or directly with Henrique what he had learned from the monks.12 Another connection is that with Venice, through one of its famous citizens, the slaver and explorer Alvise Cadamosto (1432–1483), who in the 1450s became one of Henrique’s closest collaborators in West Africa’s exploration. Given his Vene- tian background and familiarity with the city’s network of mapmakers and publishers of overseas accounts, Cadamosto is likely to have been the one recommending 86 The Mediterranean way that the Avis acquire a copy of the Mappamundi, which was delivered to Alfonso V shortly before Fra Mauro’s death in 1459. Hence, assuming that the production of the Mappamundi benefited, like Bracciolini’s volume, from the input of the Ethiopian delegation to the Council of Florence, its acquisition in Lisbon is telling of the way in which Africanist and in particular Ethiopianist knowledge circulated across Mediterranean Europe. Altogether, a substantial body of Prester- related knowledge, produced at least in part with Ethiopian contributions, made it to the Avis and can be expected to have had influence, to some degree, on the age of exploration, luring the Portuguese further and further south into the Atlantic.13 In fact, one reason why this body of knowledge was a big pull for exploration was its inherent flaws. Fra Mauro’s thinking about Africa, such as his gross overestimation of the Prester’s reach over most of the continent, is one of the sources that contributed to mislead more than one explorer to look for a Western African route to the Christian kingdom. Similar notions of a West African route to the Prester were also to be found in Le Canarien (1402), a firsthand account of European exploration of the Canary Islands, which also included the narrative of a mendicant friar who had reached East Africa through the interior:

The Friar then parted from his companions and went eastwards through many countries till he reached a kingdom called Dongalla, in the province of Nubia, inhabited by Christians. The Patriarch of Nubia has for one of his titles the name of Prester John. Nubia extends on one side to the deserts of Egypt, and on the other to the Nile, which comes out of the domains of Prester John; and the kingdom of Dongalla extends to the point where the river Nile divides into two branches, one of which forms the River of Gold, which flows towards us, while the other runs through Egypt and falls into the sea at Damietta.14

As this narrative makes clear, the notion of a vast Christian kingdom stretching from East to West Africa – part of the discourse on the Prester as an almighty sovereign – went hand in hand with wild speculation on the nature of the continent’s riverine system. Mapmakers and collectors of travel narratives believed that from West Africa one could secure a passage to the Prester by sailing on West African rivers believed to be linked to the Nile. In the case of the Canarien, the tale was all the more attractive because the river in question was no less than the Rio do Ouro, the mythical river believed to be the ultimate source of West African gold.15 Altogether, the questionable geographical knowledge, a growing urgency to locate the Prester, and the illusion of proximity that dominated the discourse on Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the mythical sovereign were a powerful lure for explorers. Although not directly related to the Portuguese quest for the Prester, the experience of the Genoese merchant Antonio Malfante (1409–1450) is a case in point. In the mid-1440s, acting on behalf of a Genoese banker, Malfante landed at the Mediterranean port of Honaine on the Algerian coast and traveled to an oasis in Tuat, located on one of the most important trans-Saharan routes of the time. From there, he wrote a long letter to his sponsor in which he shared commercial and pseudo-ethnographic insights for the purpose of eliciting further support for Lisbon, 1441–1508 87

Venice Genoa

Braga Barcelona Rome Galata Trebizond Coimbra Rio Tejo Naples Constantinople Santarem Valencia Lisbon M e d i t e r r a Ceuta n e Crete Rhodes a n S e a Cyprus Alexandria Jerusalem

Canary

Suez

Islands Cairo N Sinai i l Peninsula e R Tuat Oasis . Cape Bojador al-Qusayr R e Medina d

see map 4 Arguim S Cape Verde e a Islands Rio de Timbuktu Sene O ga u l ro Gambia R. Kantora Socotra River

o l t Cape a

R Guardafui Geba . River

Bight of Benin Congo Riv G ulf of Guinea er

t Gabon Malindi s a River o C

be Zam zi R. Ottoman Empire in 1450 Ottoman gains by 1520s Ottoman gains by 1566 Crown of Aragon Kingdom of Ethiopia Kingdom of Portugal Mamluk Sultanate, conquered by Ottomans 1512–20 Sultanate of Ifat/Adal 0500 1000 1500 2000 km Cape of Good Hope Venetian Republic 05250 00 75010001250 miles

Map 4.1 The world of the encounter: The Indian run, 1400–1550. Cox Cartographic Ltd.

his project. “From what I can understand,” he related, “these people neighbor on India. Indian merchants come hither, and converse through interpreters. These Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Indians are Christians, adorers of the cross.”16 The oblique reference to Prester John was baseless, as any Ethiopians were far away and rather disconnected from West Africa, and most likely the result of either misunderstanding or fabrication. Malfante could have run into individuals who appeared or were said to be foreign to Tuat and who because of their aspect – possibly because of the cross-like object they carried – were identified as distant Christians. Cross-like props would later confound other travelers and lead them, observing somewhat familiar objects through their Eurocentric lenses, to 88 The Mediterranean way believe that they were dealing with African Christians, and one can assume that Malfante saw something similar. Like other travelers before and after him, he projected his expectations on his mysterious interlocutors, gazed at their attire and accessories through his ethnocentric eyes, and came to a rushed conclusion. Alternatively, having failed to find anything worth reporting and cognizant of the expectations surrounding the Prester, Malfante could have claimed to be close to Christians to impress his sponsor and possibly receive additional support. Either way, as a victim or a perpetrator, he made his own contribution to the discourse on the Prester and, in particular, to the myth of a West African road to his kingdom. In the ensuing decades, multiple trader-explorers in service to the Avis were the protagonists of similar situations in which either out of misplaced enthusiasm or sheer fraudulence, the quest for Prester John kept yielding disappointing and at times tragic results.

The Atlantic way As Portuguese ships sailed farther and farther south into the Atlantic, the quest for Prester John acquired a tragic-comic flavor. Decade after decade, on Portu- gal’s Atlantic frontier, eager explorers compared, contrasted, and supplemented their knowledge and assumptions with whatever intelligence they could solicit or extort from local interlocutors. They made persistent inquiries about the mythical sovereign and operated under the impression that he was within reach. As the Portuguese reconnoitered more and more kilometers of African coast, more than one explorer attempted to take steps into the interior, in particular in the proximity of major rivers which, they believed, could lead to the Nile and the Prester. Although, time after time, they irremediably failed in their quest, the myth per- sisted and kept feeding, along with more practical considerations, the southward thrust to the tip of the continent. In 1441, Antão Gonçalves became the first Portuguese to return from beyond Cape Bojador with a cargo of African captives, inaugurating a new era of human misery that would claim millions of victims in the ensuing four centuries.17 One of the captives claimed noble ancestry and implored Henrique to let him return to his land in exchange for a ransom and “news of land much farther distant.” The prince agreed, reportedly arguing that “he was obliged by his offer, and that he not only desired to have knowledge of that land, but also of the Indies, and of the land of Prester John, if he could.”18 What the African prince related to Henrique and his entourage is unknown, but his tale could have contributed to attract sup- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 port for a new mission. A few months later, Gonçalves was back in West Africa, and by 1444 his fleet reached a river he believed to be the Rio de Ouro, where he opted to engage in further exploration. One of his companions, João Fernandes, established contacts with locals and left for the interior, after receiving reassurance from Gonçalves that he would return to the river’s mouth within 12 months to collect him. Six months later, Fernandes reappeared on the coast, but further south, in the proximity of Arguim, where he successfully rejoined Gonçalves’s crew. Although he had failed in his mission – the fabled gold was nowhere to be Lisbon, 1441–1508 89 found – the feat warranted him a place of honor in the Portuguese chronicles: after all, he had successfully traveled into the unknown African interior and returned alive, seemingly with a substantial amount of information on the region – possibly some about the Prester and his location.19 In the late 1440s, it was the turn of one Abelhart, a Danish nobleman, to take a shot at the West African frontier. According to a chronicler, who refers to him as “Vallarte,” he was greatly impressed with Henrique’s African feats and petitioned the prince to “arm him a caravel and put him in the way to go to the land of the Negroes.”20 The infante obliged and dispatched him to what was still a rather unknown region because he had heard that a Christian king was to be found there and that

if he did truly hold the law of Christ, it would please him to aid in the war against the Moors of Africa, in which the King Don Affonso, who then reigned in Portugal and the Infant in his name, with the others their vassals and countrymen, were continually toiling.21

Whether Abelhart was truly impressed with Henrique or simply looking for personal glory and profit remains unknown, as does his fate: a few days after landing south of the Senegal, he seems to have been kidnapped and disappeared into the interior for good. However short and obscure, his experience speaks to the unbounded expectations that the Prester’s myth triggered in the mind both of the Avis and of the traders-explorers they contracted.22 Like any other frontier setting in world history, West Africa was turning into a receptacle for adventurous individuals with little to lose, those seeking a new beginning or a second chance at life and success. A case in point is that of Antoniotto Usodimare (ca. 1415–1461), a merchant who had entered Henrique’s service in the early 1450s after fleeing creditors in Genoa. In 1455, as he found himself in the vicinity of the Senegal, Usodimare met Cadamosto and agreed to join forces with the fellow explorer to attempt to sail up a newly located river, only 400 kilometers south of the Senegal – the Gambia.23 The expedition quickly turned into a failure, forcing the two to return to Lisbon, from where Usodimare wrote to his Genoese creditor. In his famous letter, he reported that

by hearing what that secretary [of the “King of Gambia”] reported to me, which things, if I were to write [about them] to you, you would think were false. But there were not three hundred full leagues altogether to the land Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 of Prester John – I do not mean his own person, rather [where] his territory begins – and if I had been able to lengthen [my stay], I would have seen the captain of my king, who was almost six days [of travel] away, with 100 men, and with him five Christians from Prester John. I had spoken with the men of that army and I discovered in that place one from our people, from the galleys of Vivaldi I believe, who had been lost 170 years previously. He said to me, and thus that secretary affirmed, that nothing remained from that stock, with the exception of himself, and another who spoke to me about elephants, 90 The Mediterranean way unicorns, civet, and other exceedingly strange [beasts], as well as men who have tails, who eat their sons – it would seem impossible to you, [but] you should believe [it].24

Not only does the document speak to the still-common belief that sub-Saharan Africa was the land of fantastic creatures – a die-hard belief that would endure in some ways until the 19th century – but it also shows that the myth of a Prester John and of a West African road to his kingdom was still current, even after decades of exploration in the region. Like in Malfante’s case, it is impossible to assess Usodimare’s sincerity and intentions: in light of his mission’s failure and of his financial troubles, he could have decided to embellish the letter to impress his creditor and improve his standing in Genoa, where his debt had likely become a source of embarrassment, as well as with the Avis, so that they would sponsor further attempts.25 Either way, six months later, Cadamosto and Usodimare were off to the West African coast again, this time pushing the Portuguese frontier up to modern-day Guinea Bissau and sighting what came to be known the Cape Verde archipelago. Although in his narrative Cadamosto did not refer to Prester John, in light of his patron’s interest and Usodimare’s letter, the possibility of finding the sovereign must have been on his mind. In the ensuing decades, African reconnaissance continued at the hands of Diogo Gomes (1420–1500), a fidalgo who had grown up in Henrique’s household and had been involved in West Africa since the 1440s. Because Gomes related his account only in the 1480s, several years after his voyages, the timing and the details of his experience are somewhat vague, but seem to point to the departure of his first expedition in the mid-1450s and the second one in the early 1460s. With the first, Gomes claimed to have reached the Rio Grande’s estuary, which would correspond to today’s Geba River in Guinea Bissau: in its vicinity, he was persuaded to invert direction when some of the crew became “greatly alarmed, thinking that they were at the extremity of the ocean, and they begged me to return.”26 His route inverted, once at the mouth of the Gambia he decided to follow in the footsteps of his Italian predecessors and ventured upstream, presumably up to Cantor (Kantora), where he traded with and collected intelligence from the local population. Upon receiving reassurance from a local ruler that his fellow countrymen could “travel safely through his land and exchange their merchandise” Gomes decided to dispatch

a certain Indian named Jacob [Yaqob], whom the Prince had sent with us, in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 order that, in the event of our reaching India, he might be able to hold speech with the natives, and I ordered him to go to the place which is called Alcuzet, with the lord of that country, whither, on a former occasion, a knight had gone with him, through the land of Geloffa to find the land of Gela and Tambucutu. This Jacob [Yaqob], the Indian related to me [Gomes] that Alcuzet is a very vicious land . . . and the lord of that country sent me elephants’ teeth, one of them very large, and four negroes, who carried the tooth to the ship.27 Lisbon, 1441–1508 91 Much of the information conveyed in this passage is shrouded in a mixture of mystery and naïveté: the location of “Alcuzet” is yet to be determined, the identity of the fidalgo who had previously ventured to it and beyond is no less obscure, and last, the optimistic notion of reaching Timbuktu, more than 1,000 kilometers away, confirms a complete lack of geographical awareness of the distances and traveling conditions in the African interior. However, the most important, and unfortunately no less obscure, reference is to Yaqob the Indian. In light of his name, and the prevalent use of “Indian” to refer to Ethiopians throughout the era, there is little doubt that Gomes’s passenger was Ethiopian. One can speculate that Yaqob was probably a pilgrim who had found his way to Lisbon after pilgrimaging to Rome and Santiago. He could have come to the attention of the Avis and be offered the opportunity to become involved with the quest for the Prester. He could have been promised a safe passage to his country or possibly a reward, in exchange for what would have been mistakenly believed to be reliable intelligence and useful language skills. Regardless of the circumstances that brought him onto Gomes’s ship as it was departing for West Africa, Yaqob’s presence confirms the utmost importance of the Prester’s myth as a catalyst for exploration, for Yaqob had joined the expedition to help locate the Prester. Despite his presence, of course, the attempt could not but fail, although they both returned safely to Portugal. Thereafter, Gomes’s quest went on a hiatus dependent at least in part on a reconfiguration of Portugal’s geopolitical interests, with North Africa attracting most of the attention. In Gomes’s own words,

it so happened that for two years no one went back to Guinea, because King Affonso was gone, with a fleet of three hundred and fifty-two ships, to Africa, and took the powerful city of Alcacer dalquivi [Ksar el-Kebir], for which reason the Prince, being fully occupied, gave no attention to Guinea.28

Gomes would sail to West Africa again in 1460–1462, on which occasion – he would later claim – he became the first captain to spot the Cape Verde archipelago. The mission, which did not seem to have any bearing on the quest for the Prester, marked the end of Portugal’s first era of African exploration. Its patron, Henrique, had passed away in 1460, while Alfonso V had become increasingly involved in military operations in North Africa: the sovereign shared Henrique’s crusading spirit, but as to his penchant for the unknown, he preferred the well-known riches of the Middle East. No other official exploratory mission would follow until 1469, when the crown entrusted the exploration of the African coastline to yet another trader-explorer.29 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Years later, another Gomes, one Fernão, acquired a license that warranted him exclusive exploratory rights for the following five years in exchange for the obli- gation of exploring 100 leagues of coast every year, which helped mapmakers fill several centimeters of blank paper. In only five years, during which the “hope of the discovery of India by these seas became ever the stronger,”30 his ships reconnoitered as much coastline as had been explored under Henrique’s leadership in the previous four decades, moving past the Bight of Benin and the Gabon estuary. 92 The Mediterranean way However, the concession pressured him to sail further south along the African coast as rapidly as possible, and Gomes seems to have been reluctant to invest in risky missions in the interior. Hence, the extent of Gomes’s interest and contribution to the quest for the Prester were probably limited, he nevertheless created opportunities for his successors. As his lease approached expiration in 1474, Gomes opted not to renew it, most likely out of concern that Castile’s competition with Portugal could result in costly disruptions and curtail his profit. Gomes was right on the mark, as between 1475 and 1479, Portuguese and Castilian forces fought the War of Castilian Succession – a brutal conflict fought both on land and at sea, as far south as the Gulf of Guinea. Although the Avis suffered a defeat and had to recognize the dynastic marriage that sealed the unification of the Kingdom of Castile with Aragon, the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479) recognized exclusive overseas rights to Portugal in West Africa and stimulated a new southward thrust into the southern Atlantic. Further- more, traders and raiders would soon be supported by Alfonso V’s son, João II (1481–1495), who redirected his kingdom’s resources to the region and sparked a renewed interest in Prester John.31 The first beneficiary of the new diplomatic arrangement was Diogo Cão, who between 1482 and 1486 first reached the mouth of the Congo and later ventured as far south as the Namibian coast. Cão seems to have lent some credence to the notion that the Nile basin stretched to West and Central Africa and that the Prester’s kingdom could be reached by sailing up the newly found river, but the plan was quickly aborted.32 In 1486, as Cão was sailing south, a fellow explorer sailed to Lisbon with a representative of the Oba of Benin. João Afonso de Aveiro (1443–1490s) had been dispatched to the Bight of Benin to investigate rumors of a powerful kingdom in the interior of what would come to be known as the Slave Coast.33 Not only did the region have incredible commercial potential – both because of the trade in pepper and human beings – but also rumors that the kingdom’s rulers might have been Christians called for an inquiry. Aveiro successfully negotiated the dispatch of an ambassador who probably became the first African representative to be received at the Portuguese court. Once back in Lisbon, the nameless representative seems to have explained to João II that

the people from those parts told him that east of the king of Benin, at a twenty moons walking distance-which according to their calculations, and considering it was a short walk, would correspond to some two hundred and fifty of our leagues – there was a king, the most powerful in that region whom they Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 called Ogane, and who was as highly revered – by the pagan princes of the comarcas of Benim – as the Supreme Pontiffs are revered by us.34

The Oba himself, João was told, was a vassal to the Ogane, a more powerful sovereign to be found further into the interior. According to tradition, upon ascending to the throne, the Oba would ask the Ogane for his anointment and in exchange the latter would send him various ritualistic objects, one of them “a cross, made of the same brass, to wear around the neck as a religious and holy item, like the ones worn by the commanders of the order of Saint John.”35 Lisbon, 1441–1508 93 Expectedly, the ambassador’s tale attracted considerable interest for, despite the many failures, the Avis continued to cross-reference information coming from the Atlantic frontier with what they were told by Ethiopian pilgrims and what they could savage from the classics:

During King João’s reign, when India was mentioned, there was always mention to a very powerful King, whom they called Prester John of the Indies and who was said to be a Christian, it seemed to King João that he might be able to enter India through him. King João heard, from the religious Abyssinian that arrived in these parts of Spain and from some friars that had been to Jerusalem – to whom he entrusted the task of gathering information about this prince – that his state was the land located above Egypt and stretching until Mar do Sul [the Pacific]. The King and the cosmographers of this kingdom held Ptolemy’s table of chords and the topographical depiction of all Africa and its coastlines, as drawn by his explorers, and at a distance of two hundred and fifty leagues to the east was, according to these people from Benin, the state of prince Ogane; they thought he was Prester John because both were said to usually appear surrounded by silk curtains and to revere the sign of the Cross.36

What resulted out of this composite effort in intelligence was a discourse on the Prester and on Africa that was profoundly fallacious but had a silver lining: encounters such as the one with the African representative still contributed to fostering curiosity among explorers, scholars, and sovereigns alike and keeping the quest alive. In the aftermath of the events, João seemed to have become increasingly hopeful and to have ordered the dispatch of a new expedition to continue thrusting south:37

And he also thought that, if his ships kept sailing along the coast they were exploring, they would eventually reach the place where the rocky headland was, at the end of that land. While learning all this, his desire to discover India grew stronger, so he decided to send – in that same year of four hundred and eighty six – six carracks by sea, and men by land, to discover the end of these things that gave him so much hope. . . . He gave the command of this expedition to Bartolomeu Dias, Knight of his house.38

Bartolomeu Dias (1451–1500) left for the southern Atlantic in the summer of 1487: six months later, he was sailing past the coastline known to Cão and Aveiro and would soon reach what came to be known as the Cape of Good Hope, the gate 39

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 to the Indian Ocean. The quest for the Prester seems to have been among the chief motivations, as Dias made a significant investment in this direction. In order to elicit information on the Prester, he disembarked agents at various locations on the coast who were

well dressed and well-bred, with silver, gold and spices, was so that, upon arriving at the settlements, it would be spread, by word of mouth, the greatness of his kingdom and of all the things that exist there, and spread word of how his ships were sailing along all the coast, and how he had sent men to discover India, especially a prince, called Prester John, who was said to live 94 The Mediterranean way in that land, and he did all of this with the purpose of getting this reputation across to the Prester, hoping that would lead him to send his people from his whereabouts into this seacoast.40

The strategy of using human bait and showcasing Portuguese riches was an inventive one, but it mattered little. Although his journey to the Cape marked a turning point in Oceanic exploration, as far as the quest for the Prester, Dias joined the ranks of his predecessors and returned to Lisbon “without hearing any news, or yet having any further intelligence of that India.”41 While Dias was sailing in the proximity of the Cape, João received a visit from a Jolof prince known to the Portuguese as Bemoy, who escaped to Lisbon after losing control of the kingdom he was ruling on behalf of his half-brother.42 Of particular interest to his host was what the prince had to say about one of the kingdoms neighboring with his:

That which interested the King more was what Bemoy said about some Kings and Princes of those parts, mainly of one whom he called the King of the peoples of Moses [Mossi], whose state began beyond Timbuktu and extended towards the Orient, – a king neither Moor nor gentile, with customs in many ways like those of Christian peoples. From this the King concluded that he was the Prester John, whom he so eagerly wished to reach.43

The Mossi were a population organized in a confederation of states located in the Upper Volta region, and starting in the 14th century, they had been asserting their power, challenging the Empire of Mali. As animists warring with neighboring Islamic states, they were an ideal candidate onto which to project the myth of the Prester, especially once they started to venture increasingly northwest and eventually went as far as to sack Timbuktu, a feat that probably gained them notoriety throughout West Africa.44 Despite the many failures, the belief in the hydrologi- cal unity of the African continent endured and seems to have stimulated renewed investments in the region. As a result of the visit, João reportedly

thought that it would be very convenient for his power, and for the good of his subjects to build a fortress on this river Çanagá [Senegal], which would be a door through which . . . he might be able to penetrate the interior of that great country and eventually to reach Prester João, whom he accounted so important for the affairs of India.45 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

However, the project remained dormant, among other reasons because, once in the proximity of the Senegal, the fleet’s commander reportedly feared treachery and had Bemoy killed.

The Indian way Whereas explorers in the Atlantic were seeking a way to the Prester, a growing number of Ethiopian visitors entertained their European hosts and interlocutors Lisbon, 1441–1508 95 with news of their country and its location. Not only had a new Ethiopian embassy made it to Rome in 1481 but also Church representatives were finally able to reciprocate the visit and reach Eskender’s court by late 1482. Although the mission seems to have been kept concealed – probably because of its failure – it cannot be discounted that Portuguese representatives in Rome or elsewhere got wind of the initiative and reported it to João II. Furthermore, pilgrims like Yaqob must have heightened the Avis’s interest in the Prester, despite the frustrations experienced in the Atlantic.46 Because they hailed from the Holy Land, Ethiopian pilgrims also confirmed the existence of a trail to Ethiopia through the Middle East, one that must have appeared as impervious, but at least more certain than the Atlantic one. Hence, between 1486 and 1487, while Dias was yet to return from his voyage, João was persuaded to try the Mediterranean road as well:

Due to the information that King João had about the province where Prester John lived, he ordered that the Prester be found, by land, before Bartolomeu Dias returned from this discovery. He had already sent two emissaries to Jerusalem for that purpose, because he knew that many religious men from the land of the Prester made pilgrimage to that holy temple; but it did not turn out as the King had wished, because those emissaries, António de Lisboa and Pedro de Montayoro, not knowing how to speak the Arabian language, did not risk being in the company of the religious men they found in Jerusalem.47

The two messengers traveled to Jerusalem to seek a way to the Prester. For unspecified reasons, including their limited language skills and fear of being apprehended, they aborted their mission and returned to Portugal. Informed of their failure, a relentless João decided to dispatch better equipped representatives.48 Afonso de Payva, a “Canarian by race who spoke Castilian,” and Pêro da Cov- ilhã, a seasoned Portuguese traveler, sailed off on 7 May 1487, and after transiting through Barcelona, Naples, and Rhodes they reached Egypt, from where they started to scout the Red Sea basin, seeking additional intelligence on Ethiopia and on the condition of their upcoming journey.49 They first reached Suakin and then Aden, where they parted ways: Payva headed to Ethiopia while Covilhã sailed to India via Hormuz. When Covilhã returned to Cairo after visiting Goa and Calicut, he learned of his companion’s death and met with two Portuguese Jews, Abraam of Beja and Josef of Lamego, who were carrying new instructions from João.50 At this time, Covilhã must have been briefed on the arrival in Lisbon of another Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Ethiopian monk, one Lucas Marqos, who in 1488 had traveled from Rome to João’s court at the sovereign’s behest. The monk had been asked to translate a letter to the Prester, in which the sovereign

would write about his [Lucas Marqos] journey to this kingdom, about being in the presence of the king and about wanting to have his friendship, about his ways of navigation around all Africa, and Ethiopia and also about the kings and peoples he had discovered, and the things that existed in those parts such as the people’s customs . . . All the information that the king had about the 96 The Mediterranean way greatness of the lands of the Prester’s empire was also specified in that letter; and so that the Prester would give him credit, in case he received the letter, he signed the letter with his name Marqos, saying who his father was, and what district, settlement and parish he was from.51

To maximize the chances of success, João ordered the letter to be reproduced in multiple copies and dispatched to the Prester via pilgrims headed to the Holy Land, but despite the astute initiative, none of the letters reached the intended destination. As for Covilhã, he was told to take Rabi Abraam to Hormuz and then resume his quest for the Prester. On his way back from the Gulf, he traveled back to the Red Sea’s north coast and seems to have visited Jidda, Mecca, and Medina before finally heading to Zeila. From there, Covilhã ventured inland and seemingly disappeared for good, proving the imperviousness of the Mediterranean way to the Prester and probably contributing in a shift in the quest’s focus back to the ocean, but only in due course. After Dias’s journey (1488), eastward exploration was on a new decade-long hiatus. Much of the hesitation resulted from the lack of reliable knowledge on what laid beyond the Cape as well as to the paradigm shift resulting from the discovery of America. After the westward way to the Indies had been supposedly discovered in 1492, sailing east was no longer as attractive, whereas the papal recognition of Spanish overseas expansion through the bull Inter Caetera (1493) had destabilized an already precarious geopolitical equilibrium and been a considerable disruption to Portuguese overseas activities.52 Although the demar- cation line of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) would soon provide the two monar- chies with a new modus vivendi, the discovery of America had changed the world of overseas exploration for good and overshadowed any other overseas project. Furthermore, even before the discovery, a substantial section of the Portuguese establishment was reluctant, if not downright opposed, to invest in the quest for India resources that could have been deployed in North Africa. Calls for renewed Portuguese interventions in the region intensified in particular after the Spanish take of Granada (1492) which, apart from marking the end of the Reconquista, also adumbrated Spanish expansion across the Mediterranean. All in all, equipping a mission to India remained a low priority for the remainder of João II’s reign and Manuel I’s (1495–1521) initial years. As the latter took the kingdom’s reigns from his father, he dedicated most of his attention to mending fences with those who had opposed his ascension and to other thorny issues inherited from his father.53 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 However, the sovereign had a profound interest in the East, one drenched in millenarianist notions he had already embraced as an adolescent, when, through his Franciscan tutors, he became familiar with the Christian prophecies and began seeing himself as God’s instrument.54 Manuel painted his own destiny on a complex canvas on which the fall of Constantinople and Ottoman expansion represented the coming of a final battle against the forces of Islam. Together with his entourage, he envisioned recruiting Eastern Christians and waging a multi-front war against the Muslim world, one meant to result in the liberation of Jerusalem, Lisbon, 1441–1508 97 the destruction of Mecca and Medina, and in his elevation as the ultimate Chris- tian ruler of the East.55 In 1497, with his power mostly consolidated, Manuel began championing the double cause of India and Prester John, but with the Por- tuguese establishment still divided between North Africa and the Indies, he did so circumspectly, equipping only a small fleet and assigning it to an unknown captain, Vasco da Gama (ca. 1460–1524). The fleet left Portugal on 8 July 1497 and rounded the Cape in November of the same year. As Gama began sailing northward past the Zambezi and scouted the coast for intelligence, he and his crew developed mixed feelings. On the one hand, there was the unsettling experience of witnessing the preponderance of Islam beyond the Arab world and the realization that the former was more than a regional heresy, which was still a prevalent perception in Europe. On the other hand, their interlocutors reassured them of the proximity of the Prester:

There were many cities along the coast, and also an island, one half of the population of which consisted of Moors and the other half of Christians. . . . We were told, moreover, that Prester John resided not far from this place; that he held many cities along the coast, and that the inhabitants of those cities were great merchants and owned big ships. The residence of Prester John was said to be far in the interior, and could be reached only on the back of camels. These Moors had also brought hither two Christians captives from India. This information, and many other things which we heard, rendered us so happy that we cried with joy, and prayed God to grant us health, so that we might behold what we so much desired.56

The same misplaced hope to find the Prester that had lured the Portuguese farther and farther south into the Atlantic was now leading them north in the Indian Ocean. Gama would collect intelligence that must have appeared strikingly similar to the one his predecessors collected on the road to the Cape. Once again, the Christian kingdom they had been looking seemed to be near, but time after time it proved beyond grasp. After a three-month sojourn in Malindi, Gama left the Swahili coast for the last leg of his epic journey, and on 20 May 1498 the fleet finally docked at Cali- cut. Informed within months, Manuel quickly communicated the world-shattering news to both Castile and Rome, enthusiastically explaining that “when they [Indian Christians] shall have thus been fortified in their faith there will be an- oppor tunity for destroying the Moors of those parts” and confirmed Portugal’s readi- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ness to divert Red Sea-bound trade to the carreira.57 However, as much as the fleet’s arrival in India was an epic achievement, the three-month sojourn had been indeed a rather disappointing experience. Gama’s intercourse with the Zamorin of Calicut had quickly turned sour, and the visitors were eventually ordered to leave. Furthermore, it remains unclear how Gama, after a protracted sojourn, could char- acterize India as a country by and large populated by Christians; in all likelihood he told Manuel what the sovereign wanted to hear in order to foster his own standing.58 98 The Mediterranean way Confirming this hypothesis are the letters that Girolamo Sernigi (1453– after 1510) wrote upon Gama’s return. A Florentine merchant residing in Lisbon at the time of Gama’s return, Sernigi quickly reported news of the enterprise to an acquaintance – probably a fellow trader – in his hometown. In the first of two letters, sent upon the arrival of the first returning vessel but with Gama still at sea, Sernigi more or less confirmed the assessment of India as Christian, but in the second one, which was based on the direct testimony of one of Gama’s pilots, he offered a startlingly different picture:59

I do not understand that there are any Christians there to be taken into account, excepting those of Prester John, whose country is far from Calichut, on this [Western] side of the Gulf of Arabia, and borders upon the country of the King of Melinde, and, far in the interior, upon the Ethiopians, that is the black people of Guinea, as also upon Egypt, that is the country of the Sultan of Babylon.60

Therefore, apart from confirming to his interlocutor that Christian India was a myth after all, Sernigi also reported that Gama had run into Ethiopians on the other side of the Arabian Sea, on what was slowly emerging, in the European mind, as the African continent.61 Specifically, the Prester was to be found near the East African coast that Gama and his crew had reconnoitered on their way to India – a location in line with what had been jotted on the most recent maps of the era. Regardless of the discourse on Christian India and the motives behind the official announcement, Sernigi’s letters confirmed that one of the by-products of Gama’s voyage was the existence and location of the Prester’s kingdom. Hence, after Gama’s journey, the Portuguese had to look no further than northeast Africa for a path to the Christian kingdom – after almost a century of trial and error, they were closing in on the legendary sovereign. For Manuel and his circle of imperial visionaries, new initiatives were in order, but not before Manuel declared himself “Lord of the Conquest, Navigation and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia and India.”62 In March 1500 a new armada – the second dispatched on the carreira – left Lisbon under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral (1467–1520). After an acci- dental landing on the other side of the southern Atlantic that marked Portugal’s first claim on what would come to be known as Brazil, and the loss of 6 of the 13 ships at different points of his Atlantic navigation, the fleet rounded the Cape in May 1500. Although Cabral’s primary target was the establishment of a foothold in India, the quest for the Prester was still attracting considerable attention. Given Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 that after the repeated failures it was clear that missions to the African interior were rather dangerous, the commander had brought along from Portugal a few degredados – criminals condemned to exile – who could be deployed to the interior more freely. When, by late June, the fleet was in Malindi, Cabral dispatched two of them into the interior:

The reason why he left them there, was because King Manuel had instructed him by the time he arrived on this coast to send some of the degredados that Lisbon, 1441–1508 99 traveled with him in search of Prester John, by land, since he had heard that they could arrive in that hinterland, where his state was, through this coast; all this with big promises of being rewarded should they find the so desired prince . . . one of them was called João Machado and the other one Luiz de Moura.63

Although reaching Ethiopia from the northern Swahili coast was theoretically possible, it was a long shot: the two disappeared from sight and were presumed dead, only to reappear elsewhere at a later date and without any additional information on Ethiopia.64 In light of the failed attempts through the Mediterranean, West and Central-West Africa, and with the Red Sea yet to be explored, the Swahili coast would continue to appeal to the Portuguese as the best option for reaching the long-sought country, and it became the staging ground for additional Prester-bound initiatives. Given that, starting with Cabral’s, armadas would be dispatched to the carreira with annual frequency and that the Portuguese had access to the Swahili coast, it can be assumed that in the following years more missions were sent into the interior. Among them was one assigned to a Valencian named Antão Lopez, who left in 1503 but never made it to Malindi.65 In March 1507, Tristão da Cunha (1460– 1540), commander of a new armada, disembarked a party of three in Malindi

with the purpose of finding Prester John, by land: One, who was a degre- dado, was called João Gomes, the Jardo; the other, who had been a servant of Tristão da Cunha, was called João Sanches Mourisco; and the third one was a Moor from Tunis called Cide Ale. The king had promised the three of them great rewards, should they make that journey.66

Their journey did not even start, as authorities in Malindi could not secure a safe passage inland for the three and prevented them from leaving.67 They were collected from the city in early 1508 and taken to Cape Guardafui, where

the Moor told him [Alfonso de Albuquerque] that his road lay through the interior of Barbora Zeila [sic], and through the land of the Cadandin, a Moor- ish captain who was prosecuting a war with another captain of Prester John, for the one land is contiguous to the other; and that the caravan that went from Zeila to Prester John was always secure.68 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Already a towering figure in the Portuguese panorama, after having shined at the helm of the 1503–1504 armada, Alfonso de Albuquerque (1453–1515) was back in the Indian Ocean to take over as the Estado’s governor. As a staunch supporter of Manuel’s imperial dreams and deeply invested in lay- ing the groundwork for a two-prong assault on the Middle East, Albuquerque must have been exceedingly excited about the encounter. The news of a viable road to Ethiopia from nearby Zeila called for a new initiative, but also for prudence as the city and the first part of the trail leading to the Highlands were 100 The Mediterranean way under Adali rule. Given that the Portuguese had already antagonized most of the Muslim societies in the region, the three took precautions: they disguised themselves as ragged merchants and were disembarked on a beach in the vicinity of Zeila so as to pretend to be castaways from a shipwreck. As they landed and disappeared from sight, the governor must have been wondering whether this latest attempt would succeed.

Although all attempts to reach the Prester had failed, the quest had been a phe- nomenal goad for Portuguese exploration: the discourse on Prester John, combined with Manueline millenarianism, had a profound bearing on overseas expansion and in drawing the Portuguese to the Indian Ocean. Provided that more worldly reasons, such as gold and slaves, probably played a more important role in Portuguese reconnaissance than the quest for a fabled kingdom, the Prester’s quest was no small matter. Many explorers seem to have invested considerable effort in convincing their sponsors in Lisbon that the Prester’s kingdom was within reach and that through the disbursement of additional funds or the dispatch of new expeditions, the age-long mystery could be solved. Many of their failed deeds were incorporated into the grand narrative of Portuguese expansion, turning a medieval hoax into historical reality. In their quest for the Christian kingdom and for India, one that speaks to the power of a myth of medieval derivation, the Portuguese had acted upon geographical knowledge and hearsay produced elsewhere, primarily in the Italian peninsula. Although the Avis were rather remote from the ongoing production of Ethiopianist knowledge in the Italian peninsula, they benefitted from what was emerging as a continent- wide network of knowledge circulation about the overseas. Moreover, much of knowledge about the Prester that made it to Portugal was of Ethiopian derivation, a circumstance that speaks volumes to the bearing of non-Europeans on the age of European expansion. On the Ethiopian Highlands, knowledge of and interest in Portugal must have been mostly nonexistent until the early 16th century, when the armadas started to sail around the Horn. Until then, Portugal was probably barely known to the Ethi- opian elites, whose understanding of Europe depended almost entirely on intelligence reaching Ethiopia through the Middle East, to which the Portuguese had limited connections. Although, unbeknownst to Manuel, some of the Portuguese who had been dispatched to the Prester had made it to their destination already Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 in the 1480s, it would not be until 1509 that Ethiopian rulers would dignify Por- tuguese interest in their country with a reply. By then, Portugal had established a fearsome presence in the Indian Ocean, conquering a few key coastal locales and harassing Muslim rulers throughout the region. Soon enough, echoes of Por- tuguese expansionism would reach the Ethiopian court and would stimulate the Prester to seek an alliance. Ironically, after more than a century of Ethiopian dealings with a variety of Mediterranean societies, it would be Europe’s westernmost country that would close in on the Prester. Lisbon, 1441–1508 101 Notes 1 On Ceuta’s significance see Josiah Blackmore, Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), xiii–xv. 2 Peter Edward Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator”: A Life (New Haven: Yale Uni- versity Press, 2000), 8. 3 For an overview of Portugal’s expansion overseas, see Malyn Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668 (London: Routledge, 2005); A. R. Dis- ney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807, 2 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), vol. 2; Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator.” For a discussion of the Portuguese discourse on Africa in this era see Blackmore, Moorings. 4 Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 10. 5 Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 4–21; Ivana Elbl, “Cross- Cultural Trade and Diplomacy: Portuguese Relations with West Africa, 1441–1521,” Journal of World History 3, no. 2 (1992): 165–204. 6 William G. Randles, “The Evaluation of Columbus’ ‘India’ Project by Portuguese and Spanish Cosmographers in the Light of the Geographical Science of the Period,” Imago Mundi 42 (1990): 93. 7 Nicholas V, Romanus Pontifex, 8 January 1455, Rome, Monumenta Henricina, 12:71–9. 8 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:47; Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 12. 9 On the Avis’s likely familiarity with texts such as the Libro del Conosçimiento (ca. 1355), which included references to Prester John and updated portolans, see Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator,” 113–20; William G. Randles, “The Alleged Nautical School Founded in the Fifteenth Century at Sagres by Prince Henry of Portugal, Called the ‘Navigator,’ ” Imago Mundi 45 (1993): 20–8. 10 On the Avis marriage alliances, see Ivana Elbl, “Man of His Time (and Peers): A New Look at Henry the Navigator,” Luso-Brazilian Review 28, no. 2 (1991): 75–6; Clayton J. Drees, ed., The Late Medieval Age of Crisis and Renewal, 1300–1500: A Biographi- cal Dictionary (Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001), 14–15. 11 On the Portuguese presence at the Council of Florence and the circulation of geographical information, see Relaño, The Shaping of Africa, 59; Rogers, The Quest for Eastern Christians, 56–9. On Dom Gomes, referred in the literature also as Gomes Ferreira da Silvia, and his interest in the East, see Guido Battelli, “L’abate Don Gomes Ferreira Da Silva e I Portoghesi a Firenze nella prima metà del Quattrocento,” in Relazioni storiche fra l’Italia e il Portogallo, ed. G. Bardi (Roma: Reale Accademia d’’Italia, Memorie e Documenti, 1940), 149–63; Martin Malcolm Elbl and Ivana Elbl, “The Private Archive (Carteggio) of Abbot Dom Fr. Gomes Eanes (Badia Di Fire- nze) – An Analytical Catalogue, with Commentary, of Codex Ashburnham 1792 (Bib- lioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence): Part One,” Portuguese Studies Review 21, no. 1 (2013): 19–151. 12 Elbl, “Man of His Time (and Peers),” 85. 13 Randles, “The Alleged Nautical School,” 24–5.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 14 Pierre Bontier and Jean Le Verrier, The Canarian or, Book of the Conquest and Con- version of the Canarians in the Year 1402 by Messire Jean de Bethencourt, Kt, trans. Richard Henry Major (London: Hakluyt Society, 1872), 99. 15 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:31. 16 Antonio Malfante to Giovanni Moriono, Tuat, 1447, in Alvise Cà da Mosto, The Voy- ages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century, ed. G. R. Crone, trans. G. R. Crone, 2nd ser., no. 80 (London: Hak- luyt Society, 1937), 90, in French and Latin in Roncière, La Découverte de l’Afrique au Moyen Age, 1:144–60; and in French and Latin in Antonio Malfante, Lettera di un mercante genovese (Genova: San Marco dei Giustiniani, 2008). 102 The Mediterranean way 17 A.J.R. Russell-Wood, “Iberian Expansion and the Issue of Black Slavery: Changing Portuguese Attitudes, 1440–1770,” The American Historical Review 83, no. 1 (1978): 16. On Portuguese slavery and the slave trade, see A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555 (Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press, 1982). 18 Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 1:55. 19 Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 1:95–117, 2:231–79; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1:33; Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década I: Parte 1, 75–83. 20 Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 2:280. 21 Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 2:280; Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 27–9. 22 Elbl, “Cross-Cultural Trade and Diplomacy,” 169–84. Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 2:280. 23 See Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, xxiii; 52–63. 24 Antonius Ususmaris to “Honorandi Fratres” 12 December 1455. The Latin original, along with commentary, can be found in Jakob Gråberg, Annali di geografia e di statistica 1, 2 vols in 1 (Genova: La Vecchia, 1802), 2:287–8. 25 This is Russell’s guess: Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator,” 125; see also Zurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, 1:xxiii–xxiv, lxii, 353. 26 Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, 96–8. 27 Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, 96–8. 28 Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, 96–8. 29 Russell, Prince Henry “the Navigator,” 333; John Horace Parry, The Age of Recon- naissance (New York: New American Library, 1964), 133. 30 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 152. English translation in Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, 114. For a discussion of Fernao Gomes see Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 32–51; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:33–57. 31 Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 37–46. 32 On Cão, see Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:37; Ernest George Ravenstein, “The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482–88,” The Geographical Journal 16, no. 6 (1900): 625–55; Carmen M. Radulet, “As viagens de descobrimento de Diogo Cào. Nova proposta de interpretacào,” Mare Liberum 1 (1990): 175–204. 33 Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 49. 34 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 181. 35 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 182. 36 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 182–3.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 37 For a discussion of the embassy and its consequences, see Alan F. C. Ryder, Benin and the Europeans: 1485–1897 (New York: Humanities Press, 1969), 26–32. 38 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 184. 39 For the timing of Dias’s departure and the naming of the Cape, see Ravenstein, “The Voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482–88.” 40 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 185–6. 41 Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, Historia do descobrimento e conqvista da India pelos Portvgveses, 8 vols in 7 (Lisboa: Typographia Rollandiana, 1833), 1:2. 42 Academia das Ciências de Lisboa et al., Collecção de livros ineditos de historia portugueza, dos reinados de D. João I., D. Duarte, D. Affonso V., e D. João II. Publicados de Lisbon, 1441–1508 103 ordem da Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa (Lisboa: Na Officina da mesma Aca- demia, 1790), 89–95. See also Ruy de Pina in translation, John W Blake, Europeans in West Africa, 1450–1560 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1942), 80–6. Jeleen, the bumi of Jolof, was a Wolof prince who entertained relations with João II between 1484 and 1488 when he traveled to Lisbon and converted to Christianity before attempting to return to his kingdom and reclaim the throne. Northrup, Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 26–9; Elbl, “Cross-Cultural Trade and Diplomacy,” 198. 43 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 210–211. English translation in Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on West- ern Africa, 133. 44 On the Mossi, see J. Fage, The Cambridge History of Africa, 8 vols (Cambridge: Cam- bridge University Press, 1975–1986), vol. 3 (1975), 383–432. 45 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 223. English translation in Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, 141. 46 One Jorge, probably a latinization of Gorgoryos, made it to Afonso V’s court in 1451 at about the same time as Yaqob. Gorgoryos’s visit is referred to in a financial transaction that suggests that after his stay in Portugal he headed to Burgundy. See Pedro de Azevedo, “Um Embaixador Abissínio Em Portugal Em 1452,” Boletim da Classe de Letras 13 (1921): 526; Cà da Mosto, The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa, xix. About the confusion relating to the identification of Gorgoryos with George Sur, another obscure traveler, see Jean Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” Mare Luso-Indicum 3 (1976): 2. 47 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 193. 48 Antonio is described elsewhere as “a Frier of the order of Saint Frances, called Fryer Antonio de Lixbona.” Compare Castanheda, Historia do descobrimento e conqvista da India pelos Portvgveses, 1:2; Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 371. The mission was dispatched in 1484 according to Gaspar Correa, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama and His Viceroyalty from the Lendas da India of Gaspar Correa Accompanied by Original Documents, trans. Henry E. J. Stanley (London: Hakluyt Society, 1869), 8–9, hereafter cited as Correa, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama. 49 Accounts of the mission can be found in Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 369–76; Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 193–200; Francisco Manuel de Melo Ficalho, Viagens de Pedro da Covilhan (Lisboa: A. M. Pereira, 1898); Maria E. Madeira Santos, Viagens de exploracao terrestre dos Portugueses em África. (Junta de Investigacoes Cientificas do Ultramar, Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa) (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos de Cartografia Antiga, 1978), 58–65; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:42–4. 50 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 373; Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 196. 51 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 198. 52 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:48. 53 On the hiatus see, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 50–7; Newitt, A History of Portu- guese Overseas Expansion, 51–5; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Empire, 1:153. Among them was the fate of Portugal’s Jewish community, whose size had been increasing in the aftermath of the Spanish expulsion of 1492. Whereas João II had vacillated between enslavement and deportation, Manuel initially adopted a much more tolerant and benign attitude, but only to quickly follow in the Spanish footsteps and sign a decree of expulsion (1496). See François Soyer, The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal King Manuel I and the End of Religious Tolerance (1496–7) (Leiden: Brill, 2007). 54 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Turning the Stones over: Sixteenth-Century Millenarianism from the Tagus to the Ganges,” The Indian Economic and Social History Review 40, no. 2 (2003): 155. 104 The Mediterranean way 55 Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, 56–7; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1:143–4. 56 Vasco da Gama and Ernst G. Ravenstein, A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499 (London: Hakluyt Soc., 1898), 22–5. 57 Manuel to Ferdinand and Isabella, Lisbon, July 1499; see letter and commentary in da Gama, A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 111–16. 58 For a discussion of Gama’s sojourn in Calicut and the overestimation of the Christian presence in the region, see Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, 128–45. 59 Girolamo Sernigi to unknown recipient in Florence, Lisbon, circa July 1499; Girolamo Sernigi to unknown recipient in Florence, Lisbon, circa September 1499; Sernigi’s letters can be found in da Gama, A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 119–42. 60 Girolamo Sernigi to unknown recipient in Florence, Lisbon, circa September 1499 in da Gama, A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 138. 61 Relaño, The Shaping of Africa. 62 Cited in Giuseppe Marcocci, “Prism of Empire: The Shifting Image of Ethiopia in Renaissance Portugal (1500–1570),” in Portuguese Humanism and the Republic of Letters, ed. Maria Berbara and Karl A. E. Enenkel (Leiden: Brill, 2012), 451. 63 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 1: Parte 1, 406. 64 See also Damião de Góis and João Baptista Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a qual Damiano de Goes colegis (Lisboa, 1619), 76, 89; Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, 178; Merid Wolde Aregay and Girma Beshah, The Question of the Union of the Churches in Luso-Ethiopian Relations, 1500–1632 (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1964), 20; da Gama, A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 178–9; Correa, The Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama, 93–6. Luis de Moura disappeared from Portuguese view only to reappear in front of Gama at the time of his brief sojourn in the proximity of Malindi in 1502; Machado found a way to India, where he would join Albuquerque’s retinue. 65 Merid Wolde Aregay and Girma Beshah, The Question of the Union of the Churches in Luso-Ethiopian Relations, 1500–1632, 20. Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 4. 66 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década 2: Parte 1, 234. The same mission is described along similar lines in Góis and Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a Qual Damiano de Goes Colegis, 197, 229. In the latter, however, the three are identified as “a Portuguese man called Fernão Gomes, the Sardo, a Moorish Christian called João Sanchez, and another one from Tunis called Cide Mafamede.” Gomes was most likely a native of Jarda in Portugal, and the demonym Sardo was most likely a corruption of Jardo; see Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 8. Of the three, João Sanchez’s identity is the most dubious because, beyond a general agreement about his Morisco ancestry, he is described both as a servant for Tristão da Cunha and as a priest, a qualification that other sources ascribe to João Gomes instead. 67 Góis and Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a Qual Damiano de Goes Colegis, 229.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 68 Afonso de Albuquerque and Walter de Gray Birch, The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India, 4 vols (London: Printed for the Hak- luyt Society, 1875–1884), vol. 1 (1975), 202–3. Part II The Indian run Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 5 Beyond the sea, 1509–1520

In 1510, a Portuguese captain raided a Calicut-bound ship hailing from Jedda and found two Castilian Jews on board. As he questioned them for intelligence, he learned that they had recently sojourned in Suakin, where they had met someone “who was named Fernão [João] Gomes, and with a Moor who was in his company, and Fernão Gomes had declared to them that his other companion was dead.”1 The captain, certainly privy to João Gomes, João Sanchez, and Sid Mohammed’s mission, decided to take the two Castilians to Albuquerque for additional questioning. The two informants related that Gomes and Mohammed had split ways with Sanchez, whom they believed dead, and had abandoned the original plan to reach Ethiopia from Zeila, opting instead to find a way back to Europe through the Middle East. The details of the encounter in Suakin are unknown, but it can be assumed to have taken place in 1509, about a year after the three had disappeared from Albuquerque’s sight. Upon learning the news of what must have appeared to him as the latest failure to reach the Prester, the governor must have wondered whether any of his countryman would ever succeed: little did he know that, in the meanwhile, the three travelers had in fact reached the Ethiopian capital and joined the ranks of other Europeans at court, among them the long-lost Covilhã, who had been in Ethiopia for almost three decades. In the 1490s, the balance of power at the Ethiopian court hinged on the widow of the late Zara Yaqob: Eleni, the daughter of a hereditary ruler of Hadiyya who, in the 1440s, had bestowed her in marriage to the negus to seal a peace treaty. Despite her Muslim identity, Eleni gained acceptance as etege – royal consort – and after her husband’s death became the protagonist of an unexpected political ascent. As a childless widow hailing from the Muslim periphery of the empire, she would appear an unlikely candidate to fill the power vacuum left by her late Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 husband, but the intrigues of court politics turned her into one of the most powerful women in Ethiopian history. As an outsider without blood stakes in the succession struggles that defined the era, she used her own identity and family status to survive and thrive as a mediator between court factions. By the early 1480s, she emerged as one of the leading figures opposed to Amda Mikael’s policies of centralization and confrontation with Ethiopia’s Muslim neighbors.2 As Emperor Eskender was only 14 when Amda Mikael died in the mid- 1480s, etege Eleni took over the kingdom’s leadership. Probably because of 108 The Indian run her peripheral ancestry and Muslim upbringing, she opted for more accommodating policies toward non-Christians. Therefore, when Covilhã arrived at Eskender’s court in the early 1490s, he found circumstances rather unfavorable to the comple- tion of his mission. Eleni and her entourage were probably confident they could deal with their neighbors – in particular the resurgent Sultanate of Adal – without resorting to improbable and potentially counterproductive diplomatic initiatives such as establishing relations with a crusade-bent Catholic power. Leaving aside a potential alliance, even the simple exchange of embassies must have appeared a hazardous option, especially if it were to be pursued through Mamluk territory. Furthermore, Eleni must have weighed Covilhã’s proposal against the dangers of a too-close association with a foreigner, as the accusation of conniving with Catholics could have cost her the kingdom. Last but not least, in the early 1490s, Portugal was still largely unknown in the region, and it is doubtful that the ambassador’s proposal made much of an impression. In the end, the context of Covilhã’s arrival at court could have hardly been less conducive to further diplomatic initiatives. When new Portuguese representatives reached Ethiopia two decades later, a different context produced a different response. In the years intervening between the arrival of Covilhã and of the three new visitors, Eleni’s policy of compromise had revealed itself to be rather ineffective at curbing Muslim resistance, and a combination of regional and global developments was rapidly altering the context in which both Ethiopia and its foes were operating. In the Sultanate of Adal, already in the 1490s, political leadership shifted from the Walasma Sultan Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din (1488–1518) to Mahfuz ibn Muhammad (n.a.–1517), governor of Zeila.3 Although the Walasma dynasty would retain titular control over the sultanate, Adal’s internal balance of power underwent adjustments, with profound consequences for Ethiopia. Mah- fuz, discontented with Muhammad’s policy of compromise with the Christian neighbor, spearheaded a call to jihad that resonated in Adal, in Ethiopia’s Muslim borderlands, and on the other side of the Red Sea, where traders were expectedly enthusiastic about the growing availability of war captives to be sold into the Arab slave markets.4 Furthermore, while the Adali were asserting their claims in the outskirts of Ethi- opia, the Portuguese and the Ottomans were converging on the region. The Por- tuguese were making their way north on the East African coast, and by the early 16th century they had started to preside over the Arabian Sea, by seizing Cochin (1503), Socotra (1507), Hormuz (1508), and Goa (1510). At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was making headway into the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, lay- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ing the foundation for four centuries of hegemony in the Muslim world. Compet- ing dreams of expansion were about to come face to face with each other, and the entire region would soon find itself embroiled in an epochal conflict aptly referred to as history’s first world war. From the perspective of Eleni and her entourage, threats and opportunities must have appeared quite clearly on the horizon.5 In this context, João Gomes and Mohammed probably arrived at the Ethiopian court after having failed to travel into the interior from Zeila, and having been separated from their companion Sanchez. They had ventured into the interior from Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 109 somewhere else on the coast, but not before crossing paths with the Castilian Jews. When they finally reached the Ethiopian court, they found Covilhã as well as Sanchez.6 Like the long-lost Covilhã, the three would remain in Ethiopia for years, but unlike the former, they succeeded in their mission of soliciting Ethio- pian interest in their country. Eleni saw on the one hand an increasingly aggressive sultanate calling for jihad and capable of drawing support from the umma, and on the other an ostensibly powerful Christian kingdom whose fleets had been marauding Muslim societies throughout the region and whose representatives had been sent to Ethiopia to seek an alliance. Against such a tumultuous backdrop, Portuguese interest in Ethiopia was finally bound to trigger a positive response, and after decades of cautious political maneuvering, Eleni opted to seek diplomatic ties with a Catholic power. With the Adali knocking at Ethiopia’s door, Eleni probably saw little downside to seeking an alliance: with fidalgos battling Muslims and setting up fortalezas throughout the region, Portugal must have appeared to Eleni as Ethiopia’s best hope to fend off its foes and possibly begin a new era of expansion – hence, she reached out to the Portuguese monarch.

Matewos’s mission Eleni’s letter to Manuel is a brief but epochal document that marks the opening of a long era of Luso-Ethiopian relations and demonstrates the regent’s advanced understanding of the regional and transregional dynamics that bore on Ethiopian security.7 She addressed her interlocutor as “beloved brother the most Christian King Manuel, knight of the seas, subduer and despoiler of the unbelieving Caffres and Moors” and warned him “that the Lord of Cairo was arming a fleet of ships to send against your fleets” – a clear reference to the 1508 Mamluk expedition into the Indian Ocean. Subsequently, she pledged her resources against the common enemy, hoping that the sovereign could “cause these Moors to be wiped off the face of the earth – and we by land, brother, and you by sea, for we are powerful on the land – that they may no longer give to be eaten of [sic] dogs the offerings and gifts made at the Holy Sepulchre.”8 In order to seal the alliance, Eleni entrusted her envoy with precious religious relics and advanced the idea of a marriage between the two royal families:

And if you shall think proper – whereat we shall have great satisfaction – to be pleased to give us your daughters for our sons, or take our sons for your daughters – which will be more fitting – no more, except that the salvation and Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 grace of Our Redeemer Christ Jesus and of Our Lady Saint Mary the Virgin be on all your states, and on your sons and daughters and on all your house.9

The proposal was part of a long-established tradition of political marriages – a practice that Eleni knew well out of personal experience – which must have sounded remarkably similar to the political marriage Yeshaq had proposed to Alfonso of Aragon in 1427. When taken all together, the regent’s offer of religious relics, the request for an alliance and, most important, the marriage proposal speak 110 The Indian run volumes to the Ethiopian perception of the Portuguese as peers – distant brothers belonging to the same community of faith. In Eleni’s mind, there must have been little doubt that relations with Europeans would have operated according to the same paradigm of religious sameness and difference as on the Highlands. Eleni entrusted her letter to Matewos, a Christian merchant of “very clear color quite pale,”10 who had conducted business between Cairo and Ethiopia for years and, like many other foreigners before and after him, had been co-opted into the royal court. Probably of Armenian descent, Matewos must have been active for years as both a trader and an informer, taking advantage of his commercial ties throughout the region to gather precious intelligence for Eleni and her entourage. In all likelihood he was selected for the mission because of his versatile identity and appearance, which could be expected to facilitate transit through the Muslim world.11 However, his journey proved much more difficult than either Matewos or his sovereign could have expected. Matewos left Shewa between 1509 and 1510 disguised as a Muslim trader, but already in Aden he was accused of being a spy, a circumstance that must have prompted even more careful treading and seems to have slowed down his transit considerably, as he arrived in India only in late 1512. Having left behind the Arab world, Matewos expected his troubles to be over; however, his ambiguous identity quickly turned into a liability and a source of distrust.12 In December 1512, upon arriving in Dabhol, Portuguese authorities did not believe his story and arrested him, until Albuquerque, now Viceroy of the Estado da India, ordered his immediate release and transfer to Goa. When the ambassador arrived,

[Albuquerque] went to the beach to receive him, with all the clergy and inhabitants of the city, with crosses in procession, and there they took up the Wood under a canopy to the Cathedral Church . . . [and] ordered that the ambassador should be entertained and supplied with all necessary things for the expenses of himself, his wife, and a young man and woman of Abyssinia who were in his suite.13

In light of his effort to dispatch representatives to Ethiopia and his vision for Portugal’s role in the region, the governor was understandably pleased and sent word to his sovereign right away. The news sailed on the carreira and reached Portugal at record speed: by 6 June of the following year, Manuel could boast in his letter to the pontiff and to the world that he had conquered Malacca (1511) and established contacts with Prester John, whose representative was on his way to Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Lisbon.14 However, despite the newly found powerful sponsor, the ambassador’s misfortunes were far from over. While on the carreira to Portugal, Matewos was accused again of being an impostor, detained, and tortured. His predicament emerges clearly from a letter that one of his accusers, Gaspar Pereira, wrote to Manuel while en route, ostensibly to persuade the sovereign to take action against both Matewos and Albuquerque:

The woman that is with the one who made himself ambassador . . . told all of us that he is a moor and not an Abyssinian, and that he had not been sent by Jedda Mecca 0 100 200 300 400 km

R 050 100 150 200 250 miles e

d er iv Suakin R ile N S

e a

Dahlak Massawa Archipelago Khartoum Arqiqo Debre Bizen Kamaran M ar Island eb Debarwa TIGRAY R. Axum Adwa

B lu Amba Geshen Moka e Manadeley N i B l a e Aden e b l ( i e A Wo a l-M N a b ndeb e b t i a GOJJAM Lalibela h y

) W AMHARA Zeila Gendevelu

Adabay R. Berbera Dabra Libanos Tagulat SHEWA Harar

Barara

W h it e N i l e Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 I A A L O M S Kingdom of Ethiopia Mogadishu Sultanate of Ifat/Adal Mamluk Sultanate, conquered by Ottomans 1512–20

Map 5.1 The world of the encounter: The Indian Ocean and Red Sea worlds, 1400–1550. Cox Carto- graphic Ltd. 112 The Indian run the [Ethiopian] king; and that everything was fake and also that he was a spy, a pilot and a sorcerer; she told us that he had stolen her and that she was not his wife nor the daughter of a king, as he had told the captain and all of us; she also said that the boy who was supposed to be her brother was not related to her in any way; and that he had stolen both of them, each from their home- lands, and was sleeping with the boy. He wanted to speak to me, and with Bernardim Freire and Jorge de Melo; but I didn’t dare speak to him, because Afonso de Albuquerque is no ordinary man, and he had said many things. In Cochin, António Real told me that one of his spies knew who that man was, and that he was a moor and all of this was fake, and Francisco Pereira told me that he had known about this in Cochin and that he was going to inform your highness. And that letters were already being sent to Rome, with accounts of this; and it is said that the Captain [Albuquerque] knew about all this but he kept silent. Jorge de Melo and I feel that the Captain must be destroyed for this, because he claims that, for this service alone, your highness will make him a count. I feel that it is my duty to inform your highness about this.15

The pilots in charge of transporting Matewos to Lisbon were accusing him not only of being a Muslim but also of kidnapping and pederasty. Although his diplomatic credentials and good standing in Ethiopia would later find confirmation, there could have been some truth in the woman’s story: she could have been a slave Matewos had acquired as part of his disguise. If so, the denunciation could have been part of a ploy to improve her own lot. Either way, there was more than the accusation of a disgruntled slave at work. In the years following Gama’s epic journey, the Portuguese had been sending armadas to the Indian Ocean to establish both a political and commercial presence in the region, but disagreement over the primacy of political as opposed to commercial considerations had been looming large. The same controversy that in the late 15th century had slowed down Atlantic exploration – seen by some as a distraction from North Africa – was far from settled. Manuel’s imperial party was pursuing a structured political and military presence in the Indian Ocean and aimed at controlling trade to both damage the Mamluk sultanate and fund the ever-growing Estado and its military. Portugal’s Indian Ocean extension would have functioned as a merchant state, turning trade into a tool of imperial assertion and using it to prepare the ground for the inescapable conflict with the Muslim world. Naturally, Manuel’s imperial pretentions had numerous opponents among Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 traders and fortune-seeking fidalgos who wanted free reign to build their own fortunes through trading and privateering. Albuquerque was solidly in Manuel’s camp: by strengthening the state-run monopoly on the spice trade and creating a centralized military body, he had turned himself into the scourge for the party of commerce. When Matewos appeared in Dabhol claiming to be Prester John’s ambassador, he stumbled into the crossfire between these two camps: on the one side was Albuquerque, eager to establish relations with the Christian kingdom as part of his imperial strategy; on the other side were his detractors, eager to discredit both the Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 113 Ethiopian ambassador and his patron for their own personal interest.16 Matewos’s predicament was the by-product of a struggle for power and resources within the Estado, one in which the ambassador became an unwilling participant. However, when, more than a year later, he arrived in Lisbon as a prisoner, expecting his misfortunes to continue, he was instead greeted with much fanfare, whereas his chief persecutor, the captain Bernardim Freire, was “arrested because of the information he [Manuel] had about him, of how he had been a bad company for the ambassador, and how badly he had treated him.”17 Luckily for Matewos, Manuel had discounted the accusations and trusted Albuquerque instead. While Freire was being taken away, Matewos was received with all the honors accorded to dignitaries and routed to Manuel’s court:

They went to Santos-o-Velho, where the king welcomed them standing upright, and off his dais, with great honors and courtesy, and on that moment Matewos handed the king the letter of credence that he had brought with him, written in Arabic and in Persian language . . . During the audience Matewos, as the wise and cautious man he was, talked with the king, with great accu- racy and confidence, about the affairs that had been entrusted to him, and he handed the king a letter from Queen Eleni, and five golden medallions, stamped with letters that were said to be from the Abyssinian language, each weighting eight cruzados, and after that he showed him a round Cross, with a silver ring, that was made from the Cross where Jesus died to save us, and it was inside a golden case with a locker; and the king received the key on his knees, and with tears in his eyes, thanking God for being blessed with such a precious gift, and with letters and ambassadors from such a powerful Christian king such as the king of the Abyssinians, who lived so remotely and isolated from the kings of Europe.18

The encounter was an epic one in European imagination: a crusading European king intent in projecting his might throughout the Indian Ocean was meeting with the ambassador of the long-sought Prester. Apart from the request for an alliance and a marriage proposal, Matewos carried also gifts for Manuel, the most significant being a fragment of the True Cross, most likely a splinter of the relic that, from Venice, had reached Dawit’s court in the early 1400s. In a world where allegiances and alliances were grounded on religious identity, relics were the currency of exchange, pawns of good faith and trust between interlocutors belonging to the same religious community. Over the centuries, the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 relic had traveled far and wide: in the aftermath of the Muslim conquest of Jeru- salem, it had found its way to Venice and from there it had crossed the Mediter- ranean Sea and the Middle East to Ethiopia. More than a century later, it was back on European soil, but only after a long journey that took it from the Ethiopian Highlands to the Red Sea, through the Arabian Sea to Goa, and around Africa to Portugal. Its wanderings are telling of the epochal events that in less than a century had dramatically altered the dynamics of exchange, trade, and power in the Mediterranean basin. In the late 1100s, when the relic made it to Venice, the city was the most important European gateway to the East. On the other side of the 114 The Indian run Mediterranean, the Kingdom of Portugal was barely emerging as an independent entity from the midst of the Reconquista. Two centuries later, by the time the relic left Venice for Ethiopia, the republic was still a dominating yet declining power in the Mediterranean, while Portugal was about to start its era of expansion with the taking of Ceuta (1415). A century later, the splinter had found its way to Lisbon on the carreira: by then, the Avis were leading the age of European expansion and had found the long-sought oceanic way to India. Matewos would remain in Portugal for a little over a year, sharing his sojourn and honors with Yaqob, the young Ethiopian whose presence had caused him the accusation of pederasty and who seems to have been the only one among his companions to have remained at the ambassador’s side during his stay in Lisbon and later on in his journey back to Ethiopia.19 While Portuguese authorities were preparing a proper reply for the Ethiopian sovereign, Matewos and Yaqob can be imagined spending their days in Lisbon conversing with dignitaries and courtiers, enlightening and delighting their hosts with firsthand accounts of their distant land. The little that is known about their journey to Portugal and their sojourn is due to the efforts of Damião de Góis (1502–1574), one of the most prolific Portuguese humanists of the era, who at the time of the visit was a seven-year- old court page at Manuel’s court and whose life would eventually be defined by his involvement in the encounter. His account, which would be printed only in 1532, with the tile Legatio Magni Indorvm Imperatoris Presbyteri Ioannis, ad Emanuelem Lusitaniae Regem, Anno Domini MDXIII, would be based not on his childhood memories but, instead, on the minutes of Matewos’s interrogation by court theologians, who questioned the ambassador thoroughly on the Ethiopian faith, the organization of the Ethiopian Church, and the kingdom.20 Already in the late 1520s, while working in the Portuguese feitoria in Antwerp, Góis managed to retrieve the record of Matewos’s interrogation, which he would later discuss with his learned acquaintance Johannes Magnus (1488–1544), Arch- bishop of Uppsala, while on a mission in Gdańsk. The learned prelate seems to have been greatly intrigued by the subject and asked Góis to put together a version in Latin. The Portuguese humanist consented, probably believing that he was contributing to a private debate over the nature of non-European Christianity, a subject of growing interest at the dawn of the Reformation, so he combined the minutes with a copy of Eleni’s letter, a brief overview of Ethiopia’s major religious and political institutions, and a summary of the circumstances of Matewos’s journey. What was supposed to be a private correspondence found its way to the printing press when it came to the attention of his friend and Flemish humanist Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Cornelius Grapheus (1482–1558), who, unbeknownst to Góis, had the document printed at his brother’s printing house in Antwerp.21 Cornelius Grapheus himself related the circumstances that led to the printing of the document in the prefatory letter:

When that thrice-noble Portuguese, Damian Gooes [Góis], my greatest friend, was recently carrying on the business of his king among the Scythians across the Vistula, among the Poles and Russians, he was asked by John, the Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 115 great Goth Magnus, the archbishop of Uppsala, to translate this book of the Indian embassy from the Portuguese vernacular into Latin after he returned here to Antwerp. Since he is a young man of an elegant nature, and of every virtue, as well as of noble family, he is somewhat shy, far from Thrasoni- cal [boastful] presumption, and has kept this translation hidden in his house, truly preferring that the fume of publishing it be given to someone else rather than himself. Having got possession of it, or as it were, extorted the little book from him, I send it to you, most amiable brother, that you may set it in your type before the eyes of the world. This will be exceedingly gratifying to me, to him not without honor, and to judicious readers not unpleasing. Fare- well, the Ides of August, 1532.22

Although by the time of its publication new developments in Portuguese- Ethiopian relations rendered some of its content obsolete, the Legatio gained wide distribution across Europe and for the time being remained unrivaled as a printed source of theological information on Ethiopia. Matewos’s answers represent the first recorded confession of Ethiopian faith and as such would be of great interest for those who by the early 1530s were occupied with determining whether the Prester’s faith was to be accepted. In fact, one can postulate that the Grapheus brothers published the pamphlet hurriedly and without Góis’s permission in order to capitalize on the events that Matewos himself had set in motion 20 years earlier and that by 1532 had turned the Christian kingdom into one of the most discussed countries of the Indies.

Mare Rubrum On 7 April 1515, about a year after their arrival in Portugal, Matewos and Yaqob sailed off with a new fleet directed to the Indian Ocean, but not before being created knights of the Order of Christ. The honor was a postmortem vindication of Henrique’s quest for Prester John: two of the Prester’s subjects were now knights of the very military order through which the infante had taken his first steps overseas exactly 100 years earlier.23 They sailed off on an armada headed by Lopo Soares de Albergaria (1460–1520), the new governor of the Estado:24 accompa- nying the Ethiopian representatives was a sizeable delegation headed by Duarte Galvão (1446–1517). For a mission that was the ultimate embodiment of his crusading spirit, King Manuel selected one of the most influential personalities of his court, who had Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 served the Avis since the time of Afonso V.25 Galvão was a dedicated supporter of an anti-Islamic empire. In the early 1500s, he had embarked on a grand tour of the continent to submit Manuel’s project for the liberation of Jerusalem to Europe’s grandees, and in the preceding decades he had authored several texts that spoke volumes to his crusading outlook, one that dressed Portuguese expansion in prophetic garb. Among them were his Cronica de D. Afonso Henriques, which was as much an account of Portugal’s foundation as a blueprint for its imperial destiny, and a letter for the Zamorin of Calicut he wrote on Manuel’s behalf, in which 116 The Indian run he presented Portugal’s overseas enterprise as God’s work.26 Likewise in a 1505 exhortation, he expounded the conquest of India as a stepping-stone toward the eradication of Islam, and in another exhortation he authored in occasion of his departure for Ethiopia, he renewed his call for the destruction of Mecca. In the words of the Portuguese chronicler João de Barros:

Duarte Galvão, during the time when the king sent him with this embassy, made an exhortation about the enterprise of that conquest, and the destruction of the house of Mecca, bringing for that purpose many authorities and some prophecies which predicted that this would be carried out by the Christian- ity of our Europe. And concluding that there was not a more feasible way of doing this than through the strait of the Red Sea, and by joining the forces of the armadas of King D. Manuel with the people of the Abyssinian king, called Prester John, and with some Christian princes from Soria’s side, and together they would take the Holy House of Jerusalem from the Moors, where all the steps of the Mysteries of our Redemption can be found.27

Although one would have expected Galvão to support Matewos as the agent of the long-sought Prester, he quickly developed a distrust for the identity and motives of the latter, and turned into his ultimate foe. During the transit, Gal- vão reiterated the old accusations that the ambassador was indeed a Muslim and an impostor and that he was to be imprisoned once again. The harassment continued throughout the carreira and did not stop with the arrival to Goa in September 1515. To make matters worse, Yaqob’s health had been deteriorat- ing in the last leg of the journey, and for circumstances that are not entirely clear but probably had something to do with his concerns over landing in the dismissed governor’s stronghold, Albergaria refused to land in Goa and allow the young Ethiopian to be treated on shore. Instead, the fleet sailed on toward Cananor, but Yaqob passed away before arrival. His death heightened the ani- mosity between Matewos and Galvão, which eventually resulted in formal hearings. The bickering between the two continued for much of 1516 as the two patiently waited to embark on the last leg of their mission, which was delayed until February 1517.28 Much of what is known about the ensuing events comes from the pen of Andrea Corsali, a Florentine merchant well introduced to the Medici who joined the Por- tuguese mission and carried the following papal safe-conduct: Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 We [Leo X] have commissioned Andrea Corsali, a Florentine citizen travelling to you, to bring you many greetings in our words, and to let you know that, in return for your esteem toward us, and also on account of your won- derful and almost unmatched affection and reverence toward the Christian republic, you also are loved by us in the highest degree, and become truly of the greatest value. And now, what we especially desired to be conveyed to you in this letter is that we urge you, as far as you are able, to propagate and extend the name and the glory of God and our lord Jesus Christ in these Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 117 regions most remote from the Roman church: but you will be able, if you fix your attention and your mind upon this. Furthermore, God himself, whom you worship, and toward whom you have shown yourself grateful for, and mindful of those very great fortunes which you possess through him, will indeed always, and to the greatest extent, nurture, support, and guide you. Sent on the 6th before the Ides of October, in the 11th year [1514], at Rome.29

At least twice during his journey, Corsali dispatched letters to Rome to the office of the Capitan General of the Church, which is to say the commander of the papal army. When he wrote the first letter, the position was occupied by Juliano di Lor- enzo de Medici (1479–1516), whereas the second letter was sent to Lorenzo di Piero de Medici (1492–1519).30 Although Corsali’s exact role in the Portuguese expedition remains unclear, the letters’ recipients and contents both suggest that Corsali’s primary role was that of gathering commercial and military intelligence about the region. In fact, although he carried a safe-conduct addressed to Emperor Lebna Dengel (1508–1540), as a layman he could have hardly been an official representative of the Church.31 The letters were probably meant to be confiden- tial reports, but for unknown reasons they found a way to the printing press – probably by virtue of their valuable commercial content. These letters were first printed as separate pamphlets in 1516 and 1518 and then included in Ramusio’s Navigationi et Viaggi – a further testimony of their perceived value.32 Corsali and his letters were also mentioned in Zorzi’s itineraries and could have been the very reason why the latter decided to interview Ethiopian interlocutors. Corsali wrote his first letter from Cochin, where the fleet was preparing for its mission into the Red Sea. He related that the Portuguese were determined to

dabble the strait of the Red Sea, destroy the sultan’s army (if it is true that it’s there) and build a fortress in Dahlak or Suakin, island at eighteen degrees, where Ethiopian clerics embark on their way to Jerusalem . . . and land in one of the Ethiopian ports the ambassadors, which is to say Matewos of Prester John and Odoardo Galvan [Galvão] of his majesty [Manuel], and ourselves, to go to the court of the said Prester John.33

Accordingly, after stationing in Cochin for most of 1516, in February 1517 Albergaria left for the Red Sea with the Ethiopian-bound party on board his fleet. Their departure took place about a month after the Ottoman takeover of Mamluk Egypt, an epochal event that shook the geopolitical foundation of the Red Sea Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 basin by ending three centuries of Mamluk rule and opening the door to Ottoman hegemony in the region. The instability that the development generated should have played into Portuguese hands – but instead, Corsali became eyewitness to an abysmal Portuguese failure. Shortly after sailing past Aden and entering the Red Sea, the fleet encoun- tered very difficult weather and water shortages. These unfavorable conditions seem to have made Albergaria very hesitant: instead of engaging Aden, Jedda, or Suakin – cities that had been singled out as both preferential marauding targets 118 The Indian run and sites of future feitorias – the governor continued to wander at sea, sailing further and further north. Already past Suakin and bereft of supplies, the fleet headed back south and anchored in the channel between the Ethiopian coast and the Dahlak archipelago. According to Corsali, the Ethiopia-bound party was rather frustrated with Albergaria’s command, especially once the fleet was in eyesight of the coast:

In the middle of all this the ambassador showed us Dahlak, and how many other isles next to the mainland were called, and where Prester John’s port was, which was on the coast of Ethiopia, no more than four leagues away, at the foot of a very big mountain called Bisan, or the vision in which there is a her- mitage for clerics and a church dedicated to Abraham: a saintly bishop called Abuna Gebra Christos [Samara Krestos] lived there with observant monks. He [Galvão] begged our captain to take the boat to that port, so that once the boat was safe, people could recover from the duress we were experiencing. . . . The captain never allowed us to go there, using various excuses; and unable to sail because of the unfavorable wind, he sent a boat to the island of Dalaccia [Dahlak].34

After almost a decade of traveling and repeated accusations of imposture, Matewos was expectedly eager to return to Ethiopia, but in spite of his insistence, Albergaria refused to land him on the mainland. Instead, he opted to dock in the Dahlak archipelago, whose sultan granted access to fresh water and supplies and recognized “Matewos, ambassador of king David [Lebna Dengel],35 and extended him much reverence and celebration, showing much happiness for his visit and told us to dispose of Dahlak and of his islands as much as we wished.”36 The old ambassador must have found a modicum of solace in seeing his questioned identity finally confirmed, but it would still be years before he would finally be able to set foot on the mainland. Had Albergaria been determined to complete his mission, he would have directed the fleet toward Massawa, the biggest port on the African littoral, or Arqiqo, a small Christian port under the protection of Ethiopian authorities. Instead, after the layover at Dahlak, he opted to transit to the other side of the Red Sea, where, in the proximity of the island of Kamaran, the old Galvão lost his life.37 His death forced an already hesitant Albergaria to put the mission on hold and return to Goa – but only after sacking and burning Zeila on the Somali coast. Not only had Albergaria failed to establish contact with Prester John but Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 also, more important, the first Portuguese expedition in the Red Sea had ended in debacle – a failure that foreshadowed the shape of things to come for Portugal’s imperial fantasies in the region. Given Albergaria’s allegiance to the mercantile party, one is left wondering whether the missed opportunities to lay a foothold in the Red Sea and to disembark the embassy were the result of incapacity or a politi- cally motivated unwillingness to serve the imperial party.38 Either way, the news was received in Lisbon as an abysmal failure, and Manuel soon dispatched a new governor to relieve him, along with a new ambassador for Ethiopia. Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 119 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira (1465–1530) and Pero Gomez Teixeira reached Goa in 1519, respectively, as the Estado’s new governor and auditor general. With Sequeira, the equilibrium between the merchant and imperial factions swung again in favor of the latter. Not only had Albergaria’s campaign in the Red Sea been an embarrassment but also the Ottoman takeover of the Mamluk sultanate and their foundation of a naval base in Suez called for a Portuguese initiative.39 A resolute Sequeira left for the Red Sea in February 1520 and by April reached Massawa, sacked the city without hesitation, and proceeded to establish contact with the nearest Ethiopian authorities, in the Christian port of Arqiqo.40 The town, about 10 kilometers south of Massawa, was the only Christian outpost on the coast and functioned in a symbiotic relationship with the bigger Muslim port. Although the encounter had been unfolding for more than a century, the Portuguese were the first among Ethiopia’s European interlocutors to display their power right on the outskirts of the kingdom. The arrival of a large fleet and the sacking of Massawa were bound to attract much more interest than a solitary representative sent to Ethiopia ever could. The town’s ruler, upon learning of the Portuguese feat, quickly dispatched representatives to Sequeira as well as to his overlord, bahr negus Dori. Literally “king of the sea,” from his seat in Debarwa, in the northern Highlands, the bahr negus presided over Hamasen, a region of strategic importance for the commercial exchanges between the coast and the Ethiopian interior. All the while, Sequeira and his companions received a group of monks hailing from the monastery of Debra Bizan, about 50 kilometers from the coast. The monks seem to have been enthusiastic about the arrival of the fleet, particularly so when they found among them Mate- wos, whom they recognized and honored, vanquishing any lingering doubt about his identity. The visit persuaded Sequeira, eager to collect intelligence, to send Teixeira to scout the road ahead: as the auditor was en route to the monastery, he crossed paths with the bahr negus who, upon hearing of the Portuguese arrival, hurried to the coast.41 In Bizan, Teixeira met with the head of the monastery, Samara Krestos, who welcomed and hosted the party for a few days. One of the salient aspects of the encounter between the two was a prolonged discussion, mostly pertaining to theological differences between the Catholic and Ethiopian tradition. Teixeira asked a long list of questions pertaining to the Ethiopian biblical canon, the monastery’s history, the names of prophets, and other matters, all of which seem to have been patiently answered by his interlocutor. However, when Teixeira questioned Samara Krestos about the primacy of Rome, the monk became defensive and elusive: Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

He asked him if they knew that power had been given by God to Saint Peter to condemn and to absolve, and that he had handed it down to his successors in Rome. He replied “Yes, they knew it.” “Then why did they not recognize the Pope who was in Rome, who was his successor?” He replied that it was a very long way off and that many enemies intervened between them. The Auditor suggested to him that they should give him a letter of obedience for the Pope, and another for the King our Lord. He agreed; but he at once went on to say Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Alexandria Jerusalem 0 250 500 750 1000 km

0 200 400 600 miles Cairo Suez Sinai Peninsula N i le R Hormuz iv e r al-Qusayr

R Medina

e d Arabian Sea Jedda Mecca see map 4 S Diu er Suakin iv e R ile N a

Dabhol Dahlak Massawa Archipelago Khartoum Arqiqo Debre Bizen Kamaran Island TIGRAY Debarwa Goa B Axum Adwa lu e N Amba Geshen Moka i Manadeley M le ( e A B Aden l a i Wo a a b b Socotra l Cananor N b GOJJAM el- a a Man e Lalibela deb INDIAN OCEAN t y b i ) h sh Cape Guardafui AMHARA a Zeila a Calicut W w r

A Gendevelu C .

Berbera a Kochi Dabra Libanos s SHEWA Tagulat Harar t Barara

W h i te N i le

A I L A Kingdom of Ethiopia Ottoman Empire in 1566 O M S Mogadishu Sultanate of Ifat/Adal Mamluk Sultanate, conquered by Ottomans 1512–20

Map 5.2 The world of the encounter: The Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia, 1400–1550 (Cox Cartographic Ltd.) Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 121 that it was now night, and that the next day was Saturday, and they could not talk with him nor do anything, because they kept it in honour of Our Lady, the same as on Sunday, and that they could not write – nor could he wait.42

Samara Krestos stopped short of either confirming or rejecting Teixeira’s claim of Roman supremacy: instead, in the same fashion as Petros in Florence, he justified Ethiopian independence on the ground of its remoteness from Rome. When Teix- eira attempted to corner him into writing a letter of obedience, the monk deflected the request through a variety of excuses. Although the intercourse between the two was brief, Teixeira must have quickly realized that the issue of obedience would not have been an easy one to settle. The following day the auditor left the monastery and returned to Arqiqo. On the coast, the meeting between Sequeira and the bahr negus was expectedly of a different nature, mostly focused on geopolitical matters. The governor explained to his interlocutor that

the former kings of Portugal had always made war against the Moors, win- ning their lands from them in the parts of Africa, and more than all, the King our Lord had continued it further . . . and being aware by reports how the Prester John was a most Christian king, in a desire for his friendship he had sent his captains over the sea to discover if there were on it some port of his, and also to make war against the Moors, the enemies of our holy faith.43

The Portuguese, Sequeira claimed, had cleared Dahlak and Massawa to hand them over to the Prester as a show of trust for what was bound to become a much larger alliance.44 An enthusiastic bahr negus pledged collaboration in the

clearing of the Moors out of the land, with nothing would the Prester John be better pleased, nor did he desire anything more, and if he had need of men or anything else, he would help him with whatever he wanted.45

The exchange must have been heartening for the Portuguese, as they were fulfilling a mission that had been long in the making. In the following days they exchanged presents and readied the embassy to leave with the bahr negus for the interior. On 30 April 1520, a young fidalgo appointed to replace Galvão as ambassador to Prester John, Dom Rodrigo de Lima (1500–n.a.), left Arqiqo for the Highlands, at the helm of a delegation of about 20 companions. Among them, two would later Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 stand out as both chroniclers and cross-cultural brokers and go far beyond their assigned roles as the mission’s chaplain and barber-bleeder: Francisco Alvares and João Bermudes (1491–1570). The latter in particular was an unlikely candidate for what would turn out to be the most rocambolesque experiences in the entire history of the encounter. They traveled in a group: Jorge de Abreu of Elvas, a young fidalgo appointed second in command to Lima; Joam Gonçalves, “interpreter and factor”; Manoel de Mares, a “player of organs”; Joam Escolar, characterized as the mission’s secretary; two servants to Lima – Gaspar Pereira and Estevam Palharte; 122 The Indian run a painter named Lazaro d’Andrade; and three more companions named Joam Fernandez, Afonzo Mendez, and Lopo da Gama. Alvares also had taken along his nephew Pero Lopez.46 Matewos, who had been assigned a personal escort of three – João d’Alvarenga, Diogo or Miguel Fernandez, and Diogo Tatys or Magal- haes – did not live to see the Ethiopian court again. The old representative fell ill already in Debra Bizan and passed away, among those monks who had displayed great affection for him and vindicated his name one last time.47 The party proceeded its march into the interior and by 17 June was at the bahr negus’s seat in Debarwa.48 After leaving the town in late June, they headed past the Mareb River into Tigray, and once in Adwa they met the province’s ruler, and took a brief diversion to visit the ancient capital of Axum. While continuing their journey south, by mid-August the party ran into an Ethiopian personality who would prove central for the encounter:

[There] came a monk, and as soon as this monk came up he at once seized the Tigremahon’s [i.e., tigray makwanen, literally “the judge of Tigray”] Captain by the head, who had charge of our baggage and gave him blows. . . . The Ambassador, seeing the Captain covered with blood, laid hold of the monk by the breast, and was going to strike him. . . . It helped him that he spoke a little Italian, because Jorge d’Abreu was there who understood it a little.49

With his broken Italian, the monk explained to his interlocutors that Lebna Dengel had dispatched him to secure a safe journey for them. He was an important cleric named Saga Zaab, whose clout had been already apparent in the way in which he dealt with the Ethiopian porters and would be confirmed in the following days as he secured hospitality for the party along the trail. At the time of their introduction, little did Alvares know that they would one day travel to Europe together and that their destinies would remain intertwined for years to come.50 For the time being, Saga Zaab chaperoned the Portuguese further south into Shewa until, by mid-October, they could finally peer at “the tents and camp of the Prester John, which seem endless and covered the whole countryside.”51

In 1520, after almost a century of relentless efforts, the Portuguese were finally walking on the Prester’s soil: the successful landing on the coast was in a way a postmortem vindication of Henrique, Albuquerque, and Manuel’s insistent pur- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 suit of the Prester and his imperial strategy, in defiance of the mercantile party.52 Teixeira and Sequeira dispatched the news on the carreira: like Corsali’s, their letters also found their way to one of Lisbon’s printing presses as the Carta das novas que vieram a el Rey nosso Senhor do descobrimento do preste Joham (1521).53 In the opening paragraph it proudly stated that

on the last day of the month of April of this year of fifteen hundred and twenty-one, there came news to the King our Lord, by a letter of Diogo Lopes de Segueira – of his Council, and his Captain-major and Governor of the Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 123 parts of India – and also by a letter of the Licentiate Pero Gomes de Teix- eira – Auditor of the said parts, who was present at everything in person-of the discovery which the said Captain-major made, with his fleet and forces, of the land of the Prester John, a Christian king and of very great power, who for many years past was continually enquired after and sought by the King’s captains and fleets, for which it has now pleased Our Lord to open and mani- fest the way, whereby the true certainty of everything was known.54

To the Portuguese public, the events narrated in the pamphlet confirmed beyond any remaining doubt that Prester John and his Christian kingdom existed. Receiv- ing an ambassador was one thing; reaching the periphery of his kingdom and meeting his vassals was something altogether different. The Carta, which for the ensuing 20 years would remain the only eyewitness account of the first contact between Portuguese and Ethiopian authorities on the Red Sea coast, was one of two documents sent to press with the epic news. The other was Manuel’s letter to Pope Leo, in which the sovereign announced: “with the favor of divine clemency we have at last found that most powerful bishop of the Indian and Ethiopian Christians, Prester John, Lord of the Province of Abys- sinia.”55 Dated 8 May 1521, the document represented the climax of the sovereign’s imperial pretensions and the last of a series of letters dispatched to Rome to celebrate Portuguese achievements in the Indian Ocean, among them the conquest of Malacca. For almost two decades, while his fleets had been stretching the boundaries of his Estado throughout the Indian Ocean, Manuel had been engaging in a protracted effort to legitimize his imperial policy, both for domestic and international consumption. The letters served the double purpose of obtaining papal endorsement and announcing Portugal’s power to his European counterparts, while also steering the domestic discourse on the overseas in the right direction – making it less mercantile and more imperial.56 Manuel’s letters were the discursive by-products of a growing imperial reality. The Portuguese had established fortalezas and feitorias throughout the Swahili and western Indian coast and successfully repelled Mamluk-Ottoman forces in the Battle of Diu (1509), and after occupying Muscat (1507) and Hormuz (1515) they were also in firm control of the Persian Gulf, while the occupation of Socotra (1507) and Aden (1513) boded well for the their Red Sea strategy. By taking Malacca (1511), Albuquerque had also laid the foundation for further eastward expansion, which would eventually lead to the Portuguese to Macao (1557) and Nagasaki (1570). As Lima and his companions left the coast for the Highlands in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 April 1520, they were part of Portugal’s expanding frontier.57

Notes 1 Albuquerque and Birch, The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque (London: Hakluyt Society, 1875), 2:229. In some of the sources Gomes is referred to as Fernão. 2 On Eleni and her policies, see Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 288–90; Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea (London: Frank Cass & Co.), 36–7; and EA 2:253. 124 The Indian run 3 Taddesse Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, ed. Roland Oliver, vol. 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 166–8. 4 Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea, 69–70. Years later, the Adali connection with Arabia would be aptly described in the following terms: “He [the sovereign of Adal] receives supplies from the King of Arabia and the Xeque of Meca, and other Moorish kings and lords with many horses and weapons and everything he wants for this; and that he sends every year large offerings to Meca of many Abyssinian slaves that he takes in the wars; and also he makes presents of those slaves to the King of Arabia and to other princes”; see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 408. 5 On the notion of the Portuguese-Ottoman conflict as the first world war and fora general overview of Ottoman expansion, see Giancarlo Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 25–31, 80–3. See also Abir, Ethiopia and the Red Sea, 109–16; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 2:125–34. 6 Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 18–19, offers a different interpretation, according to which the two Castilian Jews ran into João Gomes and Sid Mohammed after the two had already been to Ethiopia and were seeking a way back to Europe, whereas Sanchez had already died after reaching court. According to this interpretation, Gomes would disappear in the Red Sea, and Sid would return to Ethio- pia. The problem with this reconstruction is that the two Castilian Jews had obtained no information about Ethiopia from their interlocutors (Albuquerque and Birch, The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque, 2:229), a circumstance which suggests that Gomes and Mohammed had yet to travel to Ethiopia when they met them. Furthermore, years later, Mohammed and at least one of the two João were found at court (Francisco Alvares et al., Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Soci- ety, 1961), 2–4, 278–9, 328), still in the country because “they [Ethiopians] did not let these Portuguese depart, because they said it would cause their death if they went away” (Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 279). Therefore, the most likely explanation is that they traveled to Ethiopia after the encounter in Suakin and never left. There is also confusion with regard to the identity of João Sanchez and João Gomes: in particular, which of the two was a priest. See Eleni to Manuel, 1509, Ethiopia, in Henry Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520: A facsimile of the relation entitled Carta dos novas que vieram a el Rey nosso senhor do descobrimento do Preste Johann (London: British Museum, 1938), 90; Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 278–9; Gaspar Correa, Lendas da India, 6 vols (Lisboa: Academia Real das Sciencias, 1858–1863), vol. 3 (1862), 29. 7 Eleni’s original letter, which seems to have been written both in Arabic and Geez, has long been lost. It was first included in the Carta in 1521 (Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520) and also in the Legatio (Damião de Góis, Lega- tio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ionnis, Ad Emanuelem Lusitaniae Regem, Anno Domini M.D.XIII [Antwerp: Ioannes Grapheus typis excudebat, 1532]). In the ensuing decades, the letter was translated into several languages and widely circulated throughout Europe. For a thorough account of its diffusion, see Aubin, “L’ambassade

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 9. The version used here is from Thomas, The Dis- covery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520. Other versions can be found in Góis and Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a Qual Damiano de Goes Colegis, 393–4; Góis, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Æthiopvm Svb Imperio Preciosi Ioan- nis, 13–19; Edward Aston, ed., The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations (London: Printed by George Eld, 1611), 512–17. 8 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 91. The Mamluks dispatched their fleet to India in 1508 (Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:128), while the two João run into the two Castilian Jews in Suakim sometime in 1509. Hence, given the time that it took both the envoys and the intelligence to Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 125 reach Eleni at the court in Shewa, it can be assumed that the letter was written in 1509. This is also indicated in Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 16. 9 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 91. 10 Góis, Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ionnis Ad Emanuelem Lusita- niae Regem, C5. 11 Although there is no certainty on Matewos’s actual identity, his supposed Muslim-Arab ancestry seems to be the by-product of the defamatory campaign he was subjected to throughout his journey. See Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 22–30; Jean Aubin, “Duarte Galvão,” Arquivos Do Centro Cultural Português 9 (1975): 76–84. 12 Aubin, “L’’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 36. 13 Albuquerque and Birch, The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque, 3:251. 14 Alfonso to Manuel, 6 December 1512, Goa; Afonso de Albuquerque, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, 7 vols (Lisboa: Typ. da Acad. Real das Sciencias, 1884–1935), vol. 1 (1884), 381–4. Manuel to Leo X, 6 June 1513, Lisbon, in Manuel, Epistola potentissimi ac invictissimi Emanuelis Regis Portugaliae et Algarbiorum etc. de victorijs habitis in India et Malacha. Ad S. in Christo patrem & dominum nostrum Dominum Leonem X. Pontificem Maximum ([Rostock: [Drucker: Hermann Barkhusen], 1513). For a discussion of this and other printed letters celebrating Portuguese expansion, see Luis Filipe F. R. Thomaz and Jean Aubin, “Un opuscule latin sur la prise de Malacca par les Portugais, imprimé en Italie en 1514,” Archipel 74, no. 1 (2007): 107–38; Rog- ers, The Quest for Eastern Christians, 122–30. 15 Gaspar Pereira to Manuel, 12 January 1513, Cananor, Affonso de Albuquerque, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque (Lisboa: Typ. da Acad. Real das Sciencias, 1903), 3:356. 16 On Albuquerque and the competing Portuguese factions, see Newitt, A History of Por- tuguese Overseas Expansion, 75–80; Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500–1700: A Political and Economic History (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 59–69; Luís Filipe F. R. Thomaz, “Factions, Interests and Messianism: The Pol- itics of Portuguese Expansion in the East, 1500–1521,” Indian Economic and Social History Review 28, no. 1 (1991): 104–5. 17 Góis and Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a qual Damiano de Goes Colegis, 393. The other members of the party disappeared from the record but are likely to have met a fate no different from Matewos’s chief persecutor. 18 Góis and Lavanha, Chronica do felicissimo Rey Dom. Emanuel a qual Damiano de Goes Colegis, 393. 19 Góis, Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ionnis Ad Emanuelem Lusita- niae Regem, Anno Domini M.D.XIII, A2. 20 Góis also benefitted from the testimony of Jorge Lopo de Andrade, who would been involved in Matewos’s return to Ethiopia. See Aubin, “L’ambassade du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 36–40; and Góis, Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ionnis Ad Emanuelem Lusitaniae Regem, Anno Domini M.D.XIII, C3. 21 For the circumstances surrounding Góis’s acquisition of the minutes and additional information on the Legatio, see Elizabeth Brooke Blackburn, “The Legacy of ‘Prester John’ by Damião a Goes and John More,” Moreana 4, no. 14 (1967): 37–98; Jer- emy Lawrance, “The Middle Indies: Damião de Góis on Prester John and the Ethiopi-

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ans,” Renaissance Studies 6, no. 3–4 (1992): 306–24; Jean Aubin, Damião de Góis et l’archêveque d’Upsal (Lisboa: Centre de Recherches sur le Portugal et la Renaissance, 1982); Renato Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento,” Quaderni d’Africa, Quaderni d’Africa, no. 3 (1966): 47–8. 22 Góis, Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ionnis Ad Emanuelem Lusita- niae Regem, Anno Domini M.D.XIII, A1. Grapheus’s original Latin together with the translation quoted here can be found in Blackburn, “The Legacy of ‘Prester John’ by Damião a Goes and John More,” 38, 47. On Grapheus’s relation to Góis see Elisa- beth Feist Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967), 20–9. 126 The Indian run 23 Aubin, “L’ambassade Du Prêtre Jean a D. Manuel,” 55. 24 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:173; Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 94–5. 25 For an overview of Duarte Galvão, see Aubin, “Duarte Galvão.” 26 Duarte Galvão, Cronica delrey dom Affomsso Hamrriques, primeiro rey destes regnos de Portuguall (Lisboa: Pelo Conde de Castro Guimaraes, 1918), 84. Manuel to Zamorin of Calicut, Lisbon, 1 March 1500, in Albuquerque, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, 3, 85–8. A different version is in Castanheda, Historia do descobrimento e conqvista da India pelos Portvgveses, 1:104–8. The letter is discussed in Aubin, “Duarte Galvão,” 66–8. 27 Barros and Couto, Da Asia de João de Barros, Década III: Parte 1, 52–3. 28 The transcripts of the depositions can be found in Albuquerque, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, 3:160–8. On Yaqob’s death, see also Matewos to Manuel, 11 Decem- ber 1515, Cochin, in Albuquerque, Cartas de Affonso de Albuquerque, 3:169–70. For a discussion of the conflict between Galvão and Matewos see Aubin, “Duarte Galvão,” 76–83. 29 In Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 44. 30 On Juliano and Lorenzo de Medici, see David S. Chambers, Popes, Cardinals, and War: The Military Church in Renaissance and Early Modern Europe (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006), 136–7. 31 In fact, between 1514 and 1515, upon learning of Matewos’s arrival in Lisbon, Leo addressed a letter to Dawit; see Leo to Dawit, 1515, Rome, in Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 45–6, but he probably entrusted it to the hands of Father Giovanni Francesco da Potenza – dispatched to the Levant in 1515 with the primary objective of negotiating Rome’s relationship with the Maronite Church. On the mission Francesco Potenza, see Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, lix–lxi; and Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento,” 45. Corsali’s safe-conduct is in Lefevre, “Documenti pontifici sui rapporti con l’Etiopia nei secoli XV e XVI,” 29. 32 Andrea Corsali to Giuliano de’ Medici, 6 January 1515, Cochin, in Andrea Corsali, Lettera di Andrea Corsali allo Illustrissimo Signore Duco Iuliano de Medici, venuta dell’India del mese di octobre nel M.D. XVI. ([Stampato in Ferenze]: [per Io. Stephano di Carlo da Pania.], 1516). Andrea Corsali to Lorenzo de’ Medici, 15 October 1517, India, in Andrea Corsali, Lettera di Andrea Corsali allo ill. principe et signore Lauren- tio de Medici duca d’Urbino. Ex India. ([Florence]: [publisher not identified], 1517). The dating of the two letters is according to the printed copies, which in the case of the second letter seems to be inconsistent with some of the letter’s content, which would suggest it was completed in January 1518. For Ramusio’s version of the letters – whose dating is incorrect – and valuable commentary, see Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 2:5–74. The letters are also discussed in Rita Biscetti, Portogallo e Por- toghesi nelle due lettere di Andrea Corsali a Giuliano e a Lorenzo de’Medici incluse nelle “Navigazioni” di G. B. Ramusio (Lisboa: Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, 1984); Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento,” 24–34. Zorzi also knew about the letters, as he included references to Corsali in his itineraries;

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 see Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 136–7, 146–7, 190–1. 33 Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 2:36. 34 Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 2:49. 35 Lebna Dengel was crowned as Dawit II. 36 Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 2:50. 37 Ramusio and Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi, 2:59. 38 Subrahmanyam, The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 69; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:173; Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expan- sion, 94–5; Thomaz, “Factions, Interests and Messianism,” 104–5. Beyond the sea, 1509–1520 127 39 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:134. 40 Sources vary on the exact dating, estimated between 7–17 April; see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 54, note. 41 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 114. Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 67. The events on the coast and the first interactions between the Portuguese and Ethiopian clerics and officers were recorded in theCarta and in the first pages of Alvares’s Verdadera Informacam, which is discussed in Chapter 7. All quotations from Verdadera Informacam are drawn from the 1961 edition, which benefitted from extensive interpolation between different manuscript versions. 42 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 79–80. Alvares, who did not accompany Teixeira in Debra Bizan, is completely silent on the encounter, for which the Carta is the only known source. 43 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 83. 44 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 84. 45 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 85. 46 For the mission’s members, see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 61–2, 393. 47 According to Alvares, the monks displayed a very high degree of affection and respect for the ambassador which, one would argue, must have proved at last that Matewos had been truthful about his identity all along; see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 56–7. 48 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 139. 49 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 182. 50 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 182. 51 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 265. 52 Manuel seems to have defied his very council; see Marcocci, “Prism of Empire,” 455. 53 Unlike Corsali’s letters, the Carta had limited circulation, and very few copies survived. The identity of the printer cannot be confirmed, but the making of the volume points to Germao Galharde, who worked in Lisbon from 1519 to 1561; see Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, xiv. On the Carta, see also Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento,” 35–44. 54 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 63. 55 Manuel to Leo X, 8 May 1521, in Manuel, Epistola Invictissimi Regis Portugalliae ad Leonem X.P.M. super foedere inito cum Presbytero Ioanne Aethiopiae Rege (Lisbon, 1521). 56 For a discussion of these letters, see Rogers, The Quest for Eastern Christians, 119–40. 57 For an overview of the Estado da India’s birth and early growth, see Newitt, A His- tory of Portuguese Overseas Expansio, 103–8; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 2:119–72. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 6 Shewa, 1400s–1526

The itinerant nature of the Prester’s court had been one of the distinctive features of the Ethiopian monarchy since the early 15th century, when Tagulat in northern Shewa ceased to be its permanent capital. It would only be with the foundation of Gondar in the 1630s that Ethiopian sovereigns and their court would find again a somewhat permanent center: until then, Ethiopian sovereigns wandered – with their courts, clients, servants, and soldiers – from region to region, rarely sojourning in the same place for more than a few months.1 Wherever it stationed, the royal camp was consistently laid out according to a predetermined plan that was replicated with every resettlement and was always centered on the royal enclosure – usually located in a position of topographical prominence in relation to the rest of the settlement. The royal enclosure’s layout was replicated in similar adjacent enclosures of decreasing size and refinement: in close proximity were those of the higher nobility, further afield those of lower ranking noblemen. Hence, near the royal enclosure one would find the most impressive tents and, depending on the lifespan of the settlement, also some stone structures. Farther away one would find market areas along with quarters for traders, craftsmen, slaves, prostitutes, and beggars. The size of the moving capital depended on a variety of conditions: during the period under consideration, it probably fluctu- ated between several hundred denizens during the rainy season to tens of thousands when prominent noblemen, their retainers, and servants visited the capital to pledge allegiance to their sovereign. Periodic relocation was necessary as a way to directly assert power in the various regions of the empire, to facilitate the collection of tributes, and to provide sustenance for thousands of unproductive individuals – in particular, food supplies and firewood. Alvares described his arrival in the camp as follows: Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

We went in order from the place we started from as far as a great portal, where we saw innumerable pavilions and tents pitched like a city in a great plan, that is, some white tents, of the Prester John as he is said to have ordi- narily and in front of the white tents, one very large red tent pitched, which they say is set up for great festivals or receptions. . . . There were many people collected together here; so many that they would be over 20,000 persons.2 Shewa, 1400s–1526 129 To the Portuguese visitors, the capital must have appeared unique, not only for the unexpected sight of thousands of flickering tents of all shapes and colors but also because soon after arriving, they started to be visited by fellow Europeans. During their sojourn, they would make the acquaintance and come to rely upon a sizable community of foreign compatriots, some of whom had been in Ethiopia for decades. They were known to Ethiopians as faranji, or Franks, a term traditionally used to identify European Catholics, as opposed to gabsawi, or Egyp- tians, which was used instead to identify foreign Orthodox Christians – primarily Copts, Greeks, and Armenians.3 While the itinerant nature of the capital and the scarcity of sources prevent a comprehensive reconstruction of the European community at court, a few documented experiences speak to the way in which faranji were welcomed, hosted, and in some cases assimilated into Ethiopian society.

The first faranji The first documented presence offaranji dates back to 1402, when Bartoli reached Venice. Although there is no extant evidence of other cases, the Florentine was obviously neither the first nor the onlyfaranji at court. In all probability, a limited number of Europeans had already found their way to Ethiopia on the pilgrims’ trail in earlier decades, if not in earlier centuries. That Emperor Dawit dispatched an embassy to Europe with the task of finding artisans willing to relocate to Ethio- pia suggests that some were already present in the country and that the sovereign was eager to host more. To this purpose, Bartoli seems to have made a considerable effort to find a sufficient number of skilled individuals willing to uproot themselves and journey to what at the time was perceived to be the other side of the world. These included

Victus, painter from Florence, a resident of Venice, but who was accustomed to live in the region of Saint Leo; a certain Napolitan Spatarius, who lived in Padua, brought through the aforementioned Nuncius [Bartoli] from Padua to Venice with a certificate, as he said; Antonius from Florence, a mason, resident of Venice, who is not a teacher but a craftsman; Antonius from Treviso, his companion, who remains sometimes at Venice and sometimes at Treviso, and who is also a craftsman and knows how to make shingles and walls; Antonius from Florence, carpenter, resident of Venice, who is at present in prison.4 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 The journey must have seemed quite dangerous and success unlikely, to the point that Bartoli, as part of his recruiting effort, even welcomed an inmate who probably traded his safe incarceration for what must have appeared a rather unsafe journey into the unknown. The list speaks to both the difficulty of the journey and Dawit’s keen interest in European crafts, especially in relation to constructions: masons, artisans skilled in the making of shingles and walls and carpenters, which may have also indicated someone competent in metalwork in general, including the forging of weapons. 130 The Indian run There is no way to know whether the artisans Bartoli cajoled into traveling to Ethiopia ever made it to their destination, but there is evidence of the existence of a European community in the late 1420s and early 1430s. One can find it in the memoir of French pilgrim Bertrandon de La Broquiere (1400–1459), who in 1432 journeyed to Jerusalem at the behest of Philip III (1419–1467), Duke of Burgundy. In his famous Voyage d’Outremer, Bertrandon tells of an intriguing encounter he had while passing through Constantinople in late 1432 and, in particular, during his stay in the Genoese colony of Galata, on the northern side of the Golden Horn.5 Among the most cosmopolitan cities in the Mediterranean basin, Constantinople, especially the shores of the Golden Horn, were the ideal place to gather intelligence. Bertrandon can be imagined spending his days sharing sup- per with merchants and pilgrims, swapping stories of faraway places. Among his interlocutors was

a Neapolitan of the city of Naples called Peter [Pietro] of Naples who had married in the land of Prester John he said . . . that when he went to the country of Prester John, he did so with two men whom Monseigneur du Berry had sent to said Prester John, which is to say a nobleman and a person of low class origin, who died two years ago, which is to say in the year 1430, one was from Spain and the other one from the kingdom of France.6

Pietro, like Bartoli, traveled to Ethiopia via Alexandria, the Nile Valley, and the Red Sea, and once there he opted to settle, marry an Ethiopian woman, and enjoy a life of privilege that would have hardly been available to him in Europe. After gaining his host’s trust, he eventually embarked on a new mission, but this time on behalf of the Prester himself, who dispatched him to Europe to seek technological innovations. He told Bertrandon that Prester John “does not have boats and [has] no men who know how to make them and that he came here [Constantinople] for the purpose of taking some.”7 Given that Bertrandon most likely met Pietro in late 1432, the latter was probably referring to Emperor Takla Maryam (1430–1433), Yeshaq’s younger brother. However, given that Pietro seems to have been in the city for a while to conduct also his own commercial transactions and that the journey to Constantinople must have taken several months, it is entirely possible that he had been dispatched by Yeshaq himself before his death in 1429. In light of his attempt to attract artisans through Aragon, Yeshaq is the most likely candidate as Pietro’s dispatcher, as the period of instability following the sovereign’s death was scarcely the right context for such a mission. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Although there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of Bertrandon’s account, the lack of additional evidence allows little beyond sheer speculation. As for “Monseigneur du Berry,” the most plausible identification is with Jean de Berry (1340–1416), in which case Pietro traveled to Ethiopia several years before the encounter in Constantinople. A long sojourn in Ethiopia is also consistent with the rest of Pietro’s story: not only had the Prester entrusted him with a mission and probably with some funds, but the Neapolitan had also married an Ethiopian woman – two events that suggest a lengthier stay at his court. Jean de Berry was Shewa, 1400s–1526 131 known for a deep-seated interest both in the possibility of a new crusade and in Africa south of the Sahara: by embodying both, the Prester and his kingdom were nothing but a natural destination for a mission.8 Jean was part of a diffuse interest that the House of Valois had displayed in the non-European world since the 14th century. Probably as part of the recurrent talks and ultimately unfulfilled plans of crusades typical of the era, Charles VI of France (1380–1422), also a Valois, had made inquiries with King Pedro IV of Aragon for an updated map of the world, which would beget him a copy of the famous Catalan Atlas.9 In the 15th century the Valois continued to display a remarkable interest in the exotic and, in particular, in black Africans. This interest was probably also, at least in part, the result of the Valois’s control of Flanders, incorporated into the Duchy of Bur- gundy since the 1370s. As one of the important gateways to the non-European world, it had begun witnessing the influx of goods and people from Africa. The penchant for things African had little to no political consequence, but mythical black characters of biblical and medieval derivation found their way into the artistic production of the region.10 In addition to recording details about Pietro’s sojourn and marriage that square with those of other faranji who told similar stories, Bertrandon also recorded political information that seems authentically Ethiopian. Examples include references to the Prester’s expansionism and religious zeal and the specific practice of secluding heirs to the throne in a high mountain. The latter is identifiable with Amba Gishan, where Ethiopian princes were held in confinement to avoid or, rather, minimize squabbles at the time of succession. In normal circumstances the existence of a preponderant claim to the throne – that is, direct descent – would make the succession relatively simple, but when the claim was contested, the country’s grandees would negotiate a successor to avoid violent confrontation between factions. Intertwined with somewhat factual information that is undeniably Ethiopian, one finds the usual references to the Prester’s presumed war against the “Grant Can,” [i.e., Great Khan] his ability to control the flow of the Nile, and even to the existence of unicorns and savage tailed men; yet the fantastic references should not take away from what was most likely an authentic encounter, as it was the norm throughout the era to mix facts and legends in an attempt to reconcile different systems of knowledge.11 Even more enigmatic than Pietro’s experience is that of Niccolò de Conti. Although Bracciolini related that he briefly visited the Somali coast on his way Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 back to Europe and he seemed to have no information on either Ethiopia or Prester John, the Venetian traveler allegedly recounted a rather different story to another interlocutor. Upon returning from his pilgrimage from the Holy Land, the Spanish traveler Pero Tafur (ca. 1410–ca. 1487) reported on an acquaintance he made in the Sinai peninsula in 1437:

I went to the shore of the Red Sea, which is half a league from Mount Sinai, to see the arrival of the caravan, and I found that a Venetian had come with 132 The Indian run it, called Nicolo de’ Conti, a gentleman of good birth who brought with him his wife and two sons and a daughter, all of whom had been born in India. It appeared that he and they had become Moors, having been forced to renounce their Faith in Mecca, which is the Moors’ holy place.12

Tafur relates that Conti was traveling with his wife and three children, and had spent a considerable amount of time in the land of Prester John, whose reign, however, was not to be found in Africa. “When I arrived in India,” Conti related,

I was taken to see Prester John, who received me very graciously and showed me many favours, and married me to the woman I now have with me, and she bore me these children. I lived in India for forty years, with a great longing to return to my country.13

Overall, Tafur’s account reads as a conflation of anecdotes pertaining to different regions and discourses. Much of the information he allegedly related is a reiteration of medieval lore about the Prester, for example his ability to stop the flow of the Nile, which he claimed, however, “runs from Indiato Ethiopia,” or purely fantastic, such as tales of “crabs [which], on reaching land, and being exposed to the air, turn to stone.” Next to these fanciful tales, however, are references to real practices, such as the notion that “if the man dies first the woman has to burn herself,” which can be easily ascribed to India, and the sight of “Christians eating the raw flesh of animals, after which it is necessary to eat of a very odoriferous herb within fifteen to twenty days, but if they delay longer they become lepers.”14 The practice of eating raw meat, which would bewilder scores of European travelers through the ages, is most certainly Ethiopian in character, all the more so when observed in association with the consumption of a remedy known in Ethiopia as koso, derived from the flowers of the eponymous plant, which have been traditionally used to treat tenia infections.15 Tafur’s Conti also appeared reasonably knowledgeable about political affairs. He related that “he saw Prester John on two occasions dispatch ambassadors to Christian princes,”16 an observation that when cross-referenced with the timing of his journey could correspond to Yeshaq’s dispatching of Pietro Rombulo to Aragon and of Pietro of Naples to Europe via Constantinople. Along the same lines, although not attributable directly to Conti but likely coming from him, is Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Tafur’s explanation of how the Patriarch of Alexandria “elects the Patriarch who is sent to Greater India to Prester John, and while I was in Babylonia [Cairo], the former Patriarch being dead, he chose his successor and dispatched him thither.” Not only is Tafur’s understanding of the ecclesiastical arrangement between the Coptic and the Ethiopian Churches correct but so is his reference to the abun’s death: the timing of his stay in Egypt indeed coincided with the death of Bartolomewos (ca. 1398–ca. 1438) and the dispatch of Mikael and Gabriel Shewa, 1400s–1526 133 (ca. 1438–1458).17 Furthermore, concealed in the largely fantastic narrative seems to be a certain degree of familiarity with Ethiopia’s dynamics of royal succession:

On one side is a very notable monastery, to which it is the custom for those of fit rank to be Prester to send twelve ancient men, nobles by descent, and virtuous, to elect a new Prester John when the office is vacant, and they do it in this manner. The chief sons and daughters are sent there to serve, and they marry one with another and raise up children, and they provide there all that is necessary for their existence, and give them horses and arms . . . and the art of governing men. The electors who are there take counsel daily, and observe that one which appears to them most fit to succeed to the government when Prester John vacates it.18

While Ethiopian king-making was rather different from Conti’s rendering, the description is, like that of Pietro of Naples, rather reminiscent of the Ethiopian practice of secluding contenders to the throne on Amba Gishan. Altogether, these references suggest that Tafur had access to someone with direct Ethiopian experience, most likely a faranji, but was he Conti? The historical context and the dating of Conti’s journey make an extended stay in Ethiopia unlikely. A sojourn long enough to result in a marriage contradicts not only Bracciolini’s narrative but also the overall chronology of Conti’s travels. Conti left Venice in 1419, met Tafur in Cairo in 1437, and was in Florence by 1439. He was away overseas for a little more than 20 years, an estimate that contradicts Tafur’s claim that he had “lived in India for forty years” but is in line with Bracciolini’s contention that he “had been tossed about on so many seas and in so many lands for twenty-five years.”19 As it is ascertained that Conti traveled extensively through Asia, and in light of Bracciolini’s reference to only a brief passage through Barara, Conti is unlikely to have been in Ethio- pia for more than a brief sojourn, if at all, making a marriage with children unlikely. Tafur could have produced his account by conflating two separate stories, one he heard from Conti and one from another unnamed informant, probably a faranji: after all, in the European mind of the era, the two regions were simply parts of the Indies. Establishing the veracity of Tafur’s account and his informants’ identity would be all the more important in light of the family Conti acquired during his journey.20 Both narratives tell of Conti’s marriage with a woman in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 India – in Tafur’s version the country of Prester John – and of the birth of multiple children. Tafur relates that when he met Conti he was with “his wife, two sons and a daughter,” but according to Bracciolini, Conti

traveled through the desert to Cairo, a city of Egypt, with his wife and four children and as many servants. In this city he lost his wife and two of his children and all of his servants because of the plague. 134 The Indian run In spite of the discrepancy, which could have resulted from a misunderstanding, the events seem consistent with historical circumstances. Conti probably reached Cairo with three or four children and lost one or two to the plague, which was endemic in Egypt for most of the 15th century: the 1438 outbreak was a particularly dire one, which resulted in 80,000 casualties including Sultan Barsbay (1422–1438) himself.21 The last of many doubts and unanswered questions is the reason why Tafur did not relate Conti’s family loss, to which Bracciolini referred. The answer is to be found once again in the crevices of Tafur’s account, as he relates that

he [Conti] asked me to carry certain letters to Venice, since I was going there, and he wished to know when I intended to depart, and I told him that I was wearied with so much travelling and that I should stop there twenty or thirty days, which I did. During this time I did little else but see the sights of Baby- lonia with de’ Conti and with the chief interpreter, my Castilian host.22

Therefore, after a month-long stay, Tafur left Cairo, probably with Conti’s letter. If the Venetian gave letters to Tafur, he must have been intending to sojourn in Cairo longer, and if so, the death of his children and wife occurred after his Spanish acquaintance left the city.23 What is certain is that Conti had children and some made it safely to Venice. After repenting for his apostasy in Florence, he returned to his home in Venice where he held multiple prestigious positions until his death: in his will he would refer to his two sons Maria and Daniel, who were certainly of mixed descent, for their mother was from the 15th-century “India” of European imagination – but whether they were from India or Ethiopia remains unknown.24 The Ethiopian experience of another Pietro, the Sicilian Rombulo, whom Zara Yaqob had dispatched to Alfonso in the late 1440s, unfolded along similar lines. In the early 1400s, still an adolescent, Rombulo had started to travel throughout France, Spain, and Italy until there “had begun in his heart an incredible desire to see the world.”25 Sailing on Venetian and Genoese galleys he had found his way first to Tunis and then to Alexandria, where he befriended a Genoese merchant who took him to Cairo. Eventually the merchant died and left his companion a small fortune. Rombulo seems to have intended to return to Italy, but while in Cairo he became acquainted with an Ethiopian who persuaded him to travel to his country, adducing that Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 certainly in Ethiopia (since Christ is worshiped in that place) there are innumerable Christians, among whom he [Rombulo] would be able both to dwell and lead his life safely, and would pass [his time] honorably. There reigns David [Zara Yaqob], the most civilized, the most just, and the most pious of all princes. It was he who, if he came across anyone in his kingdom who was a nobleman of Italian stock . . . he would consider him without doubt of the greatest worth.26 Shewa, 1400s–1526 135 The young Pietro must have been intrigued by the tale, which he had probably heard before, and decided to journey to Ethiopia.27 Apparently,

there he took a wife, who was the orphan of extremely illustrious parents, and who had no small wealth. By her he fathered eight sons, of whom he said seven were still living. And although their mother was extremely dark, they were nevertheless not correspondingly black in complexion. He labored that they should be educated nobly, and with facility in Latin. . . . And for the thirty-seven years he lived there, he was extremely beloved to the king and all the courtiers, being extremely kind and outstandingly pleasant. In the administration of the kingdom, which is extremely large, the king had made the greatest use of his intelligence and diligence.28

Rombulo’s account confirms the existence of a faranji community into which he had been welcomed by virtue of his identity; like the other Pietro, and possibly Bartoli, he had assimilated into the high ranks of Ethiopian society through marriage. His staying in Ethiopia – 37 years – is one of the longest recorded and can be imagined to have been even longer because, after his journey to Naples, Rombulo most likely returned to Ethiopia, possibly in the company of additional artisans, and spent the remainder of his life in the country. Until the mid-1400s, Bartoli and the two Pietro were the only Europeans whose experience in Ethiopia was recorded, but their stories confirm the existence of a faranji community already at the turn of the 15th century. Ethiopian rulers seem to have engaged in a proactive effort to attract more foreigners and to facilitate technological transfer, and they apparently deployed faranji for that purpose. This was the case with Bartoli’s mission to Venice, both Tabrizi’s and Rombulo’s missions to Aragon, and Pietro of Naples’s mission to Constantinople. Therefore, although the Ethiopian missions to Europe were rather inconsequential in diplomatic terms, beyond favoring the circulation of knowledge they also facilitated the arrival of faranji in Ethiopia. Bartoli’s return is unconfirmed, but the arrival of Venetian objects of art at Dawit’s court suggests that some of the artisans may have made it to their destination. Likewise, in spite of Tabrizi’s execution in Cairo, some of the 13 artisans he had taken along could have also found their way to Ethiopia, as could have the artisans whom Alfonso of Aragon entrusted to Rombulo, as well as the shipbuilders for whom Pietro of Naples was scouting. Furthermore, while the Ethiopian missions to Europe are a likely conduit for migration to Ethiopia, other travelers could have journeyed to Ethiopia independently, reaching the country Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 after seasoning in the European merchant communities in Egypt and the Levant, and eventually deciding to travel further south to find more lucrative commercial opportunities – no doubt attracted by the discourse on Prester John. Evidence pertaining to a 15th-century faranji community can be found not only in texts but also in artistic and archaeological evidence, showing a good degree of technological and cultural transfer. Throughout the Middle Ages, Ethiopian art had mainly developed along the lines of the Byzantine tradition, but in the first half of 136 The Indian run the 15th century, it underwent a paradigm shift by incorporating Western Euro- pean elements. This trend is clear from a variety of Ethiopian paintings that began showing a new set of thematic, stylistic, and technical choices. One case in point is Fere Seyon, an Ethiopian artist active in the Lake Tana region in the mid-1400s. Fere authored multiple representations of Mary that were unmistakably inspired by contemporary Italian paintings. In particular, one of his pieces is uncannily similar to the Madonna and Child attributed to Domenico Veneziano (1435) and bears the iconographic marks of an artistic European influence in the country.29 Of course, Fere could have been inspired by one or more paintings brought to Ethiopia rather than the mentoring of a painter. Crossing Mamluk territory probably proved easier for a painting in the hands of an Ethiopian monk or an Arab trader than for a painter crossing the same region on his own feet.30 Yet a manuscript dating back to Dawit’s reign tells of a young Ethiopian artist who ran out of colors while working on an illustration and who was visited by a European painter in his dreams.31 Further evidence of technological transfer was to be found in Debra Warq, in Eastern Gojjam, where both the town’s oldest church and various buildings dating back to Emperor Dawit’s reign showed use of materials and techniques – such as lime, bricks, and arched doorways – that were alien to local building practices and that dovetail with the arrival of European artisans in the country.32

Faranji at court in the late 15th century In December 1483, Brocchi told Suriano of his experience at the court of the “Great King Prester John; who was in a place called Barar,” where he met several faranji:

In that court we found ten Italians, men of good reputation, which is to say Miser Gabriel Neapolitan, Miser Iacomo di Garzoni, Venetian, Miser Pietro da Monte from Venice, Miser Philyppo Brogognon [Burgundy], Miser Con- salvo Catalan, Miser Ioane da Fiesco, Genoese, and Miser Lyas da Barutho [Bayreuth], who went with a papal bull . . . Misar Zuan Darduino, nephew to Nicolò da le Carte, Venetian and my dear companion, an honest man homo of good morals, Cola di Rosi, Roman, who changed his name to Zorzi, Mathio de Piamonte [Piedmont], Nicolò Mantovano [from Mantua], Miser Nicolò Branchalion, Venetian.33

Some told Brocchi they had been in Ethiopia for about 25 years, which is to say since the late 1450s, whereas others said they had reached the country more Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 recently. When asked “why had they gone to that strange country?” They replied that “their intention was to find jewels and precious stones.”34 By and large, these faranji were fortune seekers, enterprising spirits willing to travel beyond the Euro- pean comfort zone. Venetians, Catalans, Neapolitans, and Genoese, they represented some of the most active merchant communities of the Mediterranean. The only two faranji whose identities were disconnected from these dominant communities were Lyas de Barutho and Philyppo of Brogognon, but a few intriguing chronological details could offer some clues as to their presence in Ethiopia. Shewa, 1400s–1526 137 With his Bavarian background, Lyas would make an unlikely diasporic merchant or artisan: Germans were a rare sight in the early modern Middle East, and even rarer in Ethiopia, where the next recorded German presence dates to the 1630s.35 However, as Lyas reportedly reached Ethiopia in the late 1450s with a “papal letter,” his journey could possibly be connected to a papal mission and in particular to the letter that Callistus III dispatched to Zara Yaqob in 1456.36 The document, which had been entrusted into the hands of the two monks Pawlos and Tewodros, could have made it to Ethiopia after all. Lyas could have been a cleric stationed in Jerusalem when the two Ethiopians undertook their return journey and had tagged along; or, if he was a layman, he could have simply sought a way to Ethiopia in the company of the two pilgrims for his own personal reasons. As to Philyppo Brogognon, he could have been part of an otherwise unknown diplomatic mission, one possibly sponsored by the Valois. Like many other sovereigns of the era, Bertrandon’s dispatcher Phillip III cultivated unfulfilled plans for a new crusade and seems to have been attracted to the mythology of the black Magus, in some ways connected to the mythology of Prester John.37 His marriage to Henrique’s sister Isabella of Portugal (1397–1471) and his relationship with the Avis could have nurtured at least in part the Valois’s interest in things African. Also somewhat confirming an Ethiopia-Burgundy connection is the experience of the Ethiopian pilgrim Gorgoryos who, after being hosted at the court of Afonso V of Avis in 1451, reportedly headed to Burgundy to Phillip III’s court.38 Whether he reached his destination is unknown: if so, the timing of his visit to Burgundy would be remarkably close to the timing of Philyppo’s arrival in Ethiopia in the mid 1450s, and one is left speculating whether they departed from Burgundy for Ethiopia together. Most of Brocchi’s faranji hailed more or less directly from Genoa, Aragon, and especially Venice, which was the birthplace of the most influential among them, Nicolò Brancaleone, a painter who left behind one of the most important transcultural legacies the encounter produced.39 During his prolonged stay in Ethiopia, Bran- caleone adorned a variety of religious sites across the Highlands, gaining fame and wealth in the process. Although the exact scope of his artistic production remains unknown, his signatures on some of his surviving works shed partial light on his experience in his country of adoption. A manuscript found in the Wafa Yesus Church in Gojjam, for example, is signed “this is my work, Nicholasu Bracalew the Vene- tian,”40 and one of the panels of a diptych recovered from Gojjam is signed with a “Jesus Christ conquers. This is my work, Nicolaus Brancaleon the Venetian.”41 At the time of Lima’s visit, Brancaleone was still in Ethiopia, by then “a much Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 respected person, very rich and a great lord of a big country with many vassals, although a painter.”42 Furthermore, Alvares tells that one day, while he was performing Mass for the Prester, Brancaleone acted

like the interpreter of these canons and priests, and told them what was being done in the mass . . . and so with the Epistle and Gospel and all other things. This man was a herald, and they said that he was a monk before he came to this country.43 138 The Indian run His identity as a cleric finds confirmation in the other panel of the Gojjam diptych, which is signed in Greek with a “me [I] Nicholas the Monk really painted that [this] icon.”44 Whether Brancaleone had been ordained earlier in life or possibly was exploiting, like many other travelers of the encounter world, distance for his own gain – for example, by claiming unwarranted ordainment – is something that will probably remain unknown. Certainly, in his long sojourn in Ethiopia, like some of his predecessors, the painter underwent a process of assimilation and acculturation that ultimately invested his identity: he signed a triptych of St George, probably of later dating, as “Marqorewos, the Frank” – an intriguing combination of his European ancestry and his adoptive Ethiopian name.45 Along the same lines must have been the experience of another Venetian, Geronimo Bicini, an Italian painter active in Ethiopia after Brocchi’s visit, who seems to have been already dead or departed by the time of Lima’s arrival. Zorzi, whose itineraries are the only source for Bicini’s experience, learned from

Brother Thomas from Ganget . . . [that] with his Presta Davit at Barara is an Italian of the city of Venice who is called Messer Gregorio or Messer Hiero- nimo Bicini; whom I went to seek at Santa Margerita in the campo at his old house. I spoke with a daughter called Maria, who told me that her father aforesaid departed in 1482, and with merchandise to Alexandria, leaving his wife Dianora.46

Therefore Bicini was probably one of those faranji who had left Italy to seek fortune in the Middle East, most likely oblivious to Ethiopia at the time of departure. He must have taken a muda to Alexandria and a few years later, perhaps seeking more lucrative opportunities, decided to travel to the Red Sea or the upper Nile. He could have reached Ethiopia by tagging along with Ethiopian pilgrims or, possibly, other similarly minded Europeans: he could have meant to reach the capital, or he could have found himself on the southern shore of the Red Sea while on his way to India and decided to divert to Ethiopia. Once in the country, it was natural for skilled painters and artisans to find their way to court and be co-opted into the Ethiopian establishment and even develop a personal friendship with Prester John. In Bicini’s case,

Presta Davit gave [him] . . . an estate with castles and a city under him, and he is married and has several children and rides with 70 horse [sic], and is sec- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 retary of said Presta; and he has painted for the said Presta many things, and he often resides with him and plays chess and cards with him night and day.47

By the early 16th century, Ethiopia already boasted a few cities that enjoyed the benefits of long-distance trade and were well connected to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean world. One of them was Barara, often the site of the royal camp, which is mentioned several times in the Zorzi itineraries and is described by one informant as the “metropolis, where the said Prete Jani makes his residence for the greater Shewa, 1400s–1526 139 part of the time.”48 Likewise, another monk told Zorzi that in Gendevelu, located midway between the port of Zeila and Barara, was

a great mercantile city, and it is of the Presta Davit, where the said caravans of camels unload their merchandise in warehouses; and it is the merchant ships of Combaia that bring all the spices except ginger, which is found in the land of the Presta. Then that merchandise is obtained by purchase or barter by the merchants of the Presta, and the currency is Hungarian and Venetian ducats, and the silver coins of the Moors, and by that route various things are brought from the whole of India; and so too on the return journey these of the Presta go to the said city of Zelo, that is an excellent port in the Red Sea, on the Aden route, that is in Arabia Felix.49

Alvares would instead write of a Muslim town called Manadeley, which was

of very great trade, like a great city or seaport. Here they find every kind of merchandise that there is in the world, and merchants of all nations, also all the languages of the Moors, from Giada, from Morocco, Fez, Bugia, Tunis, Turks, Roumes from Greece, Moors of India, who are like inhabitants there, Ormuz and Cairo; also they bring merchandise from all parts.50

Along similar lines, in 1524 a monk hailing from Barara related that the Portu- guese were active in trade between Massawa, Axum, Barara, and Vis, “which is a warehouse and country of storehouses, as is mercantile Venice” and where one could find “Andrea Corsali, a Florentine who is going to print Chaldaean books in the said country. And he has a great warehouse both there and in Barara.”51 The reference to Corsali’s commercial activities suggests that he disappeared from the Portuguese record because he opted to settle in Ethiopia and that he was in the region as an independent agent rather than an official representative. Like Branca- leone and Bicini, he had been attracted to the region’s commercial opportunities, as the fame of these centers of trade must have trickled northward to Egypt and the Holy Land through the Red Sea and the Nile Valley.

Lima at court When Lima arrived at court on 19 October 1520, he was quickly introduced to the faranji community. His very first encounter, which even predated the embassy’s Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 arrival in Tagulat, was with Covilhã: by then in his sixties and lost to his dis- patchers, he had lived in Ethiopia for almost three decades, most likely the only Portuguese at court until Gomes’s arrival in 1509.52 A wealthy landlord, accepted by the Ethiopian elites and well introduced to Emperor Lebna Dengel, like many other faranji, he had married a “black wife” and had children whom Alvares curi- ously described as “grey.”53 During their sojourn at court, the Portuguese relied on Covilhã and the other faranji extensively: the few, such as Covilhã, whom Alvares identified by name, were by no means the only ones at court. Although 140 The Indian run only through fleeting references, throughout his narrative the chaplain refers to a variety of additional “Franks,” in particular the “Genoese,” who seem to have reached Ethiopia shortly before Lima’s arrival and seem to have been the larger group. Alvares relates that after hearing of the Portuguese fleet’s entrance into the Red Sea,

sixteen of these white men, with as many others, Abyssinians of this country of the Prester, who were also there [Jedda] as prisoners, stole two brigantines and fled . . . they made Maçua . . . and went to the Court of the Prester, where they were doing them great honour . . . and they had given them lands, and vassals, who serve and provide them with food.54

Alvares made clear time and again that faranji life on the Highlands was one of privilege, even more so for those guests who had been in Ethiopia for a long time and who appeared to be living “like lords.”55 Upon arriving in the Tagulat, Lima and his companions were taken to the royal enclosure, only to discover that they would interact with the sovereign indirectly. Albeit welcomed and provided with all necessities, they were not allowed to either see or speak to Lebna Dengel: the sovereign remained secluded in the innermost part of the enclosure while questioning his guests through his officials, who acted as intermediaries between the visiting party and the sovereign:

On reaching him, the Cabeata [i.e. aqqabe saat, the court official responsible for the emperor’s schedule] asked the Ambassador what he wanted and where he came from. The Ambassador answered that he came from India, and was bringing an embassy to the Prester John, from the Captain Major and Governor of the Indies for the King of Portugal. With this he returned to the Prester, and with these questions, and formalities, he came three times. Twice the Ambassador answered him in the same manner, and the third time he said, “I do not know what to say.” The Cabeata said: “Say what you want and I will tell it to the King.” The Ambassador replied that he would not deliver his embassy except to His Highness, and that he would not send to say anything except that he and his company sent to kiss his hands, and that they gave great thanks to God for having fulfilled their desires in bringing Chris- tians together with Christians, and for their being the first. With this answer the Cabeata returned and came back directly with another message, when the above mentioned persons went to receive him as before: and on reaching us Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 he said that the Prester John sent to say that we should deliver to him what the Great Captain had sent him. Then the Ambassador asked us what he ought to do, and that each of us should say whatever he thought of it.56

The first hearing proved rather inconsequential and probably disappointing for Lima and his companions, who had traveled a long way and had pressing diplomatic issues to be discussed. In the following weeks, as the Portuguese were becoming acclimated with life in the capital, Lebna Dengel tested Lima’s patience further as he repeatedly Shewa, 1400s–1526 141 summoned and questioned the ambassador, always stopping short of revealing himself to his guests. Not only could Lima not meet the sovereign directly but also, day after day, the sovereign expected the Portuguese to answer additional questions and even perform for his own amusement. On the night of 3 November:

He sent to say that they should play with sword and shield, and the Ambas- sador ordered two men of his suite to come out. They did it reasonably well, and yet not as well as the Ambassador desired that things Portuguese should be done: and as the Prester sent to ask for others to come out, the Ambassador said to Jorge d’Abreu that they should both go out; and they went out with their own swords and targes. . . . After this the Prester John sent to ask that they should sing to a manichord, and dance, and they did so.57

Lima was not pleased with the request, and after performing the show he sent a message to Lebna Dengel, explaining that

he had done that to do him service, and that otherwise he would not have done it, even though they gave him 50,000 cruzados, for any other prince in the world, unless he were ordered to do it by the King of Portugal his lord . . . and he begged His Highness to hear him.58

Lima’s complaints did not dissuade Lebna Dengel from making a similar request a few days later. On 12 November, the sovereign sent horses to Lima and asked him and his companions to ride them and stage a fight of sorts, forcing the ambassador to acquiesce again.59 By turning the Portuguese into objects of entertain- ment and curiosity, Lebna Dengel was no doubt asserting his power as much to his guests as to his court. The representatives of a powerful European country had traveled from afar and were now willing to embarrass themselves to show their deference.60 Humiliated by Lebna Dengel’s request and prevented from completing their mission, Lima and his companions must have quickly started to wonder about their fate, especially in light of what the faranji had told them. As much as the presence of Europeans living a life of comfort at court must have been heartening, their presence must have also been a source of anxiety. They told the Portu- guese they would not be able to leave and that they had been instructed to keep a distance: Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 The Franks who were at the Court came to our tent, and they told us that the great men of the Court were opposed to us, and that this monk was putting it into their heads to counsel the Prester not to allow us to return, nor to go out of his kingdoms, because we spoke ill of the country, and that we should speak more evil of it if we went out of it: and that it had always been the custom of this kingdom not to allow foreigners who came to it to go away.61

This hostility on the part of some at Lebna Dengel’s court recalls, to a certain extent, the reception meted to Brocchi and Giovanni da Calabria: although 142 The Indian run Europeans seem to have been generally welcomed at court, Ethiopian court clerics were less than enthusiastic about the presence of Catholics in their country – all the more so when their guests were there not as private individuals but, rather, as representatives of a European country or, worse, the Roman Church. The Portuguese knew to be guests of a long-sought friendly sovereign, but they also recognized that they had ventured far into an unknown land, mostly surrounded by unfriendly Muslims and removed from the closest Portuguese outpost by thousands of kilometers; they were, in practice, at Lebna Dengel’s mercy. There was, however, a rather reassuring aspect to their condition: traces of what seems to have been the mirror image of the Prester’s myth. Already at the time of their landing on the coast, the lord of Arqiqo dispatched a letter to Sequeira and Teixeira in which he joyfully related that “a great thanks should be given to God, for their prophecies were fulfilled, which said that the Christians should come to the island of Massawa.”62 Likewise in Debra Bizan, the monks would tell Teixeira that

for a long time they had been expecting Christians, because they had prophecies written in their books, which said that Christians were to come to this port; they would open a well in it, and when this well was opened there would be no more Moors there.63

While in Arqiqo, the bahr negus told the Portuguese

that they had it written in books, that Christians from distant lands were to come to that port to join with the people of the Prester John, and that they would make a well of water, and that there would be no more Moors there: and since God had fulfilled this, that they should affirm and swear friendship.64

Given that all the mentioned references are either to be found in Portuguese sources or compiled with substantial Portuguese input, one could argue that the prophecy was a product of European imagination, possibly of Portuguese agents eager to find confirmation of their own messianic pretensions on the other side of the world. After all, Alvares had already ascribed religious meaning to his mission when he claimed that, upon entering the Red Sea, the appearance of “a big red cross in the sky” had signaled their proximity to their destination.65 Flying crosses seem to have been a staple in the Estado world: Albuquerque had experienced a similar vision in 1513 while peering at Ethiopia from the sea in the vicinity of Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Kamaran.66 It would not be farfetched to consider the prophetic references as either an exercise in self-aggrandizement or simple delusion, except that when Eleni pled for support in 1509, she argued that

now is the time arrived of the promise made by Christ and Saint Mary His mother, Who [sic] said that in the last times the King of the parts of the Franks would rise up, and that he would put an end to the Moors. And this is the promise made by Christ and His mother.67 Shewa, 1400s–1526 143 As much as the Portuguese must have been elated at learning of their sanctioned role in the region, the prophecy of the Frank king seems to have been authentically Ethio- pian. As far as its origin, it could have predated the encounter in a vague form and acquired growing specificity and currency between the late 1400s and early 1500s, when on the one hand Adali activities fueled Ethiopian anxieties, and on the other the growing Portuguese presence in the region began nurturing positive expectations. Ultimately, its best enunciation can be found in Alvares’s narrative, where the chaplain explains it according to what he was told by abuna Marqos:

The Abyssinians had a prophecy that there would not be more than a hundred Popes in the country, and that then there would be a new ruler of the Roman Church, and that the Abima [abun] would complete the hundred; and also they had two prophecies one of St Ficatorio, the other of St Sinoda, who was a hermit of Egypt, saying that the Franks from the end of the earth would come by sea and would join with the Abyssinians and would destroy Juda and Tero and Meca; and that so many people would cross over and would pull down Meca, and without moving would hand the stones from one to another and would throw them into the Red Sea, and Meca would be left a bare plain, and that also they would take Egypt and the great city of Cairo, and upon that there would be a great dispute as to whose it should be, the Abyssinians would go back to their country of their own will and the Franks would stay in the great city and then a road would be opened by which one could easily come from Frankland to the country of the Abyssinians.68

Hence, Alvares was told that the coming of the Portuguese was connected to the fulfillment of two prophecies: one pertaining to the head of the Ethiopian Church and seemingly to its relationship to the Roman Church; the other foreshadowing the arrival of Franks in the context of an epochal struggle against the forces of Islam.69 In light of their own prophetic and millenarian pretensions, the Portu- guese must have found the Ethiopian prophecy of a Frank king quite familiar. At both ends of the encounter world, the figure of a distant and powerful Christian king – a deus ex machina against the enemies of Christian faith – had been the central character of inventive ploys meant to resolve the tension between the present and future condition of Christianity in the face of Muslim onslaught. Both discourses were offspring of growing Christian anxiety and, ultimately, were a creative way to reconcile the frustrated expectations associated with Christian universalism in the face of Islam’s ostensibly unstoppable expansion: Prester John Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and the Frank king both embodied the turning of the tide.70 Eventually Lima’s patience paid off, and on 20 November, four weeks after arriving at court, Lebna Dengel finally summoned him for the hearing for which he had been waiting. He was once again escorted through multiple curtains and layers of security, but this time even the last curtain was raised, and he and his men found themselves in front of the sovereign:

We saw the Prester John sitting on a platform of six steps very richly adorned. He had on his head a high crown of gold and silver, that is to say, one piece 144 The Indian run of gold and another of silver from the top downwards, and a silver cross in his hand; there was a piece of blue taffeta before his face which covered his mouth and beard, and from time to time they lowered it and the whole of his face appeared, and again they raised it. . . . In age, complexion, and stature, he is a young man, not very black. His complexion might be chestnut or bay, not very dark in colour; he is very much a man of breeding, of middling stature; they said that he was twenty-three years of age, and he looks like that, his face is round, the eyes large, the nose high in the middle, and his beard is beginning to grow. In presence and state he fully looks like the great lord that he is.71

Much of the hearing seems to have been dedicated to plans for an alliance. Lebna Dengel was cognizant of the growing Ottoman presence in the Red Sea and hoped that the Portuguese could dissuade further expansion. He had also been informed of his interlocutors’ plans to fortify port cities such as Massawa, a desire the Portuguese had already shared with the bahr negus while still on the coast. Lebna Dengel supported the idea, and either out of sincere commitment or, more likely, eagerness to impress his guests, raised the stakes by suggesting that

it would be better to take Zoila [Zeila] and make a fortress there, . . . and when a fortress had been made in each of these towns, from thence they might conquer Juda and Meca, and all the other places as far as Cayro.72

The issue of how to fortify the coast and the wild speculations on how to wrest Egypt from the Ottomans seems to have occupied the remainder of the hearing, after which the Portuguese returned to their quarters. Once dismissed, Lima and his companions must have been under the impression that much of their mission had been completed and that in the ensuing days, or at most weeks, they would ready for the journey of return, but the reality would be rather different. A few days after the hearing, Lima was told he could depart for his return voyage,73 but only after receiving letters for Manuel. While the documents were readied, the bulk of the Portuguese party headed to the coast.74 Alvares remained behind to help with the writing, aptly capturing the complexity of the process, which lasted more than two months:

They spent a long time over them [the letters], because their custom is not to write to one another, and their messages, communications, and embassies, are all by word of mouth. With us they began to get the habit of writing, and Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 when they were writing, all the books of the Epistles of St Paul, of St Peter, and St James were present, and those that they held to be the most learned studied them, and then began to write their letters in their Abyssinian language, and other letters in Arabic, and also others in our Portuguese language, which the monk who had guided us read in Abyssinian, and Pero de Covil- ham turned them into Portuguese, and Joam Escolar, the clerk of the embassy, wrote them, and I, by order of the Prester, helped to make the language agree, for it is very difficult to translate Abyssinian into Portuguese: thus the letters Shewa, 1400s–1526 145 were made for the King our lord in three languages, Abyssinian, Arabic, and Portuguese; and so for the Captain Major; and all of them in duplicate, that is to say, two in Abyssinian, two in Arabic and two in Portuguese.75

In the letter, Lebna Dengel took pains to reiterate the vicissitudes of Matewos’s embassy, including the accusations of imposture and the injustices he had to suffer for the purpose of completing his mission. He expressed his gratitude for the hospitality he had been shown in Portugal, and he also shared with Manuel the circumstances of his ambassador’s death in Debra Bizan. The document did not contain the details for the adumbrated alliance: Lebna Dengel simply reiterated his hope to preside over the Red Sea and retake Jerusalem, while possibly providing more details orally to Lima and his own ambassador. As Lima and Alvares might have expected, the sovereign did not neglect to dress his call in prophetic garb, and he reportedly argued,

this [the Portuguese arrival] was first prophesied by the prophet in the life and passion of St Victor, similarly in the book of the Holy Fathers, that a Frank King should meet with the King of Ethiopia, and that they should give each other peace.76

Finally, echoing a request that had been heard through the encounter world throughout the preceding century, he asked for

craftsmen who can make figures of gold and silver, copper, iron, tin, and lead, and send me lead for the churches: and craftsmen in type-founding to make books in our characters [for church use]; and craftsmen in gilding with gold leaf, to make the gold leaf; and this soon, and let them come and stay with me here and in my favour.77

The sovereign, like many of his predecessors and successors, considered the visit, as any other exchange with Europe, first and foremost an opportunity to facilitate technological transfer, much of which was focused on war-making and the ongoing confrontation with his Muslim neighbors. Once the letters were ready, the Portuguese party left the capital for the coast on 13 February 1521 – but unbeknownst to Lima and his companions, they would be in the country for another five years.78 Between their initial departure from court and their eventual sailing from the coast, the party traveled back and forth Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 to Shewa. Time after time, in spite of their best efforts, they found themselves still in Ethiopia; the faranji’s initial warnings about the impossibility of leaving court must have rung in their ears.79 On their first attempt to reach the coast, the Portu- guese reached Debarwa and waited to hear news from the fleet that was expected to reach Massawa. A few months later, having yet to receive news and with a quar- rel breaking out between different members of the embassy, the local authorities had the embassy return to court.80 After this first failure and back at court, on 15 April 1523 Lima finally received a message from his countrymen. 146 The Indian run Dispatching the letter was Luis de Meneses, the brother of the Estado’s new governor Duarte (1522–1524), who had reached Massawa earlier that year. Although he was determined to take the embassy back to Portugal, unfavorable monsoons and an unspecified commitment made it impossible for him to wait long, and unfortunately for Lima and his companions, the date Meneses set for departure was the very day on which Lima received the letter. They were also informed of Manuel’s death: the news had reached Goa only in the summer of 1522, and now, almost a year later, it had made it to what was probably the most remote Portuguese community overseas. Because the fleet was likely to have already left and because a new journey to the coast required substantial prepara- tions, Lima decided to keep his companions at court and rush a messenger to the coast in case the fleet had yet to sail off.81 With Manuel dead, Lebna Dengel opted to write additional letters to his successor João III (1521–1557): he reiterated his hatred for Islam – “both of us together we will destroy all the Mourisma” – and his request for material support, but in a much more articulate fashion:

Neither do I want anything from you except people to set in order and arm our people. . . . I want you to send me men, artificers, to make images and printed books, and swords and arms for all sorts for fighting; and also masons and carpenters, and men who make medicines, and physicians, and surgeons to cure illness; also artificers to beat out gold and set it, and goldsmiths and silversmiths, and men who know how to extract gold and silver and also copper from the veins, and men who can make sheet lead and earthenware; and craftsmen of nay trades which are necessary in kingdoms, also gunsmiths. Assist me in this which I beg of you, as a brother does to a brother.82

Lebna Dengel was now asking for a comprehensive technological transfer from Portugal. This speaks to the sovereign’s growing familiarity with his interlocutors and their technology after Lima’s extended sojourn, as well as the experience of reciprocal discovery it had facilitated. The sovereign had obviously grown familiar with European technology, thanks to his conversations with Lima and his companions, who can be imagined sharing with their hosts the wonders of European technology – most likely with a good degree of exaggeration. Within weeks of receiving news from the coast, the party embarked on a new journey to the coast. While on the road, they met the messengers they had sent to try to intercept the fleet and were informed that it had sailed off as expected, but Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 only after unloading some supplies and new instructions. The party was to settle near the coast and wait for the new fleet, which would have come with the next monsoon season. While the rest of the embassy retraced and settled in Debarwa, Lima and Alvares left again for Shewa with new letters for Lebna Dengel and some of the provisions they had received – two months later they were again at court, now in Fatigar.83 It seems that Lebna Dengel made the momentous decision to write to the pontiff in this occasion: drafting the new letter seems to have been even more complicated than it had been for Manuel, and it eventually resulted in Shewa, 1400s–1526 147 two separate messages: a shorter one mostly inspired by Alvares and a longer one “they [the clerics] spent three days in preparing.”84 The documents pocketed, Lima, Alvares, and Saga Zaab traveled to Debarwa. It was now mid-1524, and because their companions had yet to receive news from the coast, Lebna Dengel told the entire embassy to retrace to Axum in order to be given the necessary provisions for a prolonged stay until the next monsoon. At this point, probably because no fleet was expected for a few more months, Saga Zaab, Lima, and Alvares again traveled to court, ostensibly because the monk was involved in a legal dispute pertaining to his land title, one which he wanted to settle before leaving his country. They would return to Debarwa one more time in early 1525, when they would wait for the fleet again and once again be disappointed. Still in July there was no fleet in sight, so the party was asked to travel south again, this time all the way to Tigray, supposedly to be given provisions for what would be another winter in Ethiopia. Finally, in January 1526, the party departed for Debarwa again: in early April, they received the long-awaited news that a Portuguese fleet was in Massawa. On the 28th of the same month, the party finally sailed off to Goa.85

Centuries after the emergence of the Prester in European imagination, Lima and his companions had reached the sovereign’s capital and had dwelt among his subjects for six years. Lima was taking back to Portugal official letters to his sovereign and the pontiff, the Ethiopian ambassador, and plenty of intelligence on the Prester and his kingdom. For the Portuguese, who had sought the Prester for more than a century throughout Africa, landing and being greeted by a Chris- tian lord in what was otherwise – in their eyes – a hopeless land of heresy and heathenism was an epochal moment drenched in expectations. In the following weeks, months, and eventually years, Ethiopian reality chipped away at the realm of European imagination as unicorns, supra-centennial men, and the Fountain of Youth were nowhere to be found. With most European lore disposed of, Lima and his companions found the most surprising and possibly unsettling aspect of the Prester’s kingdom to be the dwelling of several well-integrated Europeans among his subjects. The existence of the faranji community in 15th- and early 16th- century Ethiopia represents one more nail in the coffin of the Ethiopian isolation paradigm, for it shows that Ethiopians were not only an integral part of the Red Sea world, but also that they welcomed foreigners, especially those perceived as Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 purveyors of technology and artistic accomplishment. Many of the faranji who settled in Ethiopia were awarded high honors and were allowed to marry local women while keeping their own identity and religion. These experiences – together with the ability of their Ethiopian interlocutors to borrow, appropriate, and indigenize artistic techniques and tropes imported from Europe – speaks to Ethiopia’s long tradition and ability to borrow and incorporate foreign practices.86 The existence of a community of migrants and their mixed descendants also speaks to the limited relevance of skin color in the encounter world. Provided 148 The Indian run that occasional remarks about the unsightliness of Ethiopians can be found in Euro- pean sources – one which we can imagine to have been reciprocated by Ethiopians at the sight of pale Europeans – the few direct testimonies of faranji and their life stories speaks to the normality of hybridity. Pietro told Bertrandon that Ethiopians are “neither white nor black, but they are of a tawny [fauve] color and that they are virtuous and wise people,”87 a characterization resembling Brocchi’s, who had told Suriano that Ethiopians were quite unsightly, and yet they were among the best of Christians. Faith seems to have trumped appearance in that respect.

Notes 1 In fact, even after the foundation of Gondar, Ethiopian sovereigns continued to spend much of the year moving from one province of their kingdom to the next. The nature and history of Ethiopia’s “roving capitals” is something that will deserve more study. The brief overview offered here is mostly borrowed from the following sources: Richard Pankhurst, An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, from Early Times to 1800 (London: Lalibela House, 1961), 136–43; Akalou Wolde Michael, “The Impermanency of Royal Capitals in Ethiopia,” Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers 28 (1966): 146–56; Ronald J. Horvath, “The Wandering Capitals of Ethiopia,” The Journal of African History 10, no. 2 (1969): 205–19. 2 Francisco Alvares et al., Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), 267. 3 On the Greek and Armenian communities in Ethiopia, see EA 22:879 and 1:344; Rich- ard Pankhurst, “The History of Ethiopian-Armenian Relations,” Revue Des Etudes Armeniennes 12 (1978–9): 273–400; Theodore Natsoulas, The Hellenic Presence in Ethiopia: A Study of a European Minority in Africa (1740–1936) (Athens: [s.n.], 1977). On the terms faranji and gabsawi, see EA 2:492. 4 Translation from the Latin original cited in Conti Rossini, “Un codice illustrato eritreo del secolo XV (Ms. Abb. N. 105 della Bibl. Nat. di Parigi),” Africa Italiana 1, no. 1 (1927): 88. See also a partial translation in Italian in Lazzarini, “Un’ambasciata etiopica in Italia nel 1404,” 841. 5 Identified as “Pera” in Bertrandon’s narrative. Bertrandon de La Brocquiere, Le voyage d’outremer de Bertrandon de La Broquiere, ed. Charles Henri Auguste Schefer, Recueil de Voyages, Etc. (Paris: E. Leroux, 1892), 142. 6 de La Brocquiere, Voyage d’outremer de Bertrandon de La Broquiere, 142–3. 7 de La Brocquiere, Voyage d’outremer de Bertrandon de La Broquiere, 144. Bertrandon departed from Constantinople in January 1433. 8 On Jean de Berry’s interest in Africa, see Jean Devisse and Michel Mollat, “The Appeal to the Ethiopian,” in The Image of the Black in Western Art: Pt. 1. From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery”: From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood, ed. David Bindman, Henry Louis Gates, and Karen C. C. Dalton, trans. William Granger Ryan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 33–152. The other candidate would be Charles of Valois (1403–1461), in which case the mission would have been dispatched between 1417, when Charles became the Duke of Berry, and 1422, when he ascended the throne of France as Charles VII. Had Pietro’s companions been dispatched by the king of France, it is unlikely that Bertran- don would have referred to him as “Monseigneur du Berry.” In any case, given that Bertrandon wrote his manuscript when Charles was king of France, he would have still been unlikely to refer to the latter with a lesser title. All in all, Jean de Berry is the most likely candidate, but if so, Pietro’s companions must have left long before 1430. In fact, Pietro claimed that his companions had died around 1430, but he does not specify when he reached Ethiopia, pace Donzel, “The Legend of the Blue Nile in Europe,” Shewa, 1400s–1526 149 in The Nile: Histories, Cultures, Myths, ed. Haggai Erlich and Israel Gershoni (Boul- der: Lynne Rienner, 2000), 123; Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Cru- sade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings,” 7; Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte seconda,” 382–3. Further- more, Pietro related to La Brocquiere that he traveled with the mission, but not necessarily that he was part of the mission as claimed in Donzel, “The Legend of the Blue Nile in Europe,” 123, Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings,” 7; Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte seconda,” 382–3; Roncière, La découverte de l’Afrique au Moyen Age, 2:117. For a correct, although overly confident, overview of Pietro of Naples, see Munro-Hay, Ethiopia Unveiled, 109–11. 9 The request, dating to 1381, probably stemmed from the reputation of Majorcan cartographers Woodward and Harley, The History of Cartography, 1:315. 10 Devisse and Mollat, “The Appeal to the Ethiopian,” 124–36; Michel Mollat and Jean Devisse, “The Frontiers in 1460,” in The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition, Part 1: Artists of the Renais- sance and Baroque, ed. David Bindman, Henry Louis Gates Jr, and Karen C. C. Dalton (Harvard University Press, 2010), 153–66. 11 de La Brocquiere, Voyage d’outremer de Bertrandon de La Broquiere, 142–8. On the practice, see EA 1:220–1; Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia, 275–8; C. F. Becking- ham, “Amba Gesen and Asirgarh,” Journal of Semitic Studies 2, no. 2 (1957): 182–8. 12 Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 1435–1439, trans. Malcolm Letts (London: Rout- ledge, 1926), 84. 13 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 85. 14 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 88–90. 15 EA 3:432–3. 16 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 94. 17 EA 1:485–6; 2:632. 18 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 88. 19 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 85. Bracciolini and Varthema, Travelers in Disguise, 6. 20 Although the origin of his account and the details of his interaction with Conti cannot be ascertained, the evidence, especially that concerning Ethiopia, indicates that Tafur is a reliable source. For a detailed comparison of Bracciolini and Tafur’s accounts see Joan- Pau Rubies, Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance, 117–23. The author also argues that Tafur is a reputable source and that he could have consulted Ethiopians in Egypt. 21 Joseph P. Byrne, Encyclopedia of the Black Death (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2012), 66. 22 Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 96–7. 23 Vincenzo Bellemo, I viaggi di Nicolo de Conti (Milano: A. Brigola, 1883), 207. 24 Knowing the heritage of his son Daniel would be all the more interesting because he reportedly occupied an important position in the city’s government; see Carlo Bullo, La vera patria di Nicolò de’ Conti e di Giovanni Caboto: studi e documenti (Chioggia: Tipografica di Lodovico Duse, 1880); Cornelio Desimoni and Niccolò de Conti, Pero Tafur i suoi viaggi e il suo incontro col veneziano Nicòlo de’Conti (Genoa: Tipografia

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 del R. Istituto Sordo-Muti, 1881). 25 Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum 3Qq C 55, 92r. 26 Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum 3Qq C 55, 93v. 27 Rombulo seems to have also been trusted with multiple diplomatic missions in Asia. Although some of the details he shared with Ranzano – for example, his journey to India with a retinue of 200 Ethiopians – seems unlikely, but his dealings in the Indian Ocean are not to be discounted. For the Ethiopian presence in India, see Richard Pankhurst, “Indian Trade with Ethiopia, the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (Le commerce indien avec l’Éthiopie, le golfe d’Aden et la corne de l’afrique au XIXe siècle et au début du XXe),” Cahiers 150 The Indian run d’Études Africaines 14, no. 55 (January 1, 1974): 453–97; Shihan de S. Jayasuriya and Richard Pankhurst, eds., The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2001); and, for the experience of another trader active between Ethiopia and various Indian Ocean societies as far as Batavia (Jakarta), Emeri Van Donzel, Foreign Relations of Ethiopia 1642–1700: Documents Relating to the Jour- neys of Khodja Murad (Leiden: Nederlands Historisch-Archaeologisch Instituut te Istanbul, 1979). See EA 3:1073–4. 28 Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum 3Qq C 55, 93v. 29 Marilyn E. Heldman, “Fre Seyon: A Fifteenth-Century Ethiopian Painter,” African Arts 31, no. 4 (1998): 48–90; Marilyn E. Heldman, The Marian Icons of the Painter Frē Ṣeyon: A Study of Fifteenth-Century Ethiopian Art, Patronage, and Spirituality (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1994). 30 In addition to the True Cross and the Silver Chalice, there is evidence of a 15th-century Flemish painting also making it to Ethiopia; see Spencer, “In Search of St Luke Ikons in Ethiopia,” 76. 31 The dream allegory is all the more interesting and pertinent to the issue of who pur- veyed European technological knowledge in 15th-century Ethiopia when one considers that the European who appeared in the dream is identified as a romawi, a term much rarer than the more general faranji and a very specific reference to the Italian provenance of the visitors. See Conti Rossini, “Un codice illustrato eritreo del secolo xv,” 88. 32 The use of techniques of European derivation was observed during fieldwork at the beginning of the 20th century; see Marcel Cohen, “Dabra-Warq,” Mélanges 1 (1923): 145–8. 33 Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, ed. Girolamo Golubovich (Milano: Tipografia editrice Artigianelli, 1900), 86. Suriano also lists, along with these faranji, Giovanni da Calabria and Battista da Imola, in what seems to be either an error of transcription or the result of the peculiar style in which Suriano wrote his Trattato, in form of a dialogue between himself and a nun. 34 Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa E dell’Oriente, 79–87. 35 The only other German whose presence is recorded in Ethiopia in the early modern era is Peter Heyling’s (1607–1652); see Richard Pankhurst, “Peter Heyling, Abba Grego- rius and the Foundation of Studies in Germany,” Äthiopien (1973), 144–6; Otto F. A. Meinardus, “Peter Hayling, History and Legend,” Ostkirchliche Studien 14 (1965): 305–26. 36 Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, 86. 37 Mollat and Devisse, “The Frontiers in 1460,” 155–66; Devisse and Mollat, “The Appeal to the Ethiopian,” 124–36. 38 See Chapter 4. 39 Alvares’s information on Brancaleone is the most complete but also somewhat contra- dictory: at different times he claims that the painter had been in Ethiopia for 33 years, and for more than 40; Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 279, 313. For a general overview of Brancaleone, his work, and the context in which he operated, see Ian Campbell, “A Historical Note on Nicolo Brancaleon: As Revealed by an Iconographic

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Inscription,” Journal of Ethiopian Studies 37, no. 1 (2004): 83–102; Diana Spencer, “Travels in Gojjam: St Luke Ikons and Brancaleon Re-Discovered,” Journal of Ethio- pian Studies 12, no. 2 (1974): 201–20; Heldman, “Frē Seyon”; and Marisa Bass and C. Griffith Mann, “A Devotional Icon by Niccolò Brancaleon,” The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 60/61 (2002/2003): 111–12. 40 Diana Spencer, “The Discovery of Brancaleon’s Paintings,” in Proceedings of the First International Conference on the History of Ethiopian Art Sponsored by the Royal Asi- atic Society (London: Pindar, 1989), 54. 41 Campbell, “A Historical Note on Nicolo Brancaleon,” 97. 42 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 313. 43 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 313. Shewa, 1400s–1526 151 44 Campbell, “A Historical Note on Nicolo Brancaleon,” 98–9. 45 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 313, 332; Spencer, “Travels in Gojjam,” 205; and Campbell, “A Historical Note on Nicolo Brancaleon,” 89. 46 Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 168. 47 The informant, Brother Thomas, also mentioned that Bicini’s property was in the of city of “Sogra,” where “the said Presta has given to M(esser) Gregorio, i.e., Hieronimo, the Venetian painter,” adding that “said Presta settles in such city or land all the skilled persons who come from various parts”; see Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 162–3, 169. Unlike Brancalone, Bicini left behind no proof of the artistic production that gained him the Prester’s gratitude, either because he failed to sign his artwork or because it was destroyed. Given that both painters came from the same Venetian milieu, any attribution of unsigned works remains highly speculative. For a comprehensive overview of early modern Ethiopian art, the issue of European influence, and the attribution of unsigned works, see Stanisław Chojnacki, Major Themes in Ethiopian Painting: Indigenous Developments, the Influence of Foreign Models, and Their Adaptation from the 13th to the 19th Century (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1983), 375–468. 48 Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 133. 49 Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 172–5. “Combaia” is the Indian city of Khambhat, which at the time was an important commercial center; see Edward A. Alpers, The Indian Ocean in World History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 57. 50 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 187. Manadeley is the city where Sid Mohammed seems to have been living at the time of Lima’s arrival. Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 279. 51 Crawford, Ethiopian Itineraries, 190–1. 52 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 249. None of the faranji Brocchi met in the early 1480s were Portuguese. 53 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 381. 54 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 276. References to the Genoese can be found throughout Alvares’s narrative; Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 135, 159, 200, 288, 434–5. 55 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 278–9. 56 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 271. 57 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 286–7. 58 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 287. 59 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 298. 60 Lebna Dengel’s requests continued: weeks later, Lazaro d’Andrade would be asked to “wrestle” outside of the king’s tent and would break a leg in the process, after which Lima was asked to send further wrestlers, namely Estevam Plaharte and Ayras Diz; see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 318–19. 61 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 273, 278. 62 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 68. Similar remarks were offered by the ruler of Arqiqo in the following days; see Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 72. 63 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 57.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 64 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 60. A less articulate version of the same statement can be found in the Carta: “many thanks to Our Lord that the prophecies they had always had were fulfilled, that they should be united one with another”; see Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 85. 65 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 53. 66 Albuquerque and Birch, The Commentaries of the Great Alfonso Dalboquerque, 3:44. 67 Thomas, The Discovery of Abyssinia by the Portuguese in 1520, 91. 68 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 358–9. 69 For a discussion of these obscure prophecies’ origins see Giuseppe Marcocci, “Gli umanisti italiani e l’impero portoghese: una interpretazione della Fides, Religio, Moresque Æthiopum di Damião de Góis.” Rinascimento XLV (2005): 347–9. 152 The Indian run 70 It has been persuasively argued that in the era under consideration, largely comparable prophetic discourses can be found in Western Europe, the Middle East, and India, San- jay Subrahmanyam, From the Tagus to the Ganges (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 102–37. 71 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 303–4. 72 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 304–5. Similar requests about building forts in the Red Sea in preparation to an assault on Jedda, Mecca, and Cairo can be found in Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 287, 368, 416. 73 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 314. 74 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 314. 75 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 376–7. 76 Lebna Dengel to Manuel, in Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 494–50. Lebna Den- gel’s letter to the pontiff and to the Avis is discussed in Chapter 7. 77 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 501. 78 The circumstances of their protracted stay are not entirely clear, among other reasons because Alvares dedicated the vast majority of his narrative to the first few months of the journey, offering only glimpses of the rest of his stay. 79 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 278–9. 80 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 385–9. 81 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 404–5. 82 Lebna Dengel to João III, in Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 504–5. 83 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 407. 84 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 417–8. On the timing of the decision to send letters to the pontiff, along with an ambassador, see Chapter 7. 85 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 418–21, 464–71. 86 The notion of “creative incorporation,” formalized in Donald Nathan Levine, Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chi- cago Press, 2000), 64–8. (1st ed. 74), was first suggested in relation to Ethiopian literature; see Enrico Cerulli, La letteratura etiopica (Firenze: Sansoni, 1968), 11–14. It has also been discussed in relation to Ethiopia’s philosophical tradition by Claude Sumner, The Source of African Philosophy: The Ethiopian Philosophy of Man, Äthiopistische Forschungen, Bd. 20 (Stuttgart: F. Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden, 1986); and in the arts by Chojnacki, Major Themes in Ethiopian Painting. See also Stanisław Chojnacki, Ethiopian Icons: Catalogue of the Collection of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies Addis Ababa University (Milano: Skira; Fondazione Carlo Leone Montandon, 2000), 19–48. 87 de La Brocquiere, Voyage d’outremer de Bertrandon de La Broquiere, 143. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 7 A tale of three cities, 1527–1539

Lima and his companions sailed off from the coast on 28 April 1526. They were in Hormuz by May, in Goa by late November, then on the carreira back to Portugal, finally reaching Lisbon on 24 July 1527. Because of a plague outbreak, they were ordered to stay on board and wait for a boat transfer to Santarem via the Rio Tejo. Finally disembarked on Portuguese soil, the party headed to Coimbra, where João and his court had taken refuge, but once in the city’s hinterland they were asked to stop, on suspicion of contagion. At the end of a month-long quarantine, the very same person who seven years earlier had sailed with them to the Red Sea – Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, now at court – took the party to Coimbra. As they approached the city, they found

many people from the Court, who came there to look for or receive us. From this place to Sam Martinho, which is half a league from the city, we found the roads full of all the Bishops, priests, and Counts, and lords that were at the Court . . . until we arrived at the palace of His Highness. The Marquis of Vilareal led the Ambassador of the Prester John by the hand until he kissed the hands of the King and Queen our lords, and of the Cardinals and the Infantes, and we all kissed them in the same way. The King asked the Ambas- sador how the Prester John his lord was, if he was in health, and so the Queen his wife, and his sons.

After being received with full honors, Saga Zaab and Alvares presented João with the two sets of letters written for him and his father “in three languages, namely Abyssinian, Arabic and Portuguese,” along with the letters addressed to the pontiff.1 For Lima and the other companions, the hearing represented the conclusion Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 of a long overseas adventure, whereas for both the Ethiopian ambassador and the chaplain, the reception was only one episode in a long experience as brokers between worlds that was far from over. After years of wanderings on Ethiopian soil, by traveling from port to port through the Estado’s outposts, and finally reaching Portuguese shores, Alvares and Saga Zaab had transitioned to the other side of the encounter world. Having completed half of their mission in Portugal, the two were understandably eager to complete the other half: travel to Rome and present the pontiff with Lebna Dengel’s letters. However, João hesitated, according to 154 The Indian run Alvares “on account of the wars with France.”2 The Empire was at war with the papacy, and Rome had been sacked only a couple of months prior to their return to Portugal: the conditions for a journey to Rome were ostensibly not in place. For Saga Zaab, it was not his first time on European soil, as Lebna Dengel had reportedly chosen him for the mission after asking Lima and Alvares “if [they] thought that Zagazabo would be adequate for this journey, inasmuch as he could speak our language and had already been to [their] countries.”3 However, the context and the dynamics of his new sojourn must have been an almost absolute novelty: he had been in Europe before, but probably as a simple pilgrim relying on the courtesy of strangers. He was now at the court of one of the most powerful European sovereigns, received with all the honors accorded to an ambassador. Little did he know that when he kissed João’s hands, he would soon deeply regret having traveled so far away from home. After 12 years of absence, Alvares was also returning to a rather different world. In the aftermath of their arrival in Ethiopia, the Carta das novas and Manuel’s letter to Pope Leo had marked the discursive culmination of both Manueline millenarianism and the Portuguese myth of the Prester. Both documents were printed as Lima’s embassy was making the first timid steps on Ethiopian soil and Portu- guese imperial imagination was running wild. Only a few months later, Manuel was dead and the two bombastic documents turned into the epitaphs of an era. Although João was committed to Christian proselytism and orthodoxy, the sovereign did not share his father’s prophetic pretensions. The pendulum between the imperial and the merchant faction, between the party of greatness and that of business, swung again toward the latter, and the notion of investing in an all- out confrontation with the Islamic world receded as Portuguese expansion was stripped of its messianic garb.4 Alvares was also coming back to a newly divided continent: he had sailed off Portugal only a few months before Martin Luther posted his theses on 31 Octo- ber 1517. In Europe’s westernmost corner, cordoned by a bastion of Catholicism, Portugal remained largely isolated from the theological-political diatribes of the era, but the ripples of the Reformation and the stiffening of Catholic thought were being felt, starting from the discourse on Prester John. Already in 1520 the Por- tuguese theologian Pedro Margalho (1474–1556) had commented on Matewos’s confession of faith and had launched a strong condemnation of Ethiopian Christi- anity, arguing that Ethiopians were heretics who “falsely claim to be descendants of Salomon and the Queen of Sheba.”5 When in the 1520s Portugal experienced a surge in anti-Semitism, Ethiopian faith and identity, with its idiosyncratic prac- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 tices reminiscent of Judaism, started to look increasingly suspicious. All the more so after David Reubeni (1480–1532), a self-described prince of a lost Jewish kingdom in the Arabian peninsula, visited Rome and later Lisbon to seek support for a new crusade while boasting of his acquaintance with Prester John. In Rome between 1524 and 1525, Reubeni gained Pope Clement’s ear and shared his plans to take over Jedda and then proceed to Islam’s holy shrines with Prester John’s support. Clement seems to have suggested that, among Europeans, the Portuguese were the best suited for such an enterprise and routed him to João. A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 155 Once in Portugal, Reubeni’s claims started to inspire unrest among New Chris- tians, and he was quickly expelled. Although he was undoubtedly an impostor, his claims were taken rather seriously. His alleged acquaintance with Prester John and the “Kingdom of Sheba” could not be but false, little more than a play on well-known mythologies, but they further alerted Portuguese authorities to Ethio- pia’s connection with the Jewish world and contributed to the general anti-Semitic hysteria, especially among theologians who were hard at work calling for a Por- tuguese Inquisition. Unbeknownst to Alvares and Saga Zaab, what was emerging in the world they had left behind was a militant discourse on Christianity, one that had little patience with anything that did not conform to an increasingly strict notion of Catholic orthodoxy. Although it would take decades for this emerging discourse to gain ground and eventually hegemonize the Church, the new climate had immediate consequences on the fate of both Alvares and Saga Zaab.6 In the months following the initial reception, instead of being dispatched to the pontiff, Saga Zaab remained at court while Alvares was sent to Braga in northern Portugal to receive a benefice in the city. Unfortunately for the chaplain, and even more so for Saga Zaab, the city’s archbishop was no less than Diogo de Sousa (1461–1532), to whom Pedro Margalho had dedicated his volume’s prefatory letter, one excoriating the Ethiopian faith. Sousa interrogated Alvares extensively on a variety of topics, probably eager to gather ammunition for the anti-Ethiopian party and discredit Ethiopian Christianity along with its resident representative – Saga Zaab.7

Bologna In 1532, after his stay in Braga, Alvares was finally instructed to travel along with the Portuguese ambassador to Rome, to complete the mission, but Saga Zaab was to stay behind. João dispatched the chaplain to the pontiff but with altogether different priorities than those for which either Saga Zaab or his sovereign would have hoped. Alvares was traveling in the company of the Portuguese ambassador Dom Martinho (1490–1547), dispatched to Rome not to seek approval for an expensive and unlikely crusading adventure with Ethiopia but to find a way to replenish the crown’s coffers. Faced with a dire financial situation and in a climate of increasing intolerance, João was seeking approval for a Portuguese Inquisition and wanting to kill two birds with one stone: satisfying the increasingly vocal calls for the cleansing of Portuguese society while engaging in a large scale expro- priation of New Christians.8 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 The two Portuguese were traveling in the company of a young Ethiopian who, 32 years later, in 1564, would relate his youth to the Roman Inquisition in the following way:

I was born in Cyprus. . . . My father was Abyssinian from Meroe and my mother Egyptian from Manfalut, but of Abyssinian descent; at the time of the Egyptian Sultan’s persecution they came to Cyprus. [. . .] I was there till I turned fifteen, when I left for Rome, Portugal, the Way of St James to 156 The Indian run Galicia and then I returned to the East Indies [Goa] where I found our king’s ambassador [Ethiopian ambassador, Saga Zaab] and I came with him to Lis- bon. Then with Francesco Alvares and Dom Martinho, ambassador of the Portuguese king, I came to Italy and then I was in Bologna while our king’s ambassador stayed in Lisbon because the king did not let him come to Italy because of the wars. I translated the letters of our king which Francesco Alva- res and Dom Martinho took to His Holiness in Bologna.9

Giovanni Battista Abissino had been born around 1510 in Cyprus, where his Ethiopian father and his Egyptian mother had taken refuge from the “Egyptian Sultan’s persecution.” They had probably exploited ties between the Ethiopian community in Egypt and that on the island, which dated back to the fall of Jeru- salem, when some Ethiopians had followed the fallen king, Guy of Lusignan (1150–1194) to his new abode.10 Giovanni was only 15 when he left Cyprus to embark on a pilgrimage to Rome and Santiago de Compostela in the company of his father, who seems to have died in Rome. The young stranded orphan must have been taken under the wing of an older monk who helped him complete his pilgrimage to Santiago, from where he reached Lisbon, possibly advised to take the carreira to Ethiopia. Serendipitously, Giovanni reached Goa in 1526, right when Lima and his companions were preparing for their long-sought return to Lisbon, and he can be imagined conversing with the Portuguese and especially Saga Zaab, who probably convinced him to retrace his steps. Only a few months later he was back in Portugal, where he witnessed the embassy’s epic reception before being chosen to join Alvares and Martinho in their mission as a makeshift Ethiopian representative. The three were in Genoa in mid-November 1532 and in Bologna by early December.11 Much of what is known about the events in the city is to be found in the Ambasciaria di David, a short pamphlet printed in Bologna already by Febru- ary 1533, and also in an Italian version by Jacob Keymolen. The Flemish printer was keen to profit from the presence of the pontiff, the emperor, and a long list of other personalities whose words and decisions would be disseminated throughout the continent by the cutting-edge technology of the time – the printing press. To secure his profit, Keymolen obtained exclusive rights of publication and a rather strong deterrent against competitors, as the imprimatur warned “that for 6 months no one print or sell the present booklet under pain of excommunication and the loss of 10 ducats.”12 The Ambasciaria starts with a brief overview of Ethiopia that avoids outlandish Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 claims of medieval derivation but still exaggerates the Prester’s power and then moves on to the circumstances of the hearing:

In the year of our Lord 1533, in the month of January, Our Most Holy Lord- ship Pope Clemente VII and Charles V Emperor of the Romans, Rulers of the Christian Lords, had gathered in Bologna. The reverend and illustrious Dom Martinho of Portugal, nephew, Advisor and Ambassador of the Most Serene John King of Portugal, sent for the second time to said Our Most Holy Lordship, brought with him Mr Francesco Alvares Ambassador of the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 7.1 Title page of Legatio David Aethiopiae (1533). Reprinted with permission of the Bibli- oteca Apostolica Vaticana (© 2015 BAV). 158 The Indian run Most Serene David [Lebna Dengel] King of Ethiopia, commonly called Prete Gianni [Prester John], sent by the said King of Ethiopia to greet and pay respect to the aforementioned Most Holy Lordship and to yield obedience, according to the customs of the other Christian kings.13

Clement VII and Charles V, King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, had been in Bologna since early December: after sparring for most of the 1520s, the two had temporarily settled their differences in the very same city in 1530, when Clement finally accepted to anoint Charles emperor, put an end to the War of the League of Cognac, and turn the page on the embarrassment of the Sack of Rome (1527). By late 1532, however, additional pressing issues required attention: first and foremost the spread of Protestantism in Germany and Suleiman’s (1520–1566) advance in Eastern Europe – in 1529, the Ottomans had insistently knocked for the first time at the doors of Vienna.14 Alvares and Martinho were given audience on 29 January: they prostrated themselves to the pontiff and handed to Clement’s secretary copies of Lebna Den- gel’s letter for Manuel and João, along with João’s and Lebna Dengel’s letters for the pontiff for public reading. The Ambasciaria claims that the original letters, delivered in three languages – Portuguese, Geez, and Arabic – were translated by the learned bishop Paolo Giovio (1483–1552), but years later Giovanni claimed to have been the translator. One can imagine the young Ethiopian, by then likely conversant in Portuguese and possibly other European languages, pondering Lebna Dengel’s words in the Geez original and trying to suggest a translation, while next to him Alvares supplemented the effort with cues from the Portuguese version, and across from them a middle-aged Giovio would be trying to reconcile any disagreement between the two and render the meaning in Latin.15 The letters for Clement VII offer priceless insight into Lebna Dengel’s understanding of the world outside Ethiopia, of Rome’s role as the ultimate capital of Christianity, and of his own role as champion of the true faith in a region where he saw himself as encircled by non-Christians like a “lion [is] surrounded by a thick forest.”16 Lebna Dengel presented himself as a Christian ruler disappointed to see

the enemies of the Christian religion joined together in brotherly charity and enjoy peace, and the Christian kings my brothers in any way moved by these injuries [which Lebna Dengel was suffering], nor giving me any help as it should be duty among Christians, as the very filthy sons of Mohammed aid Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and assist one another.17

The sovereign vocally called for unity among Christians, in a way that probably resulted in an awkward exchange of looks between the pontiff and the emperor:

I must now speak of other matters, and demand of you Most Holy Father why do you not exhort the Christian kings, your children, to lay aside their arms? And to become like brothers and be in agreement with each other? Because they are your sheep, and you their shepherd. Your Holiness knows well what A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 159 the gospel commands when it says that every kingdom divided in itself shall be brought to ruin.18

Pope Clement could hardly have been more pleased: he had been striving for some time to find a way to reroute the military resources of his flock toward the Ottomans. As far as Charles and any other attending grandee, they probably frowned at the criticism, all the more so considering that the Prester considered himself “to other European princes neither in power nor in religion to be inferior. In my Realms, I am a pillar of faith, and I need no other help.”19 Accordingly, he called for support against his Muslim neighbors but guardedly, so as not have his power questioned. The large size of Lebna Dengel’s army was probably the only salvageable aspect of the Prester’s myth, whereas most of the other qualities that European imagination had ascribed to the sovereign had been dissipating ever since the Portuguese made it to his kingdom. European technological superiority, for example, was clear; in fact Lebna Dengel also asked to be “copi- ously supplied to the terror and the dread of the Moors” with guns.20 In particular the lack of modern military technology was a vexation Lebna Dengel and his predecessors had contended with throughout the encounter. In the early 16th century, the lack of modern weaponry was becoming an increasing concern as Ethiopia’s neighbors started to acquire firearms from Muslim allies. Among the very first questions he had directed to Lima during his sojourn at court was “who had taught the Moors to make muskets and bombards” and who had taught the Ottomans to do the same.21 In his letter to the pontiff, he also asked for

artisans who can make images as well as swords, and all manner of war weapons, and also gold and silversmiths, and master carpenters and especially masons, who can build houses of stone, and who know how to make shingles of lead and brass, to cover the roofs of houses.22

However, although Lebna Dengel’s letters to Clement were focused mostly on the possibility of a geopolitical alliance and on technological transfer, it was another aspect of his letter, and of his embassy, that attracted all the attention. This was the sovereign’s alleged declaration of obedience:

O happy and holy Father, I obey you with great reverence, for you are the peace of all things, and deserve all that is good, and therefore it is fitting that all men should yield their obedience to you just as the holy Apostles com- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 mand it to God. This is truly said of you, and they still so command to show reverence to Bishops, Archbishops and prelates. Similarly, that we should love you as our father, and revere you, as our King and have faith in you as in God. Therefore, on my knees I humbly tell you, O Holy Father, with a sincere and pure heart that you are my father and I am your son. [emphasis added]23

This ostensible declaration of obedience was reinforced in a variety of ways, starting with João’s own letter to Clement, also read at the hearing. The sovereign celebrated his father’s discovery of the “very powerful king of Ethiopia, commonly 160 The Indian run known as Prester John, who with all the people of his kingdom worships Christ”24 and went on to offer a brief summary of events leading to what he himself presented as a declaration of obedience, so as to reinforce the message, explaining that Lebna Dengel

sent his ambassador [Saga Zaab], who is still at our court, and along with him our chaplain Francesco Alvares, one of those my father had sent to him [Lebna Dengel]. This Francesco Alvares the king of Ethiopia himself sends to Rome, so that on his behalf and that of his kingdom he can yield obedience to Your Holiness.25

Finally, once the letters had been read, it was Alvares’s turn to speak through an interpreter:

Your Most Holy and Blessed Father, the most serene and powerful lord David [Lebna Dengel], king of the great and high Ethiopia commonly known as Prester John . . . sent his own ambassador [Alvares] to Your Holiness with these letters that were presented to you, commissioning him, as he did, to humbly yield true obedience and submission in the name of his majesty and of all his kingdoms to Your Holiness as a true vicar of Christ.26

As far as Clement and the rest of the audience were concerned, Lebna Dengel had sworn his obedience to the pontiff – but had he? The hearing in Bologna was as much of a turning point as Lima’s visit to Lebna Dengel’s court. Whereas the Portuguese mission to Ethiopia had put an end to most misconceptions about Prester John, the events in Bologna resulted in a new one: that the Prester had sworn his obedience to Rome. Whereas the myth of the Prester had served Euro- peans and Ethiopians well, that of his religious obedience would have nefarious consequences for the encounter. The notion of obedience is a controversial one and calls for a thorough consideration of various elements pertaining not only to the two letters to the pontiff but also to the events in Bologna and the geopolitical context. Provided that it was in Lebna Dengel’s interest to seek support and collaboration from Europe, when the sovereign wrote the letters in 1524 he was hardly under any duress: the Adali sovereign who would later become his ultimate nemesis would not declare his jihad until 1527–1528, and Lebna Dengel would not begin to suffer significant losses before 1529. Therefore, as much as Ethiopian sovereigns had been Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 soliciting support against Adal time and again, there was no urgent reason to justify an abrupt reconfiguration of the Ethiopian Church’s relationship to Rome. It was not an option to betray the millennial tradition of independence, as it had already emerged at the time of the Council of Florence and again when Brocchi and Giovanni da Calabria visited Eskender’s court in 1482. Instead of outright obedience – intended as conformity to Catholic liturgical, theological, and ecclesiastical practices – Lebna Dengel’s words should be read as a natural evolution of a discourse his ancestors had been pursuing for more than a century: a nuanced A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 161 policy of rapprochement with the Church and Portugal, mostly dictated by geopolitical considerations. As far as the peculiarities of his faith, his Church, and his country’s relationship to Rome, Lebna Dengel was all but apologetic: he offered assessments of his own faith that can hardly be read as an abjuration. To the contrary, possibly in reaction to some of the conversations he had with the Portuguese, Lebna Dengel felt compelled to claim an a priori agreement with Rome, declaring that he was not inferior to his European counterparts and that, like them, he professed “one true faith, and one Catholic Church.”27 In other words, Lebna Dengel presented his faith as legitimate and his country as a rightful member of the assembly of Christian nations, side by side with Europe’s. If any disparity existed, it was not only unproblematic, Lebna Dengel would argue, but to be ascribed to both geographical remoteness and what he characterized as a somewhat apathetic Roman Church:

O Holy and Most Mighty Father, why have you never sent anyone to us, so that you could have better understood my life and health, being that you are the shepherd and I your sheep? Because a good shepherd does not forget his flock. Nor should I seem to you so far removed from your regions that your representatives cannot reach me because your son the King of Portugal Emanuel [Manuel] has sent me ambassadors very conveniently from the most remote kingdoms of Earth.28

In other words, Rome had neglected Ethiopians and, as a result, Ethiopian rites had evolved along a different path. To Lebna Dengel, the Christian world was united, by definition, first and foremost against Islam, and any theological or ritual differences were to be simply accepted rather than be turned into troublesome and unholy divisions among Christians. In the end, if Lebna Dengel truly used the term “obedience,” he must have understood it descriptively rather than prescriptively. In other words, he offered, if at all, obedience in a loose sense that certainly did not entail the overhauling of Ethiopian practices and traditions.29 Apart from the inconclusive internal evidence, the alleged declaration of obedience must be assessed in the European context of the time and, in particular, the events that lead Alvares, Giovanni, and Martinho to Bologna. Gone was the image of an almighty sovereign beyond the Muslim world and that of a joint crusade: what was left on the table was the possibility to exploit the Ethiopian Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 embassy as a tool of propaganda, but who was to gain? From the point of view of political interest, it was definitely in Clement’s interest, at a time when papal authority was being challenged on multiple fronts – the Empire, the Reforma- tion – to receive a declaration of obedience from the ultimate Christian sovereign of European imagination. For João, the latest representative of a dynasty that had pursued the Prester for a century, selling the notion of obedience meant acquiring favor with the pontiff and political capital across Europe. After all, that the event was publicized with solicitude through the Ambasciaria – 162 The Indian run printed at record speed – confirms that both parties were eager to spread the self-aggrandizing news. In addition to the pontiff and the sovereign, other parties could have also been invested in the discourse on Ethiopian obedience. Martinho, Giovio, and Alvares in particular could have worked, more or less deliberately, to foster unity between Rome and Ethiopia, either for personal gain or out of sincere dedication to the reunification project. At any rate, for Lebna Dengel’s words to be presented in Bologna as a declaration of obedience, Saga Zaab needed to be left behind, as he would have never endorsed it. In fact, circumstances suggest that the cleric’s absence was the result a deliberate effort to keep him away from the pontiff. In his letter to Pope Clement, King João presented Saga Zaab as Emperor Lebna Dengel’s ambassador to Portugal and Alvares as his ambassador to Rome. The claim ostensibly finds confirmation also in Alvares’s address to the pontiff and in the very last line of Lebna Dengel’s long letter to the same in which the negus declared that “these letters his holiness will receive through my brother Giovanni [João], son of the most powerful King Manuel, from Francesco Alvares our ambassador.”30 Last, the appointment seems to be confirmed in Lebna Den- gel’s letter to Manuel, where Lebna Dengel entrusted “my commissions through father Christophoro Licanati [Saga Zaab], who will explain each desire of mine and I also send to the Roman Pope Francesco Alvares, who in my name will pledge obedience as it is appropriate.”31 However, the authenticity of what may seem as the most direct evidence of Alvares’s appointment is questionable. One should recall that Lebna Dengel’s own words had in fact been penned and translated with the involvement of Alva- res himself along with other parties interested in a declaration of obedience. Fur- thermore, contradicting the claim of Alvares’s appointment is Saga Zaab himself, who years later characterized his mission as one to both João and Clement and lamented his confinement to the Portuguese court.32 Moreover, the chronology of Lima’s mission raises further doubts on Alvares’s appointment. Lebna Dengel’s letter to Manuel had been written at the beginning of Lima and Alvares’s stay in Ethiopia, whereas the letter for the pontiff and the decision to send Saga Zaab to Europe dated to no earlier than November 1523.33 Hence, circumstances suggest manipulation of Lebna Dengel’s words and purpose and a conscious effort to keep the Ethiopian representative away from the pontiff. Most likely he had been kept in Lisbon as part of a strategy, but because of the many parties involved in the events that led to the so-called declaration of obedience in Bologna, it is hard to identify a culprit, if there was one. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Alvares himself could have decided to foster his own interests, turning himself into the maker of the unification and enjoying his role as Ethiopian ambassador in Rome. He could have schemed all along, already in Ethiopia, either because he wanted to facilitate a reproach in which he believed or because, as a broker between worlds, he simply wanted to bring them closer for personal gain. He must have known that peddling the notion of Lebna Dengel’s obedience had short legs, but he could have decided to seize the moment and hope A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 163 for the best. The locales of the encounter were so distant from each other and communications so indirect and infrequent that it would have taken years for the truth to emerge, he could have thought. He also could have been opposed to the entire plan, if there was one, but could have consented to go along either out of deference to his sovereign or fear of powerful Inquisition-bent court theologians.

Rome Their deed accomplished, Martinho, Alvares, and Giovanni joined the papal court on its transit to Rome, and once there they parted ways. Martinho’s involvement in Ethiopian-European relations came quickly to an end, as he was instructed to dedicate himself to the matter of establishing a Portuguese Inquisi- tion. Giovanni sojourned in Santo Stefano for a couple of years before returning to Cyprus in 1535 and would resurface in the encounter world only years later. Although he did not leave behind an account of his travels and little is available in the Ambasciaria, it is worth pondering the young Ethiopian’s state of mind as he walked the arcaded streets of Bologna after the hearing. Within a matter of years, the young Ethiopian had traveled with his father from Cyprus to Rome, as an orphan to Santiago first, then to Goa, and from there back to Lisbon with Lima and his companions. Thus, after being introduced to João III he found himself in Bologna, where it is not far-fetched to imagine that Giovanni was summoned, along with Alvares, in front of pope and Emperor – the ultimate guarantors of the European political order – as a makeshift representative of Ethiopia or a simple object of curiosity.34 As to Alvares, his whereabouts and the length of his stay in Rome are uncertain, but in all likelihood he never returned to Portugal and therefore did not supervise the printing of his narrative, one that afforded him much deserved posthumous fame. With the publication of Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias in 1540, the chaplain became the first author to publish an extensive eyewitness account of Ethiopia. The volume enjoyed tremendous success, and in a matter of years multiple translations and editions began circulating throughout Europe. Their popularity speaks to the existence of a transnational community of scholars dedicated to furthering the European understanding of the overseas and of Ethiopia in particular. The manuscript’s second oldest edition is to be found in the first volume of Ramusio’s groundbreaking collection of travel narratives, Navigationi et Viaggi (1550), in itself a testament to Venice’s enduring central- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 ity as a locus of knowledge production about the overseas and in particular the encounter. The Venetian savant justified the inclusion by arguing that

the journey Don Francesco Alvarez describes to the court of this great prince called Prester John deserves to be spoken of at length, for until now there has been nothing to read about the country of Ethiopia [Africa] by the Greeks or Latins or any other kind of writers that is worth considering.35 164 The Indian run Whereas the works of Ranzano, Bracciolini, and Góis betray Ramusio’s statement, certainly Alvares’s text was a watershed: it was the first book-length contribution to the Ethiopianist library, it included the first substantial proto-ethnographic overview of the country and, last but not least, it included the very first European eyewitness account of the Prester. After Ramusio’s printing, the volume was published in a Spanish translation first issued in Antwerp in 1557 and in Toledo in 1588, while in 1625 Samuel Purchas included an abbreviated English version in his famous collection of travel narratives.36 It is in an unpublished edition, however, that clues to Alvares’s whereabouts in his last years and to the emergence of a community of Ethiopianist scholars in Rome are to be found. By the time Alvares and Giovanni reached Rome in the spring of 1533, Santo Stefano was teeming with Ethiopian monks, and Alvares probably opted to gravi- tate around the structure, all the more so in light of his intention to produce an extensive work on Ethiopia. According to the Ambasciaria,

the ambassador Francesco Alvares brought with him a large volume of the Abyssinian Ethiopians [Etiopi byssini] divided into five books. In the first [book] the entire region is perfectly described . . . the second is about the fertility of the country. . . . In the third, animals and birds are discussed. . . . The fourth reflects on the nature and customs of the Abyssinians. . . . The fifth one relates things pertaining to religion.37

It is unclear whether this larger work was ever completed and, if so, how it was related to the Verdadeira. In his preface, Ramusio presented the latter as the summary of the former, but the Verdadeira reads more like an impromptu travelogue than the summary of a work characterized as a structured treatise. Hence, Alvares had worked on a much longer and differently structured treatise, most likely since the days of his unexpectedly lengthy sojourn in Ethiopia. If a separate manuscript existed in a complete or semi-complete form, it would have been a monumen- tal work, the biggest addition to not only the Ethiopianist but also the Africanist library to date; however, because no other known work on Ethiopia refers to it, either it did not quite exist in a complete form or, if it did, it was quickly lost and never circulated among the scholars of the era. The fate of another work, an incomplete Italian version of the Verdadeira edited by Ludovico Beccadelli (1501–1572), offers some details for speculation on the fate of both Alvares and what seems to have been his magnum opus. Beccadelli was a learned Bolognese cleric who became interested in Alvares’s work while in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Rome in the service of Cardinal Gasparo Contarini (1483–1542) between 1535 and 1540.38 In the manuscript’s dedication to his French friend and fellow intellectual Pierre Danes (1497–1579), dated 3 November 1542, Beccadelli explained,

Finally, after three years, that which in one month ought to have been done, I send to you the History of Ethiopia – born from father Francesco Alvares Portu- guese – which I simply reorganized and divided and clarified as much as I could without altering the essence of what he wrote, only making certain additions in A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 165 certain places where our Ethiopians in Rome do not agree with what is written because you must know that to be more faithful to the truth and my own satisfaction I confirmed it with our own good Ethiopian brother Peter and others of his [monks]. . . . I don’t think that such confusing writing as we saw in Rome is representative of what he wrote but rather something excerpted without much care from his [writing], as you know it was written in Italian whereas brother Francesco, one would think, was writing in either Spanish or Portuguese.39

In other words, Beccadelli had worked for three years on an extant Italian translation, different from Ramusio’s, which he and Danes had initially consulted years earlier, probably in 1539. In order to organize what seems to have been a sparse translation, Beccadelli elicited support from the Ethiopian monks of Santo Ste- fano, in particular one Pietro, who would later turn into one of the encounter’s key brokers. Beccadelli knew little of the haphazard translation; by his own admis- sion, he never had a chance to meet Alvares, and in fact he ignored whether the original Verdadeira was in Portuguese. Hence, Alvares must have already passed away by then, most likely shortly after his arrival in Rome, as Beccadelli himself suggested: “he [Alvares] then followed the court to Rome where he finally surrendered his soul to God after his many trials and long journeys.”40 An early death would also explain the lack of any later record pertaining to his stay in the city, at a time when it teemed with a variety of individuals interested in Ethiopia who certainly would have been looking forward to entertain conversation with a long-time guest of the Prester. Góis, for example, who during his sojourn in Padua between 1534 and 1538 made frequent visits to Rome, failed to mention any encounter with Alvares. Therefore, at some point between mid-1533 and 1535, the latter is likely to have died in Rome: Alvares was certainly dead by 1536, when a long-lost acquaintance of his reached the city making claims that the old chaplain would have found surreal.41 A decade earlier, when Lima and his companions left Ethiopia, João Bermudes (1491–1570) and the painter Lazaro de Andrade had remained behind at Lebna Dengel’s behest – according to Alvares, as pawns for Saga Zaab’s safety but probably also because of their technical skills.42 When the Adali started to make major inroads into Ethiopian territory, Lebna Dengel opted to dispatch the barber- bleeder to João to follow up on the state of Luso-Ethiopian relations and seek military support. However, instead of taking the carreira directly to Portugal, Bermudes opted to travel on the old pilgrimage route through the Middle East and to visit Rome first. According to his own narrative, which he published in the last Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 years of his tumultuous life:

The Patriarch of that country called Abuna Marcos being at the point of death, in the year of our redemption 1535 the said Emperor told that patriarch that he begged him before his death to institute me, in accordance with his use, as his successor, and as Patriarch of that country, as he heretofore had been. The said Patriarch did this, first ordaining me in all the sacred orders. I accepted this on the condition that it was confirmed by the High Roman Pontiff, successor of 166 The Indian run St Peter, who we all have to obey. The said Emperor replied that he was well content, and further asked me to go to Rome to yield obedience to the Holy Father on my own part, for him, and for all his kingdoms; and to pass thence to Portugal, to bring to a conclusion an embassy he had sent there under a man of that country called Tegazauo [Saga Zaab], in whose company came the priest Franciscaluarez. After passing through many trials by the way, I arrived at Rome while Pope Paul III was occupying the holy see [sic]; he received me with much clemency and favour, and confirmed me in what I had brought thence, and at my request rectified all, and ordered me to be appointed to the chair of Alexandria, and to be called Patriarch and Pontifex of that see.43

In other words, Bermudes claimed that a dying abuna Marqos (1481–1530) had appointed him Patriarch of Ethiopia and that a supportive Lebna Dengel had instructed him to travel to Rome to seek a pontifical confirmation and yield obedience on his behalf. In Rome, Bermudes claimed, Pope Paul III (1534–1549) not only confirmed him as patriarch of Ethiopia but also extended his authority over the Cop- tic Church – making him the head of not one but two Oriental Orthodox churches. The claims were obviously preposterous on a variety of levels. Bermudes had joined Lima’s mission as a lay barber-bleeder and during the embassy’s stay in Ethiopia had remained a rather marginal figure, barely mentioned in Alvares’s narrative. More important, no abun had or would ever appoint a successor, not even in a situation of geopolitical emergency: whenever the appointment of an Egyptian abun was delayed, the Ethiopian establishment would always opt to patiently wait, sometimes even for decades, rather than break the millennial tradition. No abun had ever been appointed by anyone but the Patriarch of Alexandria, and always from within the ranks of the Coptic Church. Furthermore, not only would Rome’s Ethiopian community have cautioned the pontiff against accepting Bermudes’s wild claims but also he seems to have traveled with an Ethio- pian companion who had conveniently died. Furthermore, in spite of Bermudes’s claims, no official document pertaining to his presumed confirmation has been found, and none of the Ethiopia-bound letters that Paul III signed in the following years referred to him.44 The lack of any contemporary sources and the absurdity of Bermudes’s claims could normally suggest that the barber fabricated not only his claims but also his visit to Rome, to further his agenda once back in Ethiopia. However, when several years later the Jesuits started to study Ethiopian-Roman relations to lay the groundwork for their own mission and made inquiries about the affair, Cardinal Marcello Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Cervini (the future Pope Marcellus II, 1555–1555) shed some light on Bermudes’s visit to Rome. At the time of the visit, Cervini was Paul III’s secretary, hence in an ideal position to witness the events involving the barber-bleeder. According to the Jesuit father who investigated the matter on Ignatius of Loyola’s behalf,

A Portuguese man [Bermudes] had come from Prester John’s India in the company of two emissaries who brought letters from the prince for the Pope. It seems that one of the emissaries died on the journey here and the other one died near Venice; and so the Portuguese man brought the letters to Rome, for A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 167 the Pope. Friar Pedro [Tesfa Seyon], who is from there, was asked to read them and so was a priest who is with Cardinal Theatino. . . . What he asked in them, it seems, is that His Holiness would grant them authority to elect a patriarch as they used to do at first, without having to ask for the confirmation of the elected one to the Alexandrian patriarch, to whom they used to appeal for the confirmation of their patriarch, and that the confirmation of Rome would suffice. The other request was that a patriarch would be created for them. This Portuguese man, without having any other resolution nor answer, departed from Rome, and upon reaching Prester John told him that His Holi- ness had made him patriarch and he thus arrogated the patriarchy and possession was given to him, etc. After the provincial prior, who is in Jerusalem, came to Rome, the pope, on behalf of Prester John, inquired as to whether the said Portuguese man was a true patriarch and if he had been consecrated in Rome and taken letters of his election; and then this matter was sent to I know not how many cardinals, amongst which to the most reverend Sancta Cruz [Marcello Cervini], who says they found that he had not been elected, nor consecrated and that he had taken no letters on such matter.45

This account confirms that Bermudes did travel to Rome and also that his imposture was uncovered, but leaves unanswered the question of how he could have been carrying Ethiopian letters calling for a revision of millennium-old traditions. In all likelihood Bermudes forged the letters, if they existed, hoping that distance and ignorance of Ethiopian traditions would do the trick. However, the pontiff, with his Ethiopian acquaintances hailing from Santo Stefano, knew better and quickly brushed off the claims, forcing the barber-bleeder to meekly continue with his mission, further to the West.

Lisbon When Bermudes reached Lisbon, Saga Zaab was still at court. Ten years earlier, the monk’s arrival had been greeted with much fanfare and had obtained several benefits such as

regular allowance and riding animals . . . three mules, one for him, and two for the two monks who came with him; and two cruzados each day for his table, that is, sixty cruzados a month, and one tostam a day for fodder for the mules; and a rich bed and bedding for him to sleep on, silver plate for his Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 table, table-cloths, and all he needed, and a butler by name Francisco Piriz, to take charge of the silver, bed and hangings, for he ordered everything to be given to him. He [João] also gave him one Francisco de Lemons, a knight of His Highness’s guard, as Arabic interpreter to speak for him, and to collect his allowance and anything he might need.46

However, once the excitement and the celebrations were over and his hosts started to scrutinize his assertions, the climate around the monk quickly changed. In the ensuing years, Saga Zaab would suffer incredible humiliation at the hands of 168 The Indian run his hosts, in particular those court theologians who were lobbying for their own Inquisition and were eager to sharpen their teeth on the Ethiopian representative. Traces of Saga Zaab’s predicament can be found in a rare letter he attempted to dispatch to Lebna Dengel in late 1533. The monk apologized to his sovereign for not having written earlier and offered a brief overview of momentous events occurring in Europe, in particular the feud between Church and Empire and its implication for his mission. The war, Saga Zaab explained, had delayed his mission, and only five years after his arrival had João finally been able to dispatch the letters to the pontiff. As to his condition,

I was also told that those two persons and their entourage felt a great joy when they heard speaking of you, my Lord. Hence, I waited for the arrival of a papal message; in the end, by the will of God, my wait was satisfied. However, my Lord, pray God and ask him and also the Saint Virgin Mary [. . .] that the Lord will not make me die before I accomplish the mission you assigned to me. It is not true that I live a life of pleasure, but instead, of sadness, because I am far away from my master, from my sun; I am a stranger in a remote land; I do not have any friend who consoles me because I live in solitude, as I said.47

Although his frustration and solitude emerge clearly from the document, Saga Zaab probably withheld more explicit recriminations out of concern for his own safety and wariness that the document could be intercepted – and rightly so. João learned about the letter and instructed his personnel to bring to his attention any further correspondence his guest might attempt to dispatch to Ethiopia.48 Stranded in a foreign world and surrounded by suspicion and scorn, Saga Zaab can be imagined falling into a state of growing isolation, in particular after Alvares and Giovanni departed for Bologna. He had been prevented from joining the mission to the pontiff, and at court he was surrounded by theologians who treated him as a pariah. Afflicted and lonely, Saga Zaab must have felt more than a modicum of solace when he was introduced to and befriended by the only person in Portugal who was both intellectually equipped to understand his predicament and defend him in the face of Catholic zealotry – Góis. After coming of age at Manuel’s court, Damião de Góis spent most of the 1520s as a civil servant in the Portuguese feitoria in Antwerp, then traveled on official missions far and wide across Europe: first in England in 1528, then Poland, Denmark, Prussia, and as far east as Russia. The experience allowed Góis to cultivate relationships with some of the most controversial religious personalities of the time, first Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and foremost Erasmus, who attracted him to theological studies.49 By the time he returned to Portugal in 1533, when João recalled and offered him an administrative position in Lisbon, the young and ambitious intellectual must have been ecstatic to make Saga Zaab’s acquaintance. Only a child when his predecessor Matewos had reached Portugal, Góis was now equipped to understand his interlocutor and eager to shed additional light on Ethiopian faith. As he would later explain,

I fell in conference with the Ethiopian Embassador at Lisbon, a man hon- oured, and imbued with the dignity of a Bishop, admirable for his credit, A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 169 doctrine, and eloquence. . . . a man most fit to bee sent from the most mighty Emperour of Ethiopia unto great and potent princes, for urgent and weightie affaires . . . and after an assured and firme friendship was established betwixt us, I had often conference with him, and reasoned and debated with him, especially of the manners of Religion of the Christians of Aethiopia.50

Góis must have quickly learned of Saga Zaab’s disagreement with Matewos’s confession of faith, and even more so with the events in Bologna, and was “emboldened to require of him a plaine and sincere declaration of the faith and religion of the Aethiopians, and to have it penned downe with his owne hands, which hee graunted unto me with great alacritie.”51 Immediately after its unauthorized publication in 1532, the Legatio had become a sensation: within months, it was reissued in an English translation by Thomas More’s son John (1509–1547), and in the following years, it appeared throughout Europe in many more editions and languages.52 Its popularity and the intellectual standing of the individuals involved in its circulation speak volumes to the intense interest that Prester John and his kingdom occasioned among learned Europe- ans, in particular Catholic intellectuals. The Ethiopian Church, with its distinctive institutions and its complex relationship to Rome and Alexandria, attracted the curiosity of theologians across Europe as they were coming to terms with the unfolding Reformation. Among them was Erasmus himself, who in his Ecclesiaste included a brief but poignant reference to the Church’s dereliction of duty toward Ethiopians.53 Some of the enlightened Catholic scholars, who were as intent in defending their faith from Protestant attacks as in lobbying for a more ecumenical Roman Church, exploited the little they knew about Ethiopians and their Church as rhetorical devices aimed at their Protestant and Catholic opponents. Given that the Legatio had been a success, Góis must have been eager to produce a more articulate and reliable work on Ethiopian Christianity, one based on the word of a high-ranking and learned Ethiopian cleric, who could have provided him with ammunitions against Catholic fanaticism. He must have conveyed to the monk the importance of publishing a more comprehensive account of Ethiopian Christian- ity to defend both his faith and himself. Saga Zaab, for his part, came to trust his learned acquaintance and agreed to the task. Before leaving Lisbon, Góis must have told the cleric how to dispatch to him the letter he intended to write, and made provisions for the document to bypass any possible censorship and be delivered, most likely through a trusted agent Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 familiar with his whereabouts. In his declaration of faith dated 24 April 1534, Saga Zaab “acknowledge[d] the B. [Bishop] of Rome to bee the chief Pastor of the sheep of Christ, yeelding obedience unto all Patriarks, Cardinals, Archb. & Bishops, of whom he is head, as unto the Ministers of Christ himselfe.”54 But he also offered a painstaking defense of Ethiopia’s religious traditions and a staunch refutation of the accusations leveled against him. Like his sovereign, the cleric recognized Rome’s primacy as a fait accompli. It referred to an ancient link between the two churches that, although greatly impaired by distance, had never been severed or questioned, as Ethiopians “from the beginning of the primitive 170 The Indian run church have acknowledged the bishop of Rome to be the chiefe Bishop whome at this day wee obey as the Vicar of Christ.”55 Hence, Saga Zaab continued, acrimonious disquisitions over Catholic and Ethio- pian differences represented nothing but a rather sterile and reprehensible exercise:

It is very unworthily done to reprehend strangers that bee Christians so sharply and bitterly, as I have beene oftentimes reprehended my selfe, both for this matter and for other things which belonged not to the true faith: but it shall be better and more standing with wisdome to sustaine such Christians whether they bee Greeks, Americans or Aethiopians, or of any other of the seven Christian Churches in charity and imbracings of Christ, and to suffer them to live and be conversant amongst other Christian brothers, without contumelies or reproaches; for we bee al the sons of baptisme, and ioyne together in opinion concerning the true faith: and there is no cause why wee should contend so bitterly touching ceremonies, but that each one should observe his owne ceremonies, without the hatred rayling or inveighing of others: neither is he that hath travelled into other nations, and observeth his owne country ceremonies therefore to be excluded from the society of the Church.56

Saga Zaab’s anger was directed to those Portuguese theologians who had questioned his faith, “especially with our Maisters Didacus Ortysius [Diogo Ortiz] Bishop of Saint Thomas Isle, and Deane of the Kings Chappel, and with Peter Marghalus [Pedro Margalho].”57 The monk had the misfortune of falling into the hands of some of the most intransigent theologians on Portuguese soil: Margalho had been after Ethiopian Christianity ever since Matewos’s arrival in Portugal and in all likelihood was behind Alvares’s interrogation in Braga, aimed at confirming Ethiopian heresy. Margalho and Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas had been lobbying hard for the introduction of the Inquisition in Portugal and can be imagined engaging Saga Zaab in less than pleasant interrogations. The extent of the harassment the latter suffered transpires quite clearly from his own words:

Al these things which I have written concerning Traditions, I have not done to breed disputation, but that as much as in me lyeth, I may defend and pro- tect my country-folkes against the bitter taunts and reprehensions of many, who setting aside all reverence, will not stick to defame and revile that most potent Prince precious Iohn and us his subjects, with slanders and reproaches, calling us Iewes and Mahometans, because we observe Circumcision, and Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 keepe holy the Sabbath day, like unto the Iewes; and also for that like the Mahometans, wee fast untill the Sunne going downe, which they alledge is unfit for a Christian man to do: and this they object against us most bitterly, that we allow and hold it as lawfull for Priests to marry, as for lay people: this also they omit not to speake against us, and that most nippingly; for that we, as it were, distrusting in our first Baptisme, be re-baptized once every yeare, and that women be circumcised as well as men, which custome was never used among the Iewes. . . . I am inforced to say thus much; that I may A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 171 purge our people from such reproaches and calumnies and that I may make the Doctors of the holy Romane church more affable unto us, by whom (how holily I know not) I have been forbidden to receive the body of our Lord ever since I came into Portugall, which is the space of 7 yeares, and that (which I speake with griefe and teares) I am reputed amongst the Christian brethren as an Ethnicke and one accursed.58

Because of his observance of practices that his interlocutors regarded as heresies of Judaic derivation – the Sabbath, circumcision, and diurnal fasting – Saga Zaab was accused of being a Jew and a Muslim, and he felt treated as an “Ethnicke” – a pagan.59 For the cleric, seeing himself and his fellow Ethiopian Christians equated with Muslims, who both he and his interlocutors considered the nemeses of Christian- ity, must have been the ultimate humiliation, all the more so when the accusations resulted in denial of communion. Exhausted, exceedingly disappointed with his hosts, and hopeless at his condition, Saga Zaab went so far as to plead with Góis to intercede on his behalf with the pontiff:

Moreover if in your travells you hap to goe to Rome, then let mee intreat you to salute in my name the Pope and most reverent Cardinalls, Patriarches, Archbishops and Bishops, and all other the true worshipers of Christ, by Christ Iesus in a kisse of peace, and that you will desire of the Pope, that hee will send unto me Francis Alvarez furnished such letters, whereby he may answere my Lord the Emperor of Aethiopia, that after my long stay I may returne into mine owne country and visit my owne mansion house, for I have bin long here detained.60

Not only the nature of his request but also the overall document departed drasti- cally from his letter to Lebna Dengel, which was devoid of any recrimination regarding his sojourn, let alone any direct attacks on the Portuguese prelates he had confidently included in the new document. Most likely Góis had guaranteed the cleric both a secure channel of communication and a discreet use of the document. It would otherwise be difficult to explain why Saga Zaab would hold back in a private letter to his own sovereign while lambasting his opponents in a document he asked to be made public. “I beeseech you by the wounds of our Saviour Christ and by his crosse” – he wrote to Góis – “to put this my confession of our faith and religion into the latine tongue, that by your meanes all the Godly Chris- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 tians of Europe, may understand our customes & the integrity of our manners.”61 Although Góis is likely to have made several adjustments to the cleric’s theological disquisitions, it is doubtful that the tone of the published version departed significantly from the original letter, especially with regard to the overall accusa- tory tone and the denunciation of his personal treatment.62 Hence, Góis must have offered Saga Zaab reassurances that he would not make the confession public until the monk had left Portugal. In fact, although he probably received the letter in Padua at some point in the mid-1530s, he would only publish it as part of his 172 The Indian run Fides, Religio, Moresqve Aethiopum Sub Imperio Preciosi Ioannis in 1540: by then, his Ethiopian acquaintance had long left Portugal and was in fact also dead.63 The plea was of no consequence, and when in 1537 Bermudes reached Portu- gal, the monk was still at court. According to the barber-bleeder’s narrative,

Emperor Onadinguel had instructed me to deprive him [Saga Zaab] of the office of ambassador, to arrest him and bring him back with me a prisoner. I brought a letter from the Emperor to this effect, which I gave to him [Saga Zaab] in Lisbon where he was. He took it, kissed it, and recognized it as gen- uine; through it he acknowledged me as his Patriarch and superior, and kissed my hand, and resigned to me his office without another word. I ordered him to be detained with two iron chains on each arm, according to the custom of his country, which I removed a few days later at the request of his highness [João III], although it was contrary to the Emperor’s orders, who had directed me to act thus.64

Although in the absence of the letter from the emperor, one can only speculate on the actual contours of Bermudes’s mission: it is certainly as implausible to imagine Lebna Dengel issuing an arrest order as it is to imagine Saga Zaab kiss- ing the barber-bleeder’s hand and recognizing him as patriarch. There is little doubt that Bermudes manufactured much of his narrative concerning his time in Portugal, especially in light of King João’s later testimony. Years later, the Portu- guese sovereign would relate to Lebna Dengel’s successor that he was oblivious to Bermudes’s ecclesiastical claims.65 After failing to garner support in Rome, Bermudes must have opted to tread carefully in Lisbon, where the context was even less favorable. There he reckoned he would have to defend himself from both Inquisition-bent clerics hovering around Saga Zaab and from the monk himself: the former could have accused him of heresy, whereas the latter would have easily debunked his claims to Ethiopia’s most important ecclesiastical position. Hence, once at João’s court, Bermudes must have set aside his dreams of grandeur and stuck to his original mission, by presenting himself as nothing more than Lebna Dengel’s ambassador – as such he was referred to in the Portuguese letters for Lebna Dengel.66 All in all, it was in Bermudes’s best interest to keep quiet about his patriar- chal pretensions, focus on completing his diplomatic mission, and postpone any scheming until after his return to Ethiopia. According to his narrative, he was in Lisbon to request also Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

that their children might be married the one with the other: that one son might go from Portugal to marry his daughter and reign in his kingdom after his death, in order that this alliance between the Portuguese and himself, and also the sub-mission to the Pope, might be strengthened and might endure. Also, he asked him to send troops to defend him from the King of Zeila who was overrunning his kingdom, for which he would send him great riches, as he very well could. Also, to send him quarry men to dig through a hill where A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 173 his ancestor, Eylale belale, formerly diverted the Nile, in order to turn it there again and damage Egypt.67

Whereas Bermudes’s ecclesiastical claims were a clear fabrication, the contours of his alleged diplomatic mission – the request for artisans to divert the Nile, the request for troops, and the marriage proposal – are remarkably consistent with what Lebna Dengel and his predecessors had sought in their relations with Europe for over a century. This time, however, the tone of the request betrayed, at least in Bermudes’s rendition, a deep sense of desperation on the part of the Ethiopian sovereign.68

In a little more than a decade, the dynamics and discourses that had defined the encounter since its inception had dramatically changed. Already with Alvares’s return, the almighty Prester John, born of European imagination as an ideal Chris- tian sovereign, had been transfigured into an African sovereign whose power and faith both were now questioned. Gone were the days of bold plans to take Jerusa- lem, of the mighty Prester John of European imagination. By the late 1530s, it was clear to Europeans knowledgeable on the state of affairs in Ethiopia that Lebna Dengel was under duress, his kingdom overrun by a local sultanate. Equally clear was that regardless of the way in which Lebna Dengel’s relationship to Rome had been presented in Bologna, Ethiopian communion with the Catholic Church was a mirage – all the more so in light of the growing anti-ecumenical atmos- phere that was taking hold in Rome and in Portugal. The most important Euro- pean patrons of the encounter, the Avis, were about to dispatch military support to Lebna Dengel, but they also expected the sovereign to make amends. Cardinal Afonso’s (1509–1540) letter to Lebna Dengel, which Bermudes took to Ethiopia, epitomizes the paradigm shift:

Very powerful king and beloved brother in Christ, we heard, from people who came from those parts, that your reign keeps solemn customs, namely, the circumcision, and the solemnity of the Sabbath and the baptism ceremony that is repeated every year, by each person, on the day of the Epiphany, and many other things and customs that are different and not compliant with the teach- ings of the roman catholic church. . . . We beseech you that you renounce these customs that seem to somewhat taint the purity of your faith, and that you accept and keep the pure and sound doctrine that is kept by the catholic and Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 universal Holy Church of Rome . . . There are other things we know that are customs in your reigns, of which we shall not talk for now; however, we hope, in the name of our Lord, that you are willing to conform to the Holy Church and to obey, in all things, to the catholic faith and to holy apostolic faith. . . . And we plead and we expect of you that you are willing to comply with the holy apostolic faith, in all things, especially now that our Lord has opened a door to India, allowing us to communicate with your kingdom regularly, so that your kingdom may become instructed in the matters of the faith.69 174 The Indian run Although papal letters directed to Ethiopian sovereigns over the years had made no mystery of Rome’s desire to see Ethiopians conform to Catholic practices, Afonso’s marks the emergence of a Portuguese discourse of conversion that in a matter of years would redefine the encounter. For the time being, however, the issue of Ethiopian practices and of its obedience to Rome remained unsettled, for there were more pressing questions for both the Ethiopian and Portuguese establishments.70 As for Góis, while sojourning in Padua, probably shortly after receiving Saga Zaab’s letter, had found himself in an animated theological diatribe with Simão Rodrigues (1510–1579), one of Ignatius of Loyola’s first followers. The father seems to have been incensed at Góis’s correspondence with Luther and Melanc- thone and his openness toward the Reformation. Although there is no evidence to confirm it, one can imagine that Góis used his knowledge of Ethiopian faith as a foil to argue in favor of tolerance and ecumenism. At the time of the incident, Loyola was in Venice, and having heard of the heated dispute, he quickly traveled to Padua to offer an apology to Góis. As he was about to present his new order’s new rules for approval in Rome, Loyola must have been wary of antago- nizing the Portuguese intellectual and his power circle of acquaintances. Little did Góis know that, despite the apology, the controversy would not end there, and the enmity with the father would haunt him for the rest of his life.71 Góis issued the Fides from Louvain, where he had moved in 1538: quickly after its impression, he circulated copies among his vast network of learned acquaintances, among them cardinals Pietro Bembo (1470–1547) and Reginald Pole (1500–1558). The volume quickly made it also to Portugal where it found a less than receptive audience. João III’s brother, Henrique, later cardinal and eventually King Henrique I (1578–1580), had been appointed Portugal’s first inquisitor- general in 1539. In 1541, Henrique, who seems to have had great admiration for Góis, banned the part of the volume with Saga Zaab’s confession of faith, but assigned the responsibility squarely to the Ethiopian, whom he vilified, while treating Góis as an editor in good faith.72 In 1545, Góis finally returned to Lisbon, where João III seems to have entertained the idea of assigning him to tutor his son João Manuel (1537–1554): unfortunately, the other person eyeing the position was Góis’s old acquaintance, Simao Rodrigues, who was about to turn into the humanist’s ultimate nemesis. Rodrigues, who in 1546 became the head of the Portuguese province, the Society’s first, was now a powerful cleric: probably still coveting rancor from the embarrassing diatribe in Padua, or simply out of his zealotry, the father Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 denounced Góis to the Inquisition. Although Cardinal Henrique dismissed the case, the denunciation forced Góis away from court, a departure that marked the beginning of the end for the humanist’s career. Despite the partial success, Rodrigues was hardly satisfied, and in 1550 he denounced Góis again: in the meanwhile, the latter had been appointed to general administrator of the Torre do Tombo, Portugal’s royal archive. Once again, the case was dismissed: in spite of his religious views and dubious acquaintances among Protestant and A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 175 exceedingly ecumenical Catholic scholars, Góis could still count on the good- will of João III, Henrique, and a variety of other Portuguese personalities who held him in high regard.73 However, the context would be radically different in 1571, when a relentless Rodrigues denounced him a third time: João III was long dead and his son and successor Sebastião I (1557–1578) was operating in a radically mutated environment. The young sovereign and his regent Cardinal Henrique could hardly be supportive of the old scholar: both the Society and the Inquisition had become well entrenched in an increasingly troublesome kingdom that was plagued by a dire financial crisis and famine. More important for Góis, the young sovereign and his regent had embraced Trent’s directives enthusiastically and without reservations. This time, Rodrigues’s denunciation did not go away: Góis was tried and found guilty. He was granted reconciliation and sentenced to life in prison, later converted to monastical confinement, where he died in 1574.74

Notes 1 Francisco Alvares et al., Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961), 491–3. Given that the letters to Portuguese sovereigns were written in three languages, the same can be assumed for the pontiff’s. 2 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 507. 3 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 420. Saga Zaab’s previous journey to Europe seems to be confirmed in an Ethiopian manuscript of the era, according to which the cleric accompanied Antonius to Rome in 1481. If so, at the time of his second voyage to Europe Saga Zaab must have been well into his sixties. Marḥa Krestōs, Actes de Marḥa Krestos (Louvain: Secrétariat du Corpus SCO, 1972); Gianfranco Fiaccadori, “A Marginal Note to ‘Four Sistine Ethiopians?’ ” Aethiopica 14 (2011): 137. 4 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 1:143–4. For a general discussion, see Thomaz, “Factions, Interests and Messianism”; and Aubin, “Duarte Galvão.” 5 Quoted in Marcocci, “Prism of Empire,” 455–6. 6 On Reubeni, see Marcocci, “Prism of Empire,” 458–9; Moti Benmelech, “History, Politics, and Messianism: David Ha-Reuveni’s Origin and Mission,” AJS Review 35, no. 1 (2011): 35–60; and Curt Leviant, ed., Masterpieces of Hebrew Literature: Selec- tions from 2000 Years of Jewish Creativity (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2008), 503–20, the latter includes a translation of Reubeni’s diary. 7 Alvares’s sojourn in Braga and his answers found their way into his narrative. Because the circumstances of the inclusion are as unclear as the volume’s publication, the section’s authorship, comprehensiveness, and veracity remain uncertain; see Chapter 8

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 and Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 507–18. Although Alvares characterized his sojourn as of “some days,” references in his published narrative point to a longer stay. Alvares compared the Ethiopian sites he visited not with similar sites in Lisbon or in his native city of Coimbra but with Braga’s, an occurrence that suggest he revised at least part of his manuscript while sojourning in the city; Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 164, 202. Furthermore, as he compared Ethiopian and Portuguese liturgical practices, he characterized the Ethiopian “catechism” as “not as long as the Archbishop of Braga’s”: this reference is to be found only in Ramusio’s version: Giovanni Battista Ramusio and Marica Milanesi, Navigazioni e viaggi (Torino: G. Einaudi, 1978), 2:119; 176 The Indian run Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 110. On Pedro Margalho and Diogo de Sousa’s discourse on Ethiopia, see Marcocci, “Prism of Empire,” 455–60. 8 Dom Martinho was the natural son of Dom Afonso (1440–1522), Bishop of Evora, and brother of João III. Peter G. Bietenholz and Thomas Brian Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 396. On the establishment of the Inquisition, see Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1:181–2. 9 “Processus super statu ecclesiae S. Salvatoris nationis Ethiopum in regno Cypri et civitate Nicosien. et qualitatibus Iohannis Baptistae Habascini electi episcopi dictae ecclesiae 1564,” A. A. Arm. I–XVIII n. 2953, 19r–20r. 10 Renato Lefevre, “Roma e la comunità etiopica di Cipro nei secoli XV e XVI,” Rassegna di Studi Etiopici 1, no. 1 (1941): 72. 11 Dom Martinho to João III, 17 November 1533, Genoa, in Luiz Augusto Rebello da Silva, Corpo diplomatico Portuguez contendo os actos e relações politicas e diplomaticas de Portugal com as diversas potencias do mundo desde o seculo XVI até os nossos dias T. 2 T. 2 (Lisboa: Acad. Real das Sciencias, 1865), 412–13. 12 Legatio David Aethiopiae Regis, Ad Sanctissimum D.N. Clementem Papa VII (Bolo- gna: Bononiae apud Iacobum Kemolen Alostensem, 1533); L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’’Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII (Bologna: Giacobo Keymo- len Alostese, 1533). For a discussion of their publication, see Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento”; and Renato Lefevre, “l’ambasceria di David re d’Etiopia a Clemente VII (1533),” Accademie e Biblioteche d’Italia 34, no. 4, 5–6 (1966): 230–48, 324–38. The translations are from the Italian version: L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Ai. The text will refer to this document as the Ambasciaria, to distinguish it from Góis’s Legatio. 13 L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII Aiii r. 14 Ludwig Pastor, The History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages, ed. Ralph Francis Kerr, 40 vols (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1910), 10:214–27. 15 Compare Giovanni’s claim with L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santis- simo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Aii v. 16 From the short letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Cii v. 17 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Di v. 18 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Ci v r. 19 From the short letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Ci v. 20 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Di v. 21 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 286. 22 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Civ r. 23 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Ciii v. The Italian version reads “con gran reverentia te obbedisco”; the Latin version reads “tibi reverenter obedio”. 24 João III to Clement VII, 28 May 1532, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Aiv vr. 25 João III to Clement VII, 28 May 1532, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Aiv r. 26 L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Di r. 27 From the short letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Cii. A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 177 28 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Ciii v. 29 For additional commentary on the declaration, see Lefevre, “L’Etiopia nella stampa del primo cinquecento,” 69–71, which discounts the notion of obedience; I. Ortiz Da Urbina, “L’Etiopia e la santa sede nel secolo XVI,” Civiltà Cattolica 4 (1934): 382–98, for an opposite view. 30 From the long letter: Lebna Dengel to Clement VII, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Di v. 31 Lebna Dengel to Manuel, in L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, B iii v; also in Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 494–501. 32 “I am not sent from my most mightie Lord the Emperor of Aethiopian unto the Bishop of Rome and unto John the most renowned king of Portugal to move disputations and contentions, but to begin friendship and fellowship,” Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 572. 33 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 415–20. To complicate matters further, after appear- ing in the Ambasciaria, Lebna Dengel’s letters to Manuel and João were reprinted in a variety of publications in different languages. Apart from a few word choices, the various versions coincide, except the very reference to Saga Zaab, which in some of the versions of the letters is included not in the letter to Manuel but, instead, in that to João. Compare the letters in Góis, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Æthiopvm Svb Imperio Preciosi Ioannis. 34 Martinho had a strong aversion to the Inquisition and disappointed João III, who recalled him to Portugal in 1535; see Bietenholz and Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus, 396; on Giovanni, see Chapter 8. 35 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 34. Like many other scholars of the era, Ramusio confused the ancient notion of Ethiopia, which identified sub-Saharan Africa in general, with the Kingdom of Ethiopia; see EA 1:162–5. 36 For a discussion of the volume’s editions, including Ramusio’s, see Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 5–11. 37 L’Ambasciaria di David, re dell’ Etiopia, al Santissimo S. N. Clemente Papa VII, Aiii v. 38 Lefevre, “Documenti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua attivita romana nel sec. XVI,” 77n. 39 Cited in Roberto Almagià, Contributi alla storia della conoscenza dell’Etiopia (Padova: La Garangola, 1941), 16–17. See also Lefevre, “Documenti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua attivita romana nel sec. XVI,” 77–8. 40 Cited in Almagià, Contributi alla storia della conoscenza dell’Etiopia, 26. 41 On Góis’s whereabouts, see Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portu- guese Humanist, 1502–1574, xv, 112. In the volume’s dedication to João III, included in the first Portuguese edition, Alvares refers to the difficulties he faced in the printing process and to his journey to Paris to find the types; Alvares,Prester John of the Indies, 36–7. However, it is unlikely that he supervised the printing process, let alone traveled to Paris. After leaving for Bologna, he probably never returned to Portugal and was already dead when the Verdadeira was first issued in 1540. In all likelihood, Alvares contracted with his printer before leaving, and the latter put together the dedicatory letter the best he could, possibly starting from Alvares’s own draft; see Luis Rodrigues

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Artur Anselmo, O livreiro Luís Rodrigues, impressor de textos humanísticos (Coimbra: Fac. de Letras, 1993); Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 7 and 37 note; Almagià, Contributi alla storia della conoscenza dell’Etiopia, 27. The hypothesis that Alvares and Bermudes met seems unlikely. On the possible encounter see Giuseppe Marcocci, “Gli umanisti italiani e l’impero portoghese,” 330. 42 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 380. The circumstance casts further doubts on Alvares’s reconstruction of Saga Zaab’s appointment as ambassador, as the former claims that Bermudes and Andrade were asked to stay behind to guarantee Saga Zaab’s safety in 1521 but also that the latter’s dispatch was decided only in late 1523. On 178 The Indian run Bermudes, see M. Chaine, “Le patriarche Jean Bermudez d’Éthiopie (1540–1570),” ROC 14 (1909): 321–30; Francisco Rodrigues, “Mestre João Bermudes,” Revista de Historia 3 (1919): 119–37; Albert Kammerer, La Mer Rouge, l’Abyssinie, l’Arabie aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles et la cartographie des portulans du monde oriental (Le Caire: Société royale de geographic d’Egypte, 1947), 37–62. 43 Richard Stephen Whiteway, ed., The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541– 1543 as Narrated by Castanhoso (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1902), 129–30. The main source for Bermudes’s claims and journey is his Breve relação da embaixada que o Patriarcha D. João Bermudez, trouxe do imperador da ethiopa vulgarmente chamado, Preste João, dirigida a el-rei D. Sebastião (Lisbon, 1565), which is available in different editions: João Bermudez, Breve relação da embaixada que o patriarcha D. João Bermudez trouxe do imperador da Ethiopia, chamado vulgarmente Preste João, dirigida a el-rei D. Sebastião (Lisboa: Academia Real das Sciencias de Lisboa, 1875); Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541–1543 as Narrated by Castanhoso; João Bermudes, Ma géniale imposture: Patriarche du Pretre Jean (Tou- louse and Marseille: Anacharsis, 2010). All quotations are from the English version. 44 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, lxxxiv. 45 Salmeron to Loyola, Trent, October 1546, in Alfonso Salmeron, Epistolae Alphonsi Salmeronis Societatis Jesu. Tomus Primus (Matriti: Typis Gabrielis Lopez del Horno, 1906), 33–6. 46 Alvares, Prester John of the Indies, 494. 47 Saga Zaab to Lebna Dengel, 7 Maskaram 1533, Lisbon, translated from the French version in Rene Basset, “Deux lettres éthiopiennes du XVIe siècle,” Giornale della Società Asiatica Italiana 3 (1889): 58–79. On Saga Zaab’s stay in Portugal, see Asa J. Davis, “Background to the Zaga ZaAb Embassy: An Ethiopian Diplomatic Mission to Portugal (1529–1539),” Studia 32 (1971): 211–302; Jean Aubin, “Le Prêtre Jean devant la censure portugaise,” Bulletin des etudes Portugaises et Brésiliennes Paris 41 (1980): 33–57. 48 Aubin, “Le Prêtre Jean devant la censure Portugaise,” 206. 49 On Góis’s journeys and his relationship with Erasmus see Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574. 50 Góis, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Æthiopvm Svb Imperio Preciosi Ioannis. Cited from the English edition, Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 544–5. 51 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 545. 52 For a discussion of the Legatio’s different editions, see J. Lawrance, “The Middle Indies”; and Blackburn, “The Legacy of ‘Prester John’ by Damião a Goes and John More.” On John More’s translation and his father Thomas’s interest in Prester John, see Romuald I. Lakowski, “Thomas More and the East: Ethiopia, India and the Land of Prester John,” Moreana 46, no. 177–8 (2009): 181–98. On Góis and More see Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574, 19. 53 Desiderius Erasmus, Desiderii Erasmi Rotterodami Ecclesiastae sive de ratione concionandi libro quatuor ed. Friedrich August Klein (Lipsiae: Libraria Weidmannia, 1820), 105. 54 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 549.

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 55 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 573. 56 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 567. 57 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 566. On the two theologians, see Marcocci, “Prism of Empire”; Giuseppe Marcocci, “A Fundação Da Inquisição Em Portugal: Um Novo Olhar,” Lusitania Sacra 23 (2011): 26. 58 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 571. Saga Zaab’s account seems to be the only extant record of his dealings with court theologians. 59 The Latin is “Ethnicus & Anathema”; see Góis, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Æthiopvm Svb Imperio Preciosi Ioannis, 83. 60 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 579. A tale of three cities, 1527–1539 179 61 Aston, The Manners, Lauues, and Customes of All Nations, 579. 62 For a learned discussion of Fides see Marcocci, “Gli umanisti italiani e l’impero portoghese: una interpretazione della Fides, Religio, Moresque Æthiopum di Damião de Góis.” 63 Pace Hirsch who has him “pleased with the reception” of the volume. Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574, 152. 64 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 131. 65 João III to Galawdewos, 13 March 1546, Lisbon, in Whiteway, The Portuguese Expe- dition to Abyssinia, 110–12. See Chapter 8. 66 Cardinal Alfonso to Lebna Dengel, 20 March 1539, Lisbon, in Beccari, Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores, 10:5–18. 67 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 132. 68 Compare with the marriage proposals by Yeshaq (Chapter 2) and Eleni (Chapter 5) and previous requests for technology and military support. 69 Cardinal Alfonso to Lebna Dengel, 20 March 1539, Lisbon, in Camillo Beccari, Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores, 10:5–17. 70 See on the importance of this document see Andreu Martinez d’Alos-Moner, “The Birth of a Mission: The Jesuit Patriarchate in Ethiopia,” Portuguese Studies Review 10, no. 2 (2003): 7–9. Andreu Martinez d’Alos-Moner, “Paul and the Other: The Por- tuguese Debate on the Circumcision of the Ethiopians,” in Ethiopia and the Missions: Historical and Anthropological Insights (Münster: LIT Verlag, 2005), 36–48. Aubin, “Le Prêtre Jean Devant La Censure Portugaise,” 201–3. 71 On the incident see Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574, 96. 72 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1:182; Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574, 153–4. 73 Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574, 186–9; Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1: 189. 74 Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, 1: 186–7; Hirsch, Damião de Gois; the Life and Thought of a Portuguese Humanist, 1502–1574. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 8 Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555

As Bermudes was sailing back to Goa with Saga Zaab, he was about to find himself at the margins of a global conflict involving two global empires, the Portu- guese and the Ottoman, and two regional powers, the Kingdom of Ethiopia and the Sultanate of Adal. For most of the 15th century, Walasma sultans had avoided a full-blown confrontation with the Christian kingdom, opting instead for limited engagement and accepting coexistence, but once the governor of Zeila, Mahfuz, began his incursions and calls for jihad, Ethiopian-Adali relations quickly deteriorated. A series of successful incursions throughout the 1490s gained him both valuable spoils of war – slaves for the markets on the other side of the Red Sea – and political capital, all the more so when he successfully confronted and killed Emperor Naod (1494–1508). Mahfuz’s popularity among both the merchant class and the ulema ultimately forced Sultan Muhammad to acquiesce and support the war.1 This first phase of extensive confrontation ended between 1517 and 1518, when Mahfuz and Muhammad died – the former allegedly at the hands of Lebna Dengel and the latter assassinated by Mahfuz’s supporters. The death of both the char- ismatic leader and of the long-time sovereign precipitated the Sultanate of Adal into a civil war between jihadists and royalists, affording Ethiopia some respite. Within years, Muhammad’s son Abu Bakr (1520–1525) restored Walasma power, only to see himself challenged by another jihad-bent leader, imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (1506–1543), known as “Gragn” – the left-handed. With the support of the religious faction, Ahmad resumed raiding and quickly gained sufficient political and economic capital to challenge and kill Sultan Abu Bakr and replace him with a Walasma willing to acquiesce to the jihadist faction. Recog- nized as Adal’s undisputed leader, Ahmad turned his raids into Ethiopian territory Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 into a new jihad. On 23 March 1529, he decimated Lebna Dengel’s army in the momentous battle of Shimbra-Kure, opening the Highlands to conquest.2 In the ensuing years, Ahmad scored victory after victory throughout the High- lands, reaching as far north as Tigray. Faced with the direst existential threat in the monarchy’s history, Ethiopian forces were in complete disarray. Chris- tian communities were pillaged and forced into conversion while the country’s secular and religious landmarks were targeted one after the other.3 In 1530, the Adali burned down the Debra Libanos monastery, in early 1531, Lebna Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 181 Dengel was forced to abandon his imperial camp in Barara, and in the following years, “nothing could be saved, from men to beasts: everything came under Gragn’s [Ahmad] rule.”4 The degree of destruction that Ethiopia underwent emerges clearly not only from Ethiopian sources but also in the Arab chronicle of Ahmad’s conquest, according to which “the Muslims never passed by an infidel village without destroying every trace of it.”5 The narrative details with more than a modicum of pride the burning of several churches as well as the enslavement and slaughtering of Ethiopians that defined the decade-long Adali campaign. In Tigray for example,

it is said that some people who were with them on the mountaintop counted the number of idol-worshippers. It transpires that their number, including their patrician, came to ten-thousand five-hundred-and-fifty. Not one of them survived. The Muslims plundered their cattle and livestock in quantities that could not be counted or calculated.6

Lebna Dengel proved incapable of unifying the country’s residual forces, and by the mid-1530s there was little beyond local and disorganized resistance to stand in imam Ahmad’s way. Ahmad’s impressive victories and Ethiopia’s impending capitulation were predicated primarily on two factors. In Ethiopia, the church and state apparatus had mostly failed in its assimilationist mission: many communities that had reluctantly accepted Christian rule during the country’s expansion in the previous century quickly reverted to their old allegiances and either remained neutral or supported Adal. In the sultanate, beyond the idealistic call for jihad were very practical considerations that attracted much support to the imam. The war resulted in an exponential growth of what had been a lucrative slave market for centuries, one that through the port of Zeila linked the Horn of Africa to the slave markets of the Middle East and of the Indian Ocean.7 Furthermore, as Ahmad made his way through the Highlands, he also attracted support from the Ottomans, who looked at the expanding sultanate as a viable ally in the ongoing confrontation with the Portuguese.8 Since the turn of the century, Portuguese and Ottoman interests and universalist claims had been on a collision course. The Ottomans thrust south into the Indian Ocean world, first by putting an end to Mamluk Egypt and claiming hegemony in the Red Sea, then by imposing themselves in Mesopotamia and making Basra their foothold in the Persian Gulf. Simultaneously, the Portuguese found their way into the Indian Ocean and then moved northward. At stake was the spice trade, which the Portuguese attempted Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 to control by blockading access to the Gulf and the Red Sea while diverting traf- fic to thecarreira . After a few skirmishes, military engagements between the two empires began in earnest in 1538, when the Ottoman lay siege to Diu and quickly spread throughout the western Indian Ocean basin, involving a variety of client states.9 For the Ottomans, the siege of Diu was the occasion to establish a stable foothold at the southern end of the Red Sea, as the commander of the fleet, the governor of the Egyptian Eyalet Hadim Suleiman Pasha, on the way back to Suez, 182 The Indian run occupied Aden and established a governorate in Yemen. For Ahmad, the transit of the Ottoman fleet was an occasion to hail the governor and receive support while paving the way for further collaboration with the newly established Ottoman authorities on the other side of the Red Sea.10 Simultaneously, heartened by their victorious stand, the Portuguese decided to take the initiative with a new Red Sea expedition and strike at the heart of the Ottoman naval enterprise in Suez. Had the raid succeeded, it could have changed the course of world history: not only would the Portuguese have had free reign on the Red Sea and in the spice trade but also the old Manueline dream of destroying Islam’s holy cities would have been within reach. Leading the largest Portuguese fleet ever assembled was Estêvão da Gama (1505–1576), Vasco’s son and newly appointed governor of the Estado, while his brother Christóvão (1516–1542) and another member of the Gama clan, Manuel, were among his officers. On board was also Bermudes, who seems to have been instrumental in recruiting mercenaries in Goa and was eager to return to Ethiopia.11 Unfortunately for the Gamas, the expedition started to unravel from the start, primarily because it was predicated on conflicting strategic elements: storming by surprise a port located on the other side of the Red Sea’s entrance, on the one hand, while deploying the largest Portuguese fleet ever assembled, on the other. By the time the fleet passed Bab el-Mandeb in late January 1541, Ottoman authorities were already privy to Portuguese plans. Furthermore, it quickly became apparent to the Gamas that the larger boats were ill suited for the shallow and windy waters of the narrow Red Sea. Having reached Massawa, Estêvão decided to split the fleet and leave the larger sails behind under Manuel’s command; weeks later, in the proximity of Suakin, because of a shortage of provisions, he opted to raid the city. By late March, still under duress, Estêvão ordered all but 16 vessels to return to Massawa. By the time the rump fleet reached Suez in late April, the mission’s fate was sealed. After a half-hearted attempt to engage Ottoman forces, Estêvão ordered a retreat: for the Gamas, the Avis, and their imperial ambitions, the expedition had turned into a fiasco of unprecedented proportion.12 Back in Massawa, Estêvão quickly learned that the crew in the harbor had been suffering from starvation and disease, to the point of inducing some to desert. Ostensibly lured by Bermudes himself who, eager to return to the Highlands, seems to have peddled tales of Ethiopian richness and splendors, about 100 soldiers disembarked and ventured toward the Highlands. Before disappearing from the record, they left a vivid mark in an Arabic chronicle which relates that “a contingent about 100 strong landed on the coast by way of assistance for the Hati King of Abyssinia (al-Habashah), but the Karad Ahmade al-Mudjahid dispatched an Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 expedition (tadjidah) against them which slew them to the last man.”13 Despite the debacle in Suez and the less than conducive situation on shore, Estêvão opted to dispatch his brother Christóvão onto the Highlands, at the helm of a contingent of about 500 soldiers – it is easy to imagine that the same myth that had contributed to draw their father to the Indian Ocean and make their family’s fortune also affected their decision to dispatch a battalion to Ethiopia.14 From a transregional stand- point, the Portuguese intervention on the side of Ethiopia, against the Ottoman- sponsored sultanate, turned the Highlands into one of many battlegrounds of a Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 183 much larger confrontation. On the one hand were Adali jihadists, repeatedly reinforced throughout the years by Ottoman and Arab supplies and manpower; on the other were the Portuguese and a Christian monarchy in complete disarray, whose long-time sovereign had been defeated and killed in battle.15 When on 9 July 1541 the Portuguese party left the coast behind and headed to the Highlands in Lima’s footsteps, the newly enthroned Emperor Galawdewos (1540–1559) was hiding in Shewa, avoiding any open confrontation and instead opting for small-scale operations. After spending the rest of the year in Debarwa, where they regrouped with the forces of bahr negus Yeshaq and the late sovereign’s consort, the Portuguese started their march to the south and began to engage Adali forces. The first skirmishes, in which the Portuguese-Ethiopian forces prevailed, seem to have persuaded Ahmad to seek further Ottoman support in exchange for a formal alliance that turned Adal into an Ottoman tributary in exchange for

nine hundred, all arquebusiers, very fine and good men; he . . . also sent him . . . ten field bombards, knowing that what damage he . . . had received from us was by artillery and matchlocks, for hitherto he had had no field pieces. There also came to him many Arabs, sent by an Arabian lord, his friend . . . among these were twenty Turkish horsemen.16

Emboldened by the infusion of supplies and reinforcements, imam Ahmad pursued the Portuguese and scored a major victory in Wofla in August 1542: he crushed the Luso-Ethiopian army and took Christóvão prisoner. With both Ethiopian and Portuguese forces in disarray, and with one of the Gamas in his hands, the imam could hardly be in a better position, but he quickly fell victim to his hubris.17 The Ottomans seem to have expected the Adali to deliver Christóvão and his fellow captives so that they could use them as pawns against the Portuguese, but Ahmad opted to execute Gama shortly after taking him prisoner. Either an act of fanaticism or an overconfident statement of independence, the execution and possibly additional disagreements prompted the Ottomans to withdraw most of their forces and return to Yemen with the surviving Portuguese captives.18 Their departure, in the aftermath of an astounding victory, seems to have marked the beginning of the end for the imam. In the following months, the surviving Portuguese managed to join Galawdewos, who gathered every soul still willing to fight and moved to confront the imam in the proximity of Lake Tana. On 22 February 1543, the Adali suffered an astounding and probably unexpected defeat: Ahmad was killed, and Galawdewos ordered that “the head of the late King of Zeila should Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 be set on a spear, and carried round and shown in all his country, in order that the people might know that he was indeed dead.”19 Adal’s army quickly disbanded: despite attempts to regroup, bereft of both the imam’s leadership and Ottoman support, they quickly retreated to their homeland. By late 1543, after more than a decade of carnage, the conflict was over.20 Whether the Portuguese intervention had a vital bearing on the outcome of the war can only be object of speculation. The small contingent certainly provided Ethiopians with both a significant injection of modern weaponry and a morale 184 The Indian run boost, in the same way that the arrival of modernly armed Ottoman troops contributed to Ahmad’s impressive campaign. But in light of Ethiopia’s enduring ability to survive as an independent African and Christian polity century after century, one can speculate that it would have weathered the Adali storm even without European support. Either way, with both the discourse on the Prester and his faith rapidly mutating, and with the reconfiguration of Portugal’s imperial strategy, the intervention can at best be regarded as the encounter’s swan song. Although millenarianism would persist throughout the Christian-Muslim world for the remainder of the century and the Portuguese-Ottoman confrontation would continue, by the 1540s the two empires had mostly settled for a scornful coexistence. Portugal’s dreams of crusading grandeur were long gone: the pervasive nature of Islam throughout the Indian Ocean basin, the impregnability of the Red Sea, and ultimately a disappointing condition of the long-sought Prester John were the harsh reality. Even the military intervention in Ethiopia, as much as it had been enabled by age-old discourses on the Prester, was the result of pragmatic geopolitical considerations and ultimately disproved the very myth of the Prester – the African sovereign was barely capable of holding on to his kingdom, let alone march on Jerusalem. The Prester, it turned out, was also not as Christian as Euro- peans had imagined. For more than a century, the encounter had been grounded on a shared religious identity, but the discourse on the Prester had long been coming under the axe of Tridentine Catholicism. Portuguese clerics had been busy criticizing Ethiopian faith: the treatment meted out to Saga Zaab in Lisbon and Cardinal Afonso’s critical letter to Lebna Dengel were signs of things to come. On 27 September 1540, with the bull Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae, Pope Paul III extended formal approval to the Society of Jesus: in 1546, Portugal became the Society’s first province and the launching pad for some of its most aggressive proselytism overseas.21 In the ensuing decades, as the black-robed missionaries quickly scattered throughout the Portuguese Empire and beyond, Ethiopia became one of the Society’s first overseas missions. As the fathers made their first steps into the country, it became quickly apparent that the defining elements of the encounter, the paradigm of religious sameness and ecumenism, were being replaced by a new discourse of difference and proselytism. In the wake of the Counter-Reformation, reciprocal curiosity, intercultural understanding, and transcultural identities quickly gave way to a binomial logic little conducive to further exchanges. Portuguese-Ethiopian relations would continue and even intensify throughout the ensuing decade, but the changed discourse eventually led to an inevitable confrontation. The fate of three cross-cultural brokers who Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 operated between the two worlds at the time of the fatal juncture and whose biographies undertook surprising twists and turns best epitomize the fading of the encounter and the opening of a new era of unequal relations.

The barber-bleeder turned patriarch In his own narrative, Bermudes presented himself as both the architect of the intervention and a valiant military leader ultimately responsible for the Portuguese victory. The reality, of course, was rather different: provided that the barber-bleeder Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 185 had been responsible for bringing the Ethiopian plight to Portuguese attention, he was far from being the leader of the expedition, despite claims to the contrary in his boastful narrative. If anything, he appears to have been, already starting with the forced sojourn in Massawa, an element of disturbance inclined to challenge the Portuguese chain of command. As to his ecclesiastical claims, Bermudes presented himself as patriarch to Emperor Galadewos, arguing that Paul III had recognized him as such: the emperor seems to have somewhat played along during the conflict, but once the dust of war settled, Bermudes’s position became quickly untenable.22 Galawdewos allowed him to cater only to the spiritual needs of the Portuguese soldiers who had settled in the country. As Bermudes was not satisfied, he agitated the Portuguese against the emperor, who in turn opted to make inquiries about the barber bleeder with King João. Although his letter to the Portuguese ruler is lost, its contents can be deduced from the latter’s reply:

As to what João Bermudez has done there, whom the King your father [Lebna Dengel] sent to me as his Ambassador, I disapprove greatly, for they are things very contrary to the service of Our Lord, and by reason of them it is clear that he cannot be given any help or assistance, nor do I know more of him than that he is a mere priest. Of the powers which he says the Holy Father granted him I know nothing.

Therefore João was oblivious to Bermudes’s claims and offered to

send to you and for your kingdom, with the permission of God, a person for patriarch, who shall be such and of such zeal and good walk of life . . . and with whom you may discuss more fully the matter of João Bermudez, and take concerning him the course that seems right to you.23

In the meantime, Galawdewos had also sought and received a new Egyptian abun, Yosab (1547/48–1552), whose presence in Ethiopia was a final blow to Bermudes. When in 1550 Galawdewos wrote to King João again, Bermudes was not even mentioned, an indication that the truth had finally caught up with him. By the mid-1550s Bermudes moved to Debarwa with the rest of the Portu- guese community, and in 1556 he headed to Massawa to leave Ethiopia for good.24 Ironically, Bermudes transited from Massawa to Goa in the company of two Jesu- Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 its, Gonçalo Rodrigues and Fulgêncio Freire, who in 1555 had been dispatched to Ethiopia to sound Galawdewos’s intentions. The two were returning to Goa greatly disappointed upon learning that the sovereign had no intention of con- forming to Roman practices after all; they were in fact carrying his declaration of faith, in which he rejected the Society’s call for reform. For Bermudes, it was the first acquaintance with the Fathers, who seem to have been journeying though the encounter world in the barber-bleeder’s wake. Loyola himself had reached Rome in 1537 to secure the approval for his religious order only months after Ber- mudes’s departure. In 1538, Francis Xavier (1506–1552) and Simão Rodrigues 186 The Indian run (1510–1579) reached Lisbon to establish the Society’s first province just months after Loyola had left for Goa; finally he departed for Ethiopia in 1540, about a year and a half before Xavier arrived in the city to lay the groundwork for the Society’s presence in the East. When Rodriguez and Freire met Bermudes, they were certainly aware of his imposture, but they were probably oblivious to his involuntary role in enabling their own mission. Loyola developed his interest in Ethiopia in the 1540s in Rome, where he had access to some of the personalities involved in the encounter. The 1546 report confirmed Bermudes’s imposture but also conveyed the need for a practical solution:

He was the first to have entered in title and on behalf of the apostolic see; and so that the see would not convey a bad impression and have a bad start, he says that it was then deliberated that, on behalf of the apostolic see, a bishop should be sent as an emissary to Prester John, so as to determine if that patriarch [Bermudes] led a good life and if he performed the functions of a pastor and, if such was the case, that he would confirm him without rumors or scandal; in the event of him leading a bad life and setting bad examples, be it in his functions or in his life, that it would be left to the discretion of the envoy whether he should be removed, corrected, confirmed or if another one should be created.25

In other words, the curia believed that as much as his claims were an abomina- tion, they had somehow been accepted in Ethiopia and could have been exploited for the sake of reunification. Loyola seems to have embraced this logic and to have regarded Bermudes’s alleged acceptance in Ethiopia as a confirmation of the Prester’s readiness to mend his religious ways.26 If Ethiopians had accepted a barber-bleeder to the leadership of their church, Loyola suggested, then a properly trained Jesuit patriarch would have no difficulties – accordingly, he pressed ahead with the mission.27 As for Bermudes, he returned to Portugal by 1558, after a long sojourn in Goa. He published his memoir after one of Gama’s soldiers issued an account of the expedition that cast him in a rather negative light. Until his death in 1570, he never faced any consequences for either his imposture or for his dishonest memoir, which was printed with the approval of Cardinal Henrique.28 The rather benign treatment was most likely the result of the same political calculations that had been made in Rome. Had his imposture become public, it would have been Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 an embarrassment for the Avis and the Church and a blow to the legitimacy of the Jesuit mission.

The Ethiopian monk who almost turned missionary Bermudes was only one of the brokers who, with their experiences and testimonies, informed Loyola’s understanding of Ethiopia. Another was Tesfa Seyon (1510–1550/52), Salmeron’s “frai Pedro,” who later assisted Beccadelli in his work Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 187 on Alvares’s manuscript. A learned cleric from Shewa, Tesfa Seyon left Ethiopia in the early years of the Ethiopian-Adali War.29 In Rome by the mid-1530s, he turned himself into one of the most enterprising residents Santo Stefano would ever see and possibly the most prominent African on early modern European soil, one who could boast among his acquaintances some of the most important lay and ordained personalities of the era. As suggested by his involvement with Bermudes and Beccadelli, the Ethiopian cleric was able to exploit his identity, knowledge, and skills in the context of the growing Roman interest in Ethiopia and emerge as of the most important brokers of the encounter – although in ways he probably would have regretted. By the early 1540s, Tesfa Seyon was well introduced to Paul III and various members of the Farnese family, Cardinal Marcello Cervini, and a host of curial personalities invested in developing their understanding of the Ethiopian Church, among them the Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto (1514–1585), Pietro Paolo Gualt- ieri (1501–1572), and Mariano Vittori da Rieti (1485–1572). Within years of his arrival, as cultural broker he collaborated with some of his acquaintances in the production of multiple religious texts, turning his learnings and his language skills into a career. Between 1548 and 1549, Antonio Blado printed two short liturgical works, Missa qua Ethiopes (1549) and Modus Baptizandi (1549), Tesfa Seyon’s translation of the Ethiopian Mass and the Ethiopian baptismal ritual, and the Tes- tamentum Novum, the first printing ever of the Ethiopian New Testament in Geez and Tesfa Seyon’s magnus opus.30 Apart from his own publications, Tesfa Seyon also contributed to the production of Ethiopianist knowledge by educating his Roman acquaintances in the political and religious affairs and the language of his homeland. Among them was Paolo Giovio who, following his involvement with Alvares and Giovanni in Bologna, maintained a long-lasting interest in Ethiopia. The famous collection of portraits of illustrious men that Giovio acquired over the years for his family palace on Lake Como included Lebnal Dengel’s, which had most likely been inspired by Alvares’s description of the sovereign. Giovio also included brief remarks on the Emperor along with an etching vaguely remindful of the portrait in his Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium [Praise of Illustrious Men of Military Virtue].31 Although Tesfa Seyon’s contribution to the Elogia cannot be confirmed, it can be evinced from his contribution to Giovio’s other major work, the Historiarum sui temporis (1550), a rather innovative work in early modern historiography in which the learned cardinal intertwined European and non-European history by taking advantage of Rome’s growing connections with the overseas to gather Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 information from foreign visitors. After his involvement with Alvares’s mission to Bologna, Giovio maintained a strong interest in Ethiopia and sought further knowledge about the country in Rome, ending up at Santo Stefano, where he met

Pietro Abissinio honored man and distinguished mind, with great humanity and faith, described to me important facts about the Abyssinians. Knowing many languages, as a friar in Rome he learned our language very well and to some of our curious men he taught the Abyssinian language.32 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 8.4 Example of correspondence between Tesfa Seyon and Roman personalities. Tesfa Seyon to Pietro Paolo Gualtieri, 17 September 1547, Rome, Biblioteca Comunale Intronati di Siena, ms. D V 13, cc. 253. © Reprinted with permission of the Bibli- oteca Comunale Intronati di Siena, 23.06.2015. 192 The Indian run

Figure 8.5 Ritratto dell’Imperatore Atana de Dinghel, Reprinted with permission of the Galleria degli Uffizi. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

The unnamed “curious men” interested in learning Geez included Mariano Vittorio and Cardinal Cervini. Shortly after Tesfa Seyon’s death, Vittorio issued Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones (1552), the first Geez grammar published in Europe, which could have hardly been completed without the monk’s support.33 Cervini, who would briefly ascend to the papacy as Marcellus II (1555), became the first cardinal to direct the Vatican Library in 1548, and was deeply interested in oriental scholarship. He was very invested in bridging the divide between Rome Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 193 and Ethiopia and was the main sponsor behind the printing of the Testamentum Novum. The purpose behind the production of this body of Ethiopianist knowledge emerges clearly from a March 1546 letter that Cervini addressed to Paul III’s secretary from Trent. The message is one of many relating to Tesfa Seyon’s work as a translator, but a particularly telling one with regard to its political value:

I would like you to have the Indian and Maronite masses translated, to see if those provinces, converted by different apostles, have the same substance we have in terms of sacrifice, the intercession of saints and the prayers for the dead. If I remember correctly brother Peter . . . told me they [Ethiopians] have in the mass all these things. When we will deal [with these matters], it will be better to be informed.34

Roman prelates such as Cervini were educating themselves on Ethiopia and its church. As Rome was losing ground to the reformed churches in Europe, the long- sought dream of regaining Eastern Christians was becoming all the more urgent; Tesfa Seyon and his Santo Stefano companions became increasingly valuable assets. In fact, the cleric seems to have been rather enthusiastic about the possibility of facilitating a rapprochement between the Catholic Church and his own country and seems to have recommended to Paul III the dispatch of five Catholic bishops to Ethiopia for the purpose. The plan never came to fruition because of Portuguese interference, as the Avis wanted the mission to be under their patronage. Loyola, who worked to bring the mission into the Jesuit fold, probably met Tesfa Seyon repeatedly, as it can be evinced from a 1549 letter he wrote to a fellow father:

You must know that about eight years ago a friar named Piedro [Tesfa Seyon], and others with him, came here from the lands of Prester John. In this period of time, he has somewhat learned the Italian language and some Latin; he has studied the Pontifical and the local rites; and since he seems to lead an honest life and tells many things about those lands, he is credited among cardinals and other prelates. This friar Piedro . . . soon began to show the great need of the lands of Prester John, so that so many souls would be saved expeditiously; and putting his proceedings in the company of others, they succeeded in their intents, namely, that five bishops would go to Ethiopia and that Prester John would then elect one of them as patriarch. . . . Friar Piedro, realizing that his intents were hindered, told me the story of his appointment in the way I have Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 told you . . . , moving me so that he could go in the company of the patriarch to be elected by the King, and that, since he knew the languages spoken here and there etc.; so they could help in such a journey.35

In addition to suggesting the dispatch of five bishops to Ethiopia, Tesfa Seyon reportedly volunteered himself for the mission, arguing that his country needed salvation. He must have appeared to Loyola as rather adamant about the necessity to dispatch a Catholic mission to his homeland and greatly influenced the latter’s 194 The Indian run thinking. Whatever his actual bearing on the mission, his contribution did not go unnoticed by the Society, which in the early 16th century would celebrate Tesfa Seyon by including him in one of the many paintings commemorating Paul III’s approval of the order in 1540.36 During his few years in Rome, Tesfa Seyon underwent a profound metamorphosis: from being an exotic guest to being part of the city’s establishment and almost becoming involved in the first Catholic missionary effort in his homeland. Had it not been for the Avis’s obstruction and his premature death, within a few years he could have found himself back on Ethiopian soil, bearer of a missionary message and clothed in a new religious identity. Instead, he died in 1552 as Loy- ola was drafting the instructions for the mission to his country.37 Although Tesfa Seyon’s ultimate intentions are difficult to assess, it is hard to imagine that he would have approved of the aggressive proselytizing in which the Jesuits engaged. Shortly before passing away, in his dedication to Paul III of his Modus Baptizandi, he had lamented that “we are Ethiopians who are and who want to be Catholics, and we keep the institutes and doctrine of Christ unim- paired up to the present day, we are judged as schismatics by almost all Europe- ans.”38 He certainly would have been greatly surprised and disappointed to find out that some of the fathers would go as far as to suggest imposing Catholicism at gunpoint.39

The Ethiopian monk turned Catholic bishop Although Tesfa Seyon’s death leaves the observer hanging as to his ultimate allegiance and the extent of his transculturation, the fate of Giovanni Battista Abissino leaves little doubt as to his complete metamorphosis and his ultimate rebirth as an Ethiopian Catholic. Unlike any other Ethiopian or European agent of the encounter world, Giovanni had been born and raised into it, midwifed by both fate and caring strangers. As the son of an Ethiopian deacon and an Ethiopian-Egyptian woman fleeing persecution to Cyprus, he had grown up between worlds. As an adolescent, after the papal hearing in Bologna, he had travelled to Rome and returned to the island of his birth in 1535, where, in his own words:

I was ordained priest by Giovanni, Coptic bishop of Cyprus, where I stayed three years and where I sang the Chaldean mass around 1538. Then I returned to Italy: in Venice I was licensed to celebrate the mass in Latin, then I sang Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the first mass in Capodistria [Koper], where I stayed two years teaching in a school. While there the Very Reverend Cardinal Contarino [Gasparo Contar- ini] wrote me and told me I had to come to Rome by order of Our Holiness Pope Paul III, rest in peace. I came two years later and not finding Cardinal Contarino in Rome, the Very Reverend Cardinal Teatino [Gian Pietro Carafa] hosted me in his home.40

In 1538 Giovanni left Cyprus again, now a priest, and moved to the Republic, where he began celebrating Mass in Latin – the first stage of his metamorphosis. Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 195 His presence in Venice must have come to the attention of the powerful Contarini family, in particular Cardinal Gasparo (1483–1542) – an advocate of dialogue with non-Catholics. He could have contacted Giovanni on his own initiative or could have followed Paul III’s lead, who may have been advised by Tesfa Seyon: in any case, Giovanni reached Rome by 1542.41 Little is known of his first years in the city, except that he associated himself with Tesfa Seyon and his learned circle, most likely investing time and effort to develop his language skills and education.42 A 1548 letter he sent to him indicates that he was quite close to the fellow monk and assisted him in his intellectual endeavor:

I am letting you know o my father Tesfa Seyon that the letters of the apostle Paul arrived from Cyprus to the city of Venice, in the hands of the Archbishop of Cyprus, who told me that he wanted to send them in the care of Cardinal Farnese.43

Giovanni is referring to the Ethiopian version of the Pauline epistles, which Tesfa Seyon had trouble obtaining as he was preparing the Testamentum Novum: probably through his own personal connections, Giovanni managed to assist the fellow monk by retrieving the letters from Cyprus. In the ensuing years, he exploited his skills and connections to emerge as a prominent intermediary and establish strong relationships with both Pope Paul IV (1555–1559) and his successor Pius IV (1559–1565), both of whom engaged in the attempt to reconcile Rome with the Eastern Churches. Although, unlike Tesfa Seyon, he did not leave behind a body of scholarship, he contributed indirectly to the production of knowledge about Ethiopia.44 In 1561, when Pius IV received a letter from Patriarch Gabriel VII of Alexan- dria from Trent, Giovanni was assigned as a translator. The deed gained him further reputation and a more prestigious assignment: the pontiff suggested that the Coptic patriarch dispatch an envoy to the ongoing Council of Trent and appoint to the mission

our dearest son Giovanni Battista Abissino, familiar, priest, erudite in the dogmas of the Catholic Church and gifted with utmost honesty and faith, like your own envoy whom Giovanni hosted [in Santo Stefano] could ascertain. As he was for many years at the Holy See not only knows Arabic, but also Latin: we sought his help to translate your Arabic letter into Latin.45 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Although the proposal remained dead letter, the 1560s represented a turning point for Giovanni’s identity and career. Vincenzo Contarini, a merchant also hailing from the powerful Venetian family, filed a report on the possibility of reuniting the Ethiopian and Roman churches. Born in Cyprus, Vincenzo was privy to its multiple Christian communities and suggested that the Ethiopian clerics in the island could be a natural bridge to Ethiopia.46 In Rome, the plan must have appeared a sound alternative to the already disappointing results of the Portuguese, and Contarini identified Giovanni as corner- stone of the new Ethiopian strategy, arguing that he was “very well versed in the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

Figure 8.6 Example of correspondence between Giovanni and Tesfa Seyon. Giovanni Battista Abissino to Tesfa Seyon, 15 December 1548, Venice, Biblioteca Comu- nale Intronati di Siena, ms. D V 13, cc. 253. © Reprinted with permission of the Biblioteca Comunale Intronati di Siena, 23.06.2015. Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 197 scriptures and ceremonies according to the Roman rite and very familiar with the country and its language he [Giovanni] could convert the king.”47 By then, Giovanni had long taken another step in his metamorphosis: already at the time of Pope Julius III (1550–1555) he had fully joined the ranks of the Roman Church by going through reordination. Ostensibly, he was the ideal candidate for Contar- ini’s plan; however, by then the Society of Jesus had already claimed Ethiopia as its missionary reserve, and Giovanni’s patrons had other plans for him.48 In 1564, Pius IV instructed Cardinal Michele Ghisleri (1504–1572) – later Pius V (1566–1572) – to initiate the Holy Office’s formal proceedings that would eventually lead to Giovanni’s elevation.49 He was invested with the bishopric of Cyprus’s Ethio- pian community on 17 December 1564, and a few months later, on 10 March 1565, the pontiff appointed him nuncio to “Armenia and in the lands of the Orient.”50 For a fleeting moment, the double role of bishop and nuncio turned the Cyprus-born Ethio- pian into the central piece of the Church’s oriental strategy and one of the highest ranking Africans in the history of the Church.51 His return to Cyprus as a bishop in late 1565 must have been greeted with much fanfare by the small Ethiopian community on the island. Alas, both in Rome and in Cyprus, expectations were betrayed when, shortly after his arrival in the land of his birth, Giovanni fell ill and died.

In the years following the Portuguese intervention, the myth of Prester John had mostly given way to more realistic understandings of his faith and political power. Ethiopians were no longer regarded as brothers in faith, peers within a shared Chris- tian world, but as heretics to be converted, their country a land of mission. Interest in Ethiopia endured but came to be grounded on motivations that proved radically different from those which had fostered the encounter for 150 years. The Society of Jesus turned Ethiopia into a land of mission through a protracted effort that lasted until the 1630s and beyond. The fathers would eventually become responsible for a socio-political upheaval that can probably be compared with that resulting from the Adali invasion: the Jesuits and eventually Catholics in general were expelled from the country, which would remain mostly closed to faranji until the early 1800s. Epitomizing the transfiguration of an era of exchange and collaboration into one of confrontation are not only the metamorphoses of Tesfa Seyon and Gio- vanni but also, more in general, the fate of Santo Stefano. In the first half of the 16th century, the institution had hosted dozens of monks, but by the time of Gio- vanni’s departure and premature death, the number of Ethiopians in Santo Stefano Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 had dwindled. By the late 16th century, Goa replaced Rome as the main hub of Ethiopian-European relations, now under the strict supervision of the Society of Jesus. Controlling the production and circulation of knowledge about Ethiopia – much of which had transited through Santo Stefano’s walls until then – became paramount, along with the indoctrination of Ethiopian clerics. Whereas Santo Stefano had welcomed Ethiopians in an ecumenical spirit, the Jesuit structures in Ethiopia and in Goa were part of the Society’s proselytizing machine. Whereas 198 The Indian run Ethiopians and their local acquaintances had printed and translated Ethiopian texts into Latin to facilitate reciprocal understanding, the Jesuit fathers translated key texts of the Counter-Reformation into Geez to facilitate proselytism.52 Rome would still welcome and support Ethiopian clerics, but under rather difference auspices: their lives and activities were increasingly expected to conform to Cath- olic orthodoxy and support the proselytizing efforts in their home country. In later years, as the Society’s activities in Ethiopia began to bear fruit, the few Ethiopians who reached Rome were mostly Catholic clerics dispatched by the Society to further their studies, in the College of Propaganda Fide.53 Santo Stefano’s fate was not only the product of Jesuit policy but also of the epochal events that were changing the face of the larger Mediterranean world. In spite of the growing popularity of the carreira, the majority of pilgrims to Santo Stefano had come from Jerusalem and had exploited Venice’s connections to the Holy Land. The rise of Ottoman power in the Eastern Mediterranean and the concomitant Venetian decline made it increasingly difficult for Ethiopian pilgrims to travel to Rome. Furthermore, the rise and fall of Santo Stefano’s Ethiopian community and its changing nature epitomizes both the fading of the encounter and the emergence of a stricter understanding of Catholic orthodoxy. Santo Stefa- no’s rise as a prominent center of exchange between the European and Ethiopian worlds came as the natural by-product of both Ethiopian piety and the ecumenism that defined Church politics in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Alas, with the Counter-Reformation, this ecumenism disappeared. Santo Stefano continued to host Ethiopians until 1731, when the deserted complex was reassigned to Egyp- tian clerics, but by the time of Giovanni’s departure for Cyprus (1571), the community’s golden age was already over. On the other side of the crumbling encounter world, Ethiopian monarchs seem to have quickly appreciated the turning of the tide. Celebration, adulation, and support started to give away to criticism and scorn. If Cardinal Afonso’s letter hinted at the shape of things to come, the first Jesuit visit left Galawdewos little room for doubt as to the new reality of European-Ethiopian relations. Accord- ingly, the negus entrusted Rodrigues and Freire with his confession of faith, in which he explicitly defended Ethiopian practices such as circumcision, the observance of the Sabbath and abstention from pork and he proudly argued that his

faith and the faith of the erudite priests who teach at my command within the area of my kingdom is such that they do not stray from the path of the Gospel and from the teaching of our Father Paul – neither right nor left.54 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016

The sovereign’s refusal to convert would not dissuade the fathers to press on, and they dispatched their first mission in 1557: Galawdewos reiterated his una- vailability to conversion but allowed the fathers to settle in Tigray. For the remainder of the century, the fathers would remain away from court and would mostly dedicate themselves to the Ethiopian-Portuguese community comprised primarily of Gama’s veterans who, after the conflict, opted to settle in the country. After Galawdewos’s death in 1559, Ethiopian-European relations deteriorated further Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 199 with Emperor Minas (1559–1563), who would be even less accommodating than his predecessor toward the Society, but because of their limited number and their distance from court, the missionaries were mostly tolerated. However, when in 1603 a new group of fathers reached court and eventually convinced Susenyos (1607–1632) to first convert and then force conversion upon his people, the consequences would be nothing but dramatic: until his eventual abdication, Ethio- pia suffered through decades of internecine violence and persecution that should probably be regarded as more damaging to Ethiopia’s long-term existence than Ahmad’s invasion. By then, the encounter was long over.

Notes 1 On Ethiopia-Adali relations in the 15th and early 16th centuries, see J. Spencer Trim- ingham, Islam in Ethiopia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952), 73–84; Taddesse Tamrat, “Ethiopia, the Red Sea and the Horn,” in The Cambridge History of Africa, ed. Roland Oliver, vol. 8 vols (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975–1986), 166–9; Enrico Cerulli, “Documenti arabi per la storia dell’Etiopia,” Memorie della Reale Accademia Dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, series 6, 4, no. 2 (1931): 39–101. 2 Ahmad’s deeds were recorded in the Futuh al Habasha, which chronicles the imam’s entire campaign. The quotations are from the recent English translation, Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir ʻArabfaqīh, The Conquest of Abyssinia: 16th Century (Hol- lywood: Tsehai, 2003). For the Arabic version, see Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir, Futuh Al-Habashah, or The Conquest of Abyssinia, ed. Sandford Arthur Strong (London: Williams and Norgate, 1894). The other main source on the conflict is Castanhoso’s História das cousas que o mui esforçado capitão Dom Cristóvão da Gama fez nos reinos do Preste João (1564), in Miguel de Castanhoso and Francisco Maria Esteves Pereira, Dos feitos de D. Christovam da Gama em Ethiopia (Lisboa: Emprensa nacional, 1898); and Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia. The quotations are from the English translation. 3 For details of the destruction, see Takla Iyasus Waqjara Tekle’s manuscript in Reidulf K. Molvaer, “The Tragedy of Emperor Libne-Dingil of Ethiopia (1508–1540),” North- east African Studies 5, no. 2 (1998): 31–5. 4 Chronicle of Sarsa Dengel in Carlo Conti Rossini, “Storia di Lebna Dengel, re d’Etiopia: sino alle parte lotte contro Ahmad ben Ibrahim,” Rendiconti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei. Classe di scienze morali, Serie Quinta, III (1894): 637; White- way, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, xxxv–xxxvi. 5 Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir, Futuh Al-Habashah, 60. 6 Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir, Futuh Al-Habashah, 353. 7 On Adal’s importance for the slave trade and the support the sultanate received from the Arab world, see Mordechai Abir, “The Ethiopian Slave Trade and Its Relation to

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 the Islamic World,” in Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa, ed. John Ralph Willis, 2 vols (Totowa: Frank Cass & Co., 1985), 2:121–33; Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 83. 8 Molvaer, “The Tragedy of Emperor Libne-Dingil of Ethiopia,” 27. 9 Newitt, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 108–12; Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, 29–66, offers an excellent summary, although he seems to have taken Bermudes’s claims at face value when he claims that “Lebna Dengel sent an embassy to Lisbon offering to recognize the ecclesiastica authority of the pope.” 10 Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, 63–5, 72. 11 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, xli–xlv. 12 Casale, The Ottoman Age of Exploration, 69–72. 200 The Indian run 13 R. B. Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast; Hadrami Chronicles, with Yemeni and European Accounts of Dutch Pirates off Mocha in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), 99. 14 Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast, 102. 15 Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir, Futuh Al-Habashah, references to Arab soldiers are scattered throughout the narrative, see especially 267–73. 16 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 55. For a different estimate, see Correa, Lendas da India, 4:1864; Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast, 102–3. 17 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 67. 18 This is according to Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 69. Accord- ing to another Arabic source, the Ottomans acted out of “cupidity,” and Ahmad sent them away; see Serjeant, The Portuguese off the South Arabian Coast, 103–4. 19 Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 82. 20 Trimingham, Islam in Ethiopia, 86–91. 21 For the context of the mission to Ethiopia in the Society’s early history, see John W. O’Malley, The First Jesuits (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993). On the Por- tuguese assistancy, see Dauril Alden, The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, its Empire, and Beyond, 1540–1750 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996). 22 Galawdewos to Paul III, 24 January 1541, BAV, Cod. Vat. Etiopico 75 and Beccari, Rerum aethiopicarum scriptores, 10:450–1. 23 João to Galdewos, 13 March 1546; Almeirin, in Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 111–12. 24 Galawdewos to João III, 6 December 1550, in Whiteway, The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia, 115–18. 25 Salmeron to Loyola, Trent, October 1546, in Salmeron, Epistolae Alphonsi Salmeronis Societatis Jesu. Tomus Primus, 35–6. 26 On Bermudes’s bearing on Loyola, see Salvadore, “Gaining the Heart of Prester John”; Andreu Martinez d’Alos-Moner, “The Jesuit Patriarchate to the ‘Preste’: Between Religious Reform, Political Expansion and Colonial Adventure,” Aethiopica 6 (2003): 54–69. 27 Salvadore, “Gaining the Heart of Prester John.” 28 Richard Stephen Whiteway, ed., The Portuguese Expedition to Abyssinia in 1541– 1543 as Narrated by Castanhoso (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1902), 123–8. 29 Tesfa Seyon has been the subject of substantial research, but he is still awaiting a comprehensive biography. See Robert J Wilkinson, Orientalism, Aramaic, and Kabbalah in the Catholic Reformation: The First Printing of the Syriac New Testament (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 68–9; Chaine, “Un monastère éthiopien a Rome aux XV et XVI siècle, Santo Stefano dei Mori”; Leonessa, Santo Stefano Maggiore degli abissini e le relazioni romano-etiopiche, 191–216; Lefevre, “Documenti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua attivita romana nel sec. XVI.” For a more recent take that contextualizes Tesfa Seyon in early modern print culture, see James De Lorenzi, “Red Sea Travel- ers in Mediterranean Lands: Ethiopian Scholars and Early Modern World-Building in

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Europe, ca. 1500–1668,” in World-Building and the Early Modern Imagination, ed. Allison B. Kavey (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 173–200. For biographical and bibliographical details, see EA 5:525–8. 30 Missa qva Ethiopes commvniter vtvntvr, qvae etiam canon vniversalis appellatvr: ex Linguae Chaldea siue Aethiopica in Latinam conuersa (Romae: apud Antonium Bla- dum, 1549); Petrus Abbas, Modus baptizandi, preces et benedictiones quibus Eccle- sia Ethiopum utitur, cum sacerdotes benedicunt puerperae unà cum infante Ecclesiam ingredienti, post quadragesimum puerperij diem: Item oratianes quibus ijdem utuntur in sacramento baptismi et conformationis, item missa qua communiter utuntur, quae etiam canon uniuersalis appellatur nunc primum ex lingua Chaldea siue Aethiopica Ending the war and the encounter, 1540–1555 201 in Latinam conuersae (Romae: Apud Antonium Bladum, 1549); Valer Petrus Ethy- ops, Testamentum Novum cum Epistola Pauli ad Hebreos Tantum, cum Concordantiis Euanglistarum Eusebii . . . , 1549. Antonio Blado (1515–1567) was one of the most renowned printers in early modern Rome, and he had printed Ignatius of Loyola’s Exercitia spiritualia the year before. On the Testamentum Novum, which includes a brief autobiographical sketch signed “Pietro Tesefa Sion Malezó son of Tecla Hay- manot of Mount Libano,” see Ignazio Guidi, “La prima stampa del Nuovo Testamento in Etiopico fatta in Roma nel 1548–1549,” Archivo della R. Società Romana di Storia di Patria IX (1886), 273–8. On Tesfa Seyon’s publications, see Wijnman, An Outline of the Development of Ethiopian Typography in Europe, xix; De Lorenzi, “Red Sea Travelers in Mediterranean Lands.” 31 On Giovio’s interest in Ethiopia and on the uncertain origin of the painting see Sal- vatore Tedeschi, “Paolo Giovio e la conoscenza dell’etiopia nel Rinascimento,” Atti Del Convegno Su Paolo Giovio: Il Rinascimento e la memoria (Como, 3–5 Giugno 1983) – Raccolta Storica Delia Società Storica Comense 17 (1985): 93–116. For a comprehensive account of Giovio and a discussion of his collection see T. C. Price Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995); Paolo Gio- vio, Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium (Basil: Petri Pernae typographi, 1575). 32 Paolo Giovio, Delle historie del suo tempo (In Vinegia: presso Altobello Salicato, 1572), 528. Like many other scholars of the era, Giovio’s acquaintance with a learned Ethiopian did not prevent him from mixing authentic information with accounts of unicorns and troglodytes: despite the growing awareness of the outside world, medieval fantasies proved surprisingly resilient in the intellectual life of early modern Europe. See Tedeschi, “Paolo Giovio e la conoscenza dell’etiopia nel Rinascimento”; Renato Lefevre, “Realta e leggenda dell’etiopia nelle «Historiae» di Paolo Giovio,” Gli Annali dell’ Africa Italiana 4 (1941): 1189–99. 33 Mariano Vittorio, Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae institutiones (Romae: V. Doricus, 1552). 34 Cardinal Cervini to Bernardino Maffei, 14 March 1546, Trento, in Lefevre, “Docu- menti e notizie su Tasfa Seyon e la sua attivita romana nel sec. XVI,” 80. 35 Ignatius of Loyola to Patri Ludovico de Grana, 17 January 1549, Rome, in Loyola Ignatius, Monumenta Ignatiana ex autographis vel ex antiquioribus exemplis collecta. Series prima, 1964, Tomus Secundus 1904, 304–8. 36 C. Bernardi Salvetti, S. Maria Degli Angeli Alle Terme E Antonio Lo Duca (Roma: Desclée, 1965), 182–3. 37 On the dating of his death, see S. Euringer, “Das epitaphium des Tasfa Sejon,” Oriens Christianus (3rd Series) I (1926): 49–66. 38 Petrus Abbas, Modus baptizandi, preces et benedictiones quibus Ecclesia Ethiopum utitur, cum sacerdotes benedicunt puerperae unà cum infante Ecclesiam ingredienti, post quadragesimum puerperij diem, ii. 39 Throughout the Jesuit missionary experience in Ethiopia, numerous fathers requested a military intervention to support the conversion effort. Calls for an intervention were first voiced in the 1560s, the 1580s and then again in the 1630s as the mission started to fold, see Salvadore, “Gaining the Heart of Prester John.”

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 40 A. A. Arm. I-XVIII n. 2953, 20r. On Giovanni, see Lefevre, “Roma e la comunità etiopica di Cipro nei secoli XV e XVI”; Giuseppe Beltrami, La Chiesa Caldea nel secolo dell’Unione (Roma: Pont. Institutum orientalium studiorum, 1933), 64–5; Renato Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte terza,” Annali Lateranensi XI (1947): 277–94. 41 By the time Giovanni reached Rome, Contarini had passed away, and Giovanni found in Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa (1476–1559) a new benefactor. 42 Despite his long sojourn in Rome, high-level appointments, and closeness to two pontiffs, Giovanni does not seem to have contributed much to the Ethiopianist library. Apart from his examination by the Holy Office, additional references to his 202 The Indian run activities in Rome can be found in ledgers where “Giovanni Battista Indiano, Cappel- lano di Santo Stefano” is repeatedly listed, along with Tesfa Seyon, as beneficiary of the pontiff’s largess by virtue of his inclusion in his circle of close acquaintances. See Lefevre, “Roma e la comunità etiopica di Cipro nei secoli XV e XVI,” 72. 43 Giovanni Battista Abissino to Tesfa Seyon, 15 December 1548, Venice, in Guidi, “La prima stampa del Nuovo Testamento in etiopico fatta in Roma nel 1548–1549,” 277. 44 Giovanni is mentioned, for example, in relation to the translation of Tesfa Seyon’s Missa qua Ethiopes, Guglielmo Sirleto to Cervini, 27 October 1547, Rome, Vat. 6177, 350r. 45 Quoted in Lefevre, “Roma e la comunità etiopica di Cipro nei secoli XV e XVI,” 73–4. 46 Vincenzo Contarini to Pius IV, Arm. LXIV, fol. 6r. 47 Vincenzo Contarini to Pius IV, Arm. LXIV, fol. 6r. 48 A. A. Arm. I-XVIII n. 2953 fol. 21v. 49 It is thanks to the numerous interviews with his acquaintances and his own deposition that Giovanni’s story was recorded for posterity. 50 Pius IV to Giovanni Battista Abissino, 10 March 1565, Rome, in Pierre Dib, “Une mission en Orient sous le pontificat de Pie IV,”Revue de l’Orient chrétien 19 (1914): 29–31, 266–76; see also Renato Lefevre, “Appunti,” 32; Lefevre, “Appunti Sull’ospizio di S. Stefano Degli ‘Indiani’ nel cinquecento,” 32. 51 Giovanni was the second black bishop in the history of the Church, the other being the Congolese Henrique. 52 See Cohen, The Missionary Strategies of the Jesuits in Ethiopia, 97–111. 53 Chaine, “Un monastère éthiopien a rome aux XV et XVI siècle, Santo Stefano dei Mori,” 12. 54 Gadadewos, 23 June 1555, Damot. The confession was first published in Hiob Ludolf, Confessio Fidei Claudii Regis AEthiopiae cum Notis et Versione Latina Jobi Ludolfi J .C. Anthehac Sereniss. Electori Palatino Dedicata; Nunc Verò Edita, Curâ & Stu- dio Johannis Michaelis Wanslebii, Qui Litergiam S. Dioscori Patriarchae Alexandrini AEthiopicè & Latinè Addidit (Londini: apud Thomam Roycroft, LL. Orientalium typographum regium, 1661), reproduced and translated in E. Ullendorff, “The Confes- sio Fidei of King Claudius of Ethiopia,” Journal of Semitic Studies 32, no. 1 (1987): 159. Galawdewos’s rejection of the missionary attempt is also recorded in his chronicle; see William Conzelman, Chronique de Galawdewos (Claudius), Roi d’Éthiopie (Paris: Bouillon, 1895), 169. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Conclusion

Since antiquity, the premodern African presence in Europe had mostly comprised uprooted Africans who had been traded as slaves across the Sahara and who were hardly in a position to act as brokers between their host society and their homeland. Ethiopians defied this pattern: at the dawn of the age of discovery, they became the first sub-Saharan Africans to broker a comprehensive encounter that resulted in extensive and protracted cultural, socio-economic, and diplomatic exchanges between their homeland and various European polities. Most of them visited and sojourned in Western Christendom as pilgrims, whereas some did so as official representatives of their sovereigns. As a result, they became responsible for the first African-European diplomatic exchanges in history. Until the late 15th century, the only two other known cases of official relations between African and European societies of the kind Ethiopians brokered are to be found in West Africa. One is the well-known intercourse between the kingdoms of Kongo and Portugal which, after the first haphazard steps in the 1480s, ushered in long-lasting relations.1 The other is the less known case of Jeleen, the Jolof prince whose relations with Portugal in the late 1480s ended abruptly and never resulted in a sustained cultural and political exchange.2 Although both encounters predate the establishment of Portuguese-Ethiopian relations, they occurred long after Ethiopian pilgrims and representatives had left their political and cultural footprints across the Iberian and Italian peninsulas. Hence, the Ethiopian case can be rightfully considered, with some qualifica- tions, the first encounter between Europe and a sub-Saharan polity. Its trajectory and protagonists offer much to ponder with respect to broader questions pertaining to the history of Africa, the African diaspora, and African-European relations. Because of their fundamental importance to African studies, two of these issues Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 beg for some concluding remarks: the bearing of African agency and race on African-European relations. First, Ethiopia’s contacts with Europe developed on the basis of complex considerations and an advanced understanding of both regional and transregional dynamics. This was more than just the initiative of a lone sovereign: Ethiopians were struggling for power and territory against their Muslim neighbors and looked to acquire an edge by soliciting military alliances and technological transfer from fellow Christians. They not only understood themselves, despite their geographical 204 Conclusion remoteness, to be part of a larger Christian world but also displayed a good grasp of the changing political fortunes of the European polities on the Mediterranean – on whose doors they knocked in a rather timely fashion. Decade after decade, they appeared able to identify the political partners in European Christendom with the greatest potential – Venice, Aragon, and Lisbon, along with the ever-attractive Rome. With their proactive and recurrent attempts to foster connections with their European counterparts, Ethiopian rulers such as Dawit, Yeshaq, and Lebna Den- gel leave little doubt that the European, and in particular Portuguese, presence in Ethiopia was the result of African solicitation. No less important was the role that Ethiopian clerics such as Saga Zaab, Tesfa Seyon, and Giovanni Battista Abissino played as both cultural and political brokers. They introduced their interlocutors to the dogmas and workings of the Ethio- pian Church, made key contributions to the Ethiopianist library, and ultimately facilitated the European drive toward their homeland. That all three would have deeply resented and regretted the ultimate consequences of their activities in light of the disastrous effects of the Jesuit presence in Ethiopia does not take away from their fundamental and ultimately tragic contribution. The counterparts to these Ethiopian brokers in Europe were the more or less assimilated foreigners in Ethio- pia who hailed from Europe and elsewhere – Rombulo, Bartoli, Ali Tabrizi, Mate- wos – and acted as representatives of a polity that was able and willing to assimilate foreigners and also deploy them to foster further links with Western Christendom. All in all, the primacy of Ethiopians – first as midwives, then as protagonists, and eventually executioners of the encounter – confirms the proactive role that Africans sometimes adopted in their dealings with European societies. Whereas the pilgrims’ trails through the Middle East offered limited opportunities for diplomatic exchanges, they allowed for the trickling into Europe of a substantial body of knowledge that produced the myth of the African Prester John, which in turn attracted the Portuguese to the Indian Ocean and ultimately to Ethiopia. Hence, the history of the encounter shows that the age of exploration was the result of complex transcultural relations. This point is all the more apparent when one considers that the encounter itself was initiated by Ethiopians. Although Roman pontiffs of the Middle Ages dispatched letters to distant Christians, including rulers and societies that could possibly be identified with Ethiopia, these dispatches can hardly be framed as Ethiopia-bound initiatives. For example, in 1177 Pope Alexander III (1159–1181) wrote to a “magnifico indorum regi, sacerdotum sanctissimo,” after his “physician and . . . familiar,”3 one Philippus, returned from the Holy Land and reported that Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 among the non-European Christians who were dwelling in Jerusalem were the subjects of a priest-king. The characterization was in line with the preencounter discourse on the Prester, but the pontiff’s reference to his interlocutor’s alleged desire to “have a Church in the city, and some altar of Jerusalem”4 casts doubt on their identity, as Ethiopians already had access to the Church of the Holy Sepul- cher.5 In any case, although the letter’s fate is unknown, there is no evidence pointing to any consequence from this initiative. Furthermore, similar initiatives in later years suggest that the letter was dispatched to the East, which would indicate that Conclusion 205 medieval European activities toward the “King of the Indies” are to be regarded as initiatives toward Christians in the Near and Far East.6 In fact, more than a century later, in 1289, Pope Nicholas IV (1288–1292) wrote a new letter to a distant Christian sovereign, this time addressed to an “Ethiopian Emperor.” Although the title would indicate, prima facie, a precise interest in Ethiopia, it should be recalled that the term was most likely a vague reference to a region somewhere in the Indies.7 Furthermore, the letter’s geographical destination confirms the confusion surrounding the initiative: it was entrusted, along with other letters addressed to Near and Far Eastern personalities, such as the ruler of the Ilkhanate, Arghun Khan (1284–1289), and the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan (1260–1289), to Giovanni da Montecorvino (1247–1328), who traveled to the East and never came close to the Horn.8 Likewise Pope John XXII’s (1316– 1334) 1329 letter to an “Ethiopian Emperor”9 was handed over to a small party of Franciscans, among them Jordanus de Severac (1285–1336), who was ordained Bishop of Kollam and sent to the Malabar Coast.10 When taken all together, these letters, blindly dispatched in the hands of eastbound pilgrims without much con- viction or investment and addressed to a vaguely identified Christian sovereign in the East, can hardly be construed as initiatives toward Ethiopia. Whatever place they may have reached, it was far from the Horn, and they had no bearing on an encounter that had yet to begin. Compared with these confused and haphazard initiatives, the Ethiopian missions to Venice, Aragon, and Rome were well-thought-out diplomatic undertakings with clear purpose and required substantial investments. The role of Ethiopians as initiators finds a particularly meaningful confirmation in the behavior of pilgrims in Jerusalem. Whereas both Ethiopian and European clerics operated in the city, the former were the first to pierce the frontier between worlds and journey to the other side. As they traveled through Europe, they entertained their hosts’ universalist and crusading delusions, played along with their fantasies about Prester John, and remained purposely vague on the question of ecclesiastical relations. As they began brokering relations, Ethiopian pilgrims and representatives invited Europeans to Ethiopia – and their interlocutors followed their lead.11 The second key implication of this book is that the concept of race was con- spicuously absent from the Ethiopian-European encounter. This point is of special significance to scholars of Africa and its diaspora, who are well aware of the disastrous effects of racial prejudice in the making of the Atlantic world. Although racism of the modern kind would only appear in the 18th century, color prejudice, or “racism without race,” was well ingrained in the European mind in the early Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 modern era.12 The existence of color prejudice in Europe and, in particular, in some of the encounter locales can hardly be disputed. It has been persuasively argued that racial discrimination in the Iberian peninsula predated the age of exploration and had its roots in the complex socio-economic dynamics and interfaith relations of al-Andalus and the discourses that Christian Iberians borrowed, at least in part, from Muslims.13 In addition, it has also been shown that the chronicles of Portu- guese exploration peddled an imperial discourse that by and large hinged on ideas of African otherness and inferiority.14 Finally, the most comprehensive work on 206 Conclusion slavery in early modern Portugal illustrates that although the condition of slavery did not substantially differ from that of poverty, it eventually came to be associated with blackness, and blacks, both enslaved and free, were subject to extensive discrimination.15 In Italy, where the early modern Africanist discourse still awaits a comprehensive analysis, the few available case studies and an important work on the Italian slave trade mostly argue for the existence of forms of prejudice similar to those of Iberia.16 All in all, though it would be only with the age of exploration and the concomitant emergence of slave-trading and raiding in the African Atlantic that the paradigmatic coupling between blackness and slavery turned color prejudice into modern racism, it is undeniable that in the era under consideration, a general prejudice toward Africans already existed and underpinned a host of discriminatory and exploitative practices. In light of this general discursive and social context, the absence of race from the narrative of the encounter may appear all the more surprising. Nonetheless, the dynamics of negotiation between royals and the personal stories of European and Ethiopian brokers speak for themselves. Despite instances of European distaste for Ethiopian appearance and customs – a distaste that one can assume to have been reciprocated occasionally by Ethiopians – these feelings seem to have had little bearing, if any, on political and personal relationships. Brocchi had reportedly disparaged the Ethiopians’ appearance and customs but commended them for their faith “above all other Christians.”17 Many Europeans settled and married in Ethiopia, while Ethiopians such as Tesfa Seyon and Gio- vanni Battista Abissino rose to the highest levels of the Church hierarchy. In Portu- gal, the young Yaqob was inducted as a knight into the Order of Christ. In Naples, proposals for interdynastic marriages were seriously entertained. In Santo Stefano, Ethiopian monks were provided with extensive support for their peregrinations. Although the limited evidence available for most episodes of interaction would suggest caution rather than sweeping generalizations, when taken together, the personal experiences of a multitude of Ethiopian and European characters toiling and dwelling in the encounter world, along with the discourses they produced, all point in the same direction. Overall, Europeans perceived Ethiopian pilgrims, scholars, diplomats, and rulers as exotic equals. Of course, the overall irrelevance of racial prejudice toward Ethiopians does not contradict the general notion of prejudice toward Africans, and it certainly should not be taken to mean that the Europeans involved in the encounter were either tolerant or open minded – though some certainly were. Instead, the history of Ethiopian-European relations calls for a rather important qualification to our understanding of racial discrimination in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 this period: for the European protagonists of this particular encounter – sovereigns, brokers, intellectuals – faith trumped color. Wherever Ethiopians were hosted, either as representatives or as pilgrims, they were treated in ways comparable to those enjoyed by their European counterparts. Time and again, for a century and a half, Ethiopians were commended for their devotion, and whenever their interlocutors found their appearance unpleasant or their degree of development disappointing, they minimized their disapproval in the face of what they regarded as a shared Christian identity. In fact, they were Conclusion 207 often accorded extra support because of their distant origin and the rarity of their presence. The only two Ethiopian representatives whose experience among Euro- peans was rather negative, Matewos and Saga Zaab, faced difficulties not because of their appearance or color, but precisely because their faith was questioned. Ele- ni’s non-Ethiopian representative faced multiple ordeals throughout his journey on suspicion of being a Muslim in disguise, whereas Lebna Dengel’s ambassador was accused of heresy at a time when the perception of Ethiopian Christianity was changing. The story of the encounter contradicts the notion that in early modern Por- tugal “sub-Saharan Africans were unable to escape their inferior status” and that “blackness had negative connotations that took primacy over the matters of faith.”18 Instead, the irrelevance of color prejudice in the encounter confirms the recently argued thesis that “throughout history, racism as prejudice concerning ethnic descent coupled with discriminatory action has been motivated by political projects;” in other words, that racism is relational and conjunctural rather than immutable and inborn.19 At both ends of the encounter world, political conjunc- tures resulted in the primacy of faith over color. The importance of coreligiosity is further suggested by the curious story of the mythical Prester John, whom Europeans conceived first as a sovereign in the Indies and eventually as an African ruler whose piety and might was equal or superior to his European counterparts. That the reality of Ethiopia eventually disappointed Europeans, and in particular Church and Portuguese representatives, should not distract from the deep meaning of this mythos for the understanding of African-European relations. In the era under consideration, Europeans were capable of looking up to an African sovereign, albeit imaginary, precisely because his faith overrode any consideration of racial difference. Surprisingly, some of the key studies of the European discourse on Africa are either silent on the early modern discourse on Ethiopia and the African Prester John20 or dismissive of him as “an Other who is a perfect reflection or fulfillment of yourself [i.e., the European self].”21 To the contrary, the history of the encounter makes clear that the discourse on the Prester was not a mere reflection of the European self but, rather, a transcultural product on which Ethiopian agency had a profound bearing. Further, it shows that, at least to learned Europeans, the Prester and his subjects were hardly others. Much of the scholarship on early modern African-European relations seems to suffer from a profound analytical anachronism, in that it relies on categories of otherness and racial difference that are essential to the understanding of the Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Atlantic slave trade, as well as later colonial and postcolonial African-European relations. However, these categories cannot be applied indiscriminately to other eras and other locales. Four hundred years after learned Europeans could imagine a pious African Prester ruling over an ideal Christian kingdom, other learned Europeans could not accept, for example, that the ruins of Great Zimbabwe were part of the African heritage and thus had to invent the Hamitic hypothesis to account for precolonial development in sub-Saharan Africa. This means that at some point between the early modern and the modern era, the Western mind – for 208 Conclusion lack of a better word – suffered an epochal regression, a socio-cultural involution that has yet to overcome.22 The Ethiopian-European encounter unfolded before this epochal intellectual transformation and the ensuing crystallization of modern racial categories. In the era of Manuel I, Saga Zaab, and Paul III, racism was still more cultural than biological in nature, and racial otherness could be cast aside to make space for religious sameness. This remained true until the coming of the Portuguese Inquisition, the Society of Jesus and, more generally, the Counter-Reformation Catholicism.23 By the mid-1500s, the discourse of religious sameness gave way to one of religious heresy that would quickly dovetail with color prejudice: Ethio- pians were transfigured into heathens to be converted, and in a way their position was normalized as they came to be thought of as Africans in need of salvation. Until then, however, Christian identity, even when non-conformant, trumped color in the discourse on difference.

Notes 1 See John K. Thornton’s extensive work on the Kongo, starting from John Thorn- ton, “Early Kongo-Portuguese Relations: A New Interpretation,” History in Africa 8 (1981): 183; J. Thornton, “The Origins and Early History of the Kingdom of Kongo, c. 1350–1550,” The International Journal of African Historical Studies 34, no. 1 (2001): 89–120; John K. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). 2 See Chapter 4. 3 Alexander III to “Indorum Regi,” 27 September 1177, Venice, in Osvaldo Raineri, Let- tere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici (Rome: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2003), 24. 4 Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 25. 5 Salvatore Tedeschi, “Profilo storico di Dayr as-Sultan,”Journal of Ethiopian Studies 2, no. 2 (1964): 104–5. 6 For a different perspective, see Renato Lefevre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte prima,” Annali Lateranensi 8 (1944): 32–5. 7 Nicholas IV to “Imperatori Aethiopiae Illustri,” 11 July 1289, Rieti, in Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 23–9. 8 The letters can be found in Ernest Langlois, ed., Les registres de Nicolas IV: recueil des bulles de ce pape, 2 vols (Paris: E. Thorin, 1886), 1:391–3. See also Igor de Rachewiltz, “Prester John and Europe’s Discovery of East Asia,” East Asian History, no. 11 (1996): 72–3. 9 John XXII to “Magnifico viro Imperatori Ethiopium”, 1 December 1329, Avignon, in Raineri, Lettere tra i pontefici romani e i principi etiopici, 28–9. 10 Jean Richard, “Les premiers missionnaires latins en Éthiopie (XIIe–XIVe Siècles),” in Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Orient et Occident au Moyen Age: Contacts et Relations (XXIIe–XVe S.), ed. Richard, Jean (London: Variorum Reprints, 1976), 328–9. For a different perspective, see Lefe- vre, “Riflessi etiopici nella cultura europea del medioevo e del rinascimento – parte prima,” 32–5. 11 For an opposite view, see Andrew Kurt, “The Search for Prester John, a Projected Crusade and the Eroding Prestige of Ethiopian Kings,” Journal of Medieval History 39, no. 3 (2013): 8. 12 James H. Sweet, “The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought,” The William and Mary Quarterly 54, no. 1 (January 1, 1997): 165–6. Conclusion 209 13 Sweet, “The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought.” 14 Josiah Blackmore, Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa (Min- neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008). 15 A. C. de C. M. Saunders, A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). 16 Kate Lowe, “Africa in the News in Renaissance Italy: News Extracts from Portu- gal about Western Africa Circulating in Northern and Central Italy in the 1480s and 1490s,” Italian Studies 65, no. 3 (November 2010): 310–28; Thomas Foster Earle and Kate Lowe, eds, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- versity Press, 2005); Kate Lowe, “Black Africans’ Religious and Cultural Assimilation to, or Appropriation of, Catholicism in Italy, 1470–1520,” Renaissance and Reforma- tion/Renaissance et Reforme 31, no. 2 (2008): 67–86; Kate Lowe, “ ‘Representing’ Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Por- tugal, 1402–1608,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 6, 17, no. 1 (2007): 101–28. Steven Epstein, Speaking of Slavery: Color, Ethnicity, and Human Bondage in Italy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 188–91. 17 Francesco Suriano, Il trattato di Terra Santa e dell’Oriente, ed. Girolamo Golubovich (Milano: Tipografia editrice Artigianelli, 1900), 87. 18 Sweet, “The Iberian Roots of American Racist Thought,” 145, 154–5. Sweet offered the second comment in relation to a passage referring to Prester John in the Libro del Conoscimiento: “but although these men [of Prester John] are negroes, they are still men of intelligence with good brains, and they have understanding and knowledge.” The passage indicates color prejudice but not its primacy over faith. 19 Francisco Bethencourt, Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century (Prince- ton: Princeton University Press, 2013), 1–2. 20 Valentin Y Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge, African Systems of Thought (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988); Valentin Y Mudimbe, The Idea of Africa, African Systems of Thought (Bloom- ington: Indiana University Press, 1994). 21 Christopher L. Miller, Blank Darkness: Africanist Discourse in French (Chicago: Uni- versity of Chicago Press, 1985), 59. 22 On the controversy surrounding Great Zimbabwe, see Henrika Kuklick, “Contested Monuments,” in Colonial Situations: Essays on the Contextualization of Ethnographic Knowledge, ed. George W Stocking, History of Anthropology, 7 (Madison: The Uni- versity of Wisconsin Press, 1991), 135–70. The Hamitic hypothesis, whose origin can be traced back to the biblical course of Ham, was elaborated as a “scientific” theory in Charles Gabriel Seligmann, Races of Africa (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1930). For the complex and counterintuitive emergence of the Hamitic hypothesis, see Edith R. Sanders, “The Hamitic Hypothesis: Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective,” The Journal of African History 10, no. 4 (1969): 521–32. 23 Significantly,the Jesuits barred Ethiopians and Africans from membership in the Soci- ety. On racism in the early modern Society of Jesus see Dauril Alden, The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Its Empire, and Beyond, 1540–1750 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 258–66. Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Appendix

Leading political figures Ethiopian emperors Wedem Arad, 1299–1314 Amda Seyon I, 1314–1344 Newaya Krestos, 1344–1372 Newaya Maryam, 1372–1382 Dawit I (II), 1379/80–1413 Tewodros I, 1413–1414 Yeshaq, 1414–1429 Endreyas, 1429–1430 Takla Maryam, 1430–1433 Sarwa Iyasus, 1433–1433 Amda Iyasus, 1433–1434 Zara Yaqob, 1434–1468 Baeda Maryam I, 1468–1478 Eskender, 1478–1494 Amda Seyon II, 1494–1494 Naod, 1494–1508 Lebna Dengel, 1508–1540 Galawdewos, 1540–1559 Minas, 1559–1563

Kings of Portugal Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 João I, 1385–1433 Duarte, 1433–1438 Afonso V, 1438–1481 João II, 1481–1495 Manuel I, 1495–1521 João III, 1521–1557 Sebastião I, 1557–1578 King Henrique I, 1578–1580 Appendix 211 Governors and viceroys of the Estado da India Tristão da Cunha, 1504–1505 Francisco de Almeida, 1505–1509 Alfonso de Albuquerque, 1509–1515 Lopo Soares de Albergaria, 1515–1518 Diogo Lopes de Sequeira, 1518–1522 Duarte de Meneses, 1522–1524 Vasco da Gama, 1524–1524 Henrique de Meneses, 1525–1526 Lopo Vaz de Sampaio 1526–1529 Nuno da Cunha, 1529–1538 Garcia de Noronha, 1538–1540 Estêvão da Gama, 1540–1542

Roman pontiffs Gregory XII, 1406–1415 Martin V, 1417–1431 Eugene IV, 1431–1447 Nicholas V, 1447–1455 Callistus III, 1455–1458 Pius II, 1458–1464 Paul II, 1464–1471 Sixtus IV, 1471–1484 Innocent VIII, 1484–1492 Alexander VI, 1492–1503 Pius III, 1503–1503 Julius II, 1503–1513 Leo X, 1513–1521 Adrian VI, 1522–1523 Clement VII, 1523–1534 Paul III, 1534–1549 Julius III, 1550–1555 Marcellus II, 1555–1555 Paul IV, 1555–1559 Pius IV, 1559–1565

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Pius V, 1566–1572 Bibliography

Archival sources Archivio de la Corona de Aragon, Barcelona, (Spain) Real Cancilleria, Registros, num. 2658, 2661, 2677, 2680, 2681. Archivio Segreto Vaticano, (Vatican City) Registri Vaticani Processus super statu ecclesiae S. Salvatoris nationis Ethiopum in regno Cypri et civitate Nicosien. et qualitatibus Iohannis Baptistae Habascini electi episcopi dictae ecclesiae 1564. A. A. Arm. I–XVIII n. 2953. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, (Vatican City) Vat. 6177 Biblioteca Comunale di Palermo, Palermo (Italy) Pietro Ranzano, Annales omnium temporum, 3Qq C 55. Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, Siena (Italy) Ms. D, V, 13.

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Page numbers in italics refer to figures and tables. Terms within square brackets are trans- literated according to the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica’s transliteration system.

Abelhart (Vallarte) 89 Amda Mikael [Amdä Mikaᵓel], Emperor Abraam of Beja 95 – 6 of Ethiopia 66, 70, 107 Abreu, Jorge de 121 Andrade, Lazaro d’ 122, 165 Abu Bakr, Sultan of Johor 180 animism 94 Adali-Ethiopian War 180 – 3, 187 anti-Muslim sentiment 115 – 16, 121, 154 Adal [ᶜAdal] Sultanate 44, 108, anti-Semitism 154 – 5 111; civil war 180; defeat of 183; Aragonese-Ethiopian encounter see Ethiopian-Portuguese forces against Ethiopian-Aragonese encounter 183 – 4; jihad and 180 – 1, 183; Ottoman Arghun Khan 205 support for 181 – 3; raids in Ethiopia art: Ethiopian 135 – 8; Ethiopians depicted 180 – 1, 183 in 61, 74, 131; Western European Aethiopia see Ethiopia (sub-Saharan elements in 136 – 8 Africa) artisans: Ethiopian 21, 136; European 26, Afonso, Cardinal of Portugal 173 – 4 32, 43 – 4, 47, 129 – 30, 135 – 8, 145 – 6, Africa: diaspora studies 9; European 159; in Venice 22 discourse on 207; European presence in Avis, House of 82 – 3, 85 – 6, 90, 93, 95 203; geographical knowledge of 85 – 8, 93; maps 87; Portuguese exploration of Badlay, Sultan of Adal 44 82 – 100 Baeda Maryam [Bäᵓǝdä Maryam], African-European relations: coreligiosity Emperor of Ethiopia 66, 69–70 206 – 7; diplomatic exchanges 203, Balbi, Giovanni 2 205; Ethiopian agency 203 – 5, 207; Barquq, Sultan of Egypt 23 Kongo and 203; pilgrimage 204; racial Barros, João de 116 discrimination 205 – 6, 208 Barsbay, Sultan of Egypt 44, 134 Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Gragn) Bartoli, Antonio 21, 24 – 6, 32, 129 – 30, 180 – 3 135, 204 Albergaria, Lopo Soares de 115 – 19 Bartolomewos 132 Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Albuquerque, Alfonso de 99, 107, 110, Beccadelli, Ludovico 164 – 5 112 – 13, 123 Bembo, Pietro 174 Alexander III, Pope 204 Bemoy, Prince 94 Alfonso V, King of Aragon 37 – 9, 42 – 4, Bermudes, João 121, 165 – 7, 172 – 3, 180, 46 – 9, 64–5, 85 – 6 182, 184 – 6, 194 Alvares, Francisco 121 – 2, 128, 137, Berry, Jean de 130 – 1 139 – 40, 142 – 3, 145 – 7, 153 – 6, 158, Beta Israel [Betä Ǝsra’el] 21 160, 162 – 5, 187 Biagio, d’Antonio Tucci 74 Ambasciaria di David 156, 161 – 4 Bicini, Geronimo 138 230 Index Biondo, Flavio 65 Chronica sive Historia de duabus Black Magus 54, 137 civitatibus (Otto of Freising) 4 Blado, Antonio 187 Clement VII, Pope 62, 154, 158 – 60, 162 Bologna, Portuguese mission 155 – 6, Constantine XI Palaiologos, Byzantine 158 – 62 Emperor 48 Bologna, Ludovico da 65 Constantinople: missions to 135; Ottoman Bonia, Pere de 43 conquest of 38, 48–9, 85, 96; travel Botticelli, Sandro 74 narratives 130 Bracciolini, Giovanni Francesco Poggio Contarini, Gasparo, Cardinal 164, 194 – 5 62 – 4, 86, 131, 133 – 4, 164 Contarini, Vincenzo 195, 197 Brancaleone, Nicolò 137 – 8 Conti, Daniel de’ 134 Brocchi, Giovanni Battista da Imola Conti, Maria de’ 134 68 – 73, 75, 136 – 7, 148, 206 Conti, Niccolò de’ 62–3, 131 – 4 Byzantine Empire 5, 49, 58 Coptic Church: Ethiopian Church and 132, 166 Cabral, Pedro Álvares 98 – 9 Corsali, Andrea 116 – 18, 139 Cadamosto, Alvise 85 – 6, 89 – 90 Council of Constance 56 – 8 Caetani, Antonio 54 – 5 Council of Florence 58 – 9, 61 – 2, 64, 75 Callistus III, Pope 65–6, 137 Council of Trent 195 Camino de Santiago de Compostela 2, 39, Covilhã, Pêro da 95 – 6, 107 – 9, 139 73, 156 Cronica de D. Afonso Henriques Le Canarien 86 (Galvão) 115 Canary Islands 83, 86 Crossing of the Red Sea (Tucci) 74 Canedo, Paolo 71 Crown of Aragon 38 – 9, 85 Cão, Diogo 92 Cunha, Tristão da 99 Carignano, Giovanni Mauro da 1 – 3, 6, 32 carreira da India 10 Dalorto (Angelino Dulcert) 5 Carta das novas que vieram a el Rey nosso Danes, Pierre 164 – 5 Senhor do descobrimento do preste Dawit [Dawit], Emperor of Ethiopia 22 – 6, Joham 122 – 3 37, 129, 136, 192, 204 cartography: Kingdom of Ethiopia 28 – 9; Debra Warq [Däbrä Wärq] 136 medieval 27 – 9 de Lastic, Jean 45 – 6, 48 Catalan Atlas 131 Demetrius Palaeologus 38 Catalan traders 37 – 9, 48 Desiderio, Michele 48–9 Catholic Church: ecumenical efforts 55, Dias, Bartolomeu 93 – 6 58, 174–5, 198; expansion and 23; diaspora studies 9 interest in Prester John 65 – 6, 69 – 70; Dori [Dori], bahr negus 119, 121 – 2 letters from Lebna Dengel 144 – 7, 154, Duarte, King of Portugal 85 158 – 9; missionary activity 67, 75; Dulcert, Angelino (Dalorto) 5 relations with Ethiopia 67 – 71 Catholicism: Eastern Churches and 58 , Eanes, Dom Gomes 85 195; Ethiopian Church and 69 – 71, Eastern Churches: Catholicism and 58 , 75 – 6, 119, 121, 142, 161, 173, 184 – 5, 195; see also Ethiopian Church 193 – 5, 197 – 8; missionary activity 75; Egypt: Christianity in 44–5; Coptic Church

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Portugal 154; Reformation 155, 184, 7, 23, 66, 166; Mamluk Sultanate 23, 198; Roman supremacy of 119, 121 117; Ottoman takeover of 117; relations Cervini, Marcello see Marcellus II, Pope with Ethiopia 7 Chaldeae seu Aethiopicae linguae Egyptus Novelo 64 institutione (Vittorio) 192 Eleanor of Aragon 85 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor 156, 158 Eleni [Ǝleni], Queen 107 – 10, 113 – 14, Charles VI, King of France 131 142, 207 Charles VII, King of France 45 Encyclopaedia Aethiopica 13 Christian-Muslim relations 22, 44–5, Erasmus 168 – 9 108, 184 Escolar, Joam 121 Index 231 Eskender [Ǝskǝndǝr], Emperor of Ethiopia and 56 – 8; Council of Florence and 62, 66, 70 – 1, 95, 107 – 8 58 – 66; cultural brokers of 204; Estado da India: embassy from 140; European interest in 169; Ewostateans Ethiopians in 110, 156, 163, 180; [Ewosṭateans] 23; Judaism and 154 – 5, governors and viceroys 115, 119, 146, 171; Muslims and 23 – 4, 44; obedience 182, 211; importance of Goa 197; to Rome 159 – 63, 166, 169 – 71; Indian Ocean presence 123; military in relations with Rome 60 – 2, 67 – 71, 143, 112; Patriarch of Alexandria and 132; 158, 160 – 1, 205; rites 55, 68 Portuguese in 108, 118 – 19, 180, 182, Ethiopian-European encounter: archival 185 – 6; see also India documents 11; early modern 3 – 4, Ethiopia (sub-Saharan Africa): Adali raids 6; Ethiopians in art 61, 74, 131; 180 – 1, 183; art in 135 – 7; Catholic geographical knowledge 28, 62; map clerics visit 70 – 1, 95; Christian 20; myths and 7; Prester John myth 30; alliances 24 – 6; church and state 7, 23, regional dynamics and 10; Rome 54; 66, 181; conflicts 44; court clerics 70, scope of 203; travel itineraries 30 – 1; 75 – 6, 142; court history 11, 107 – 8, travel narratives 4, 62 – 3 128 – 9, 131; defined 12; Egyptians in Ethiopian-European relations: Christian 129; emperors 210; European artisans ties 25; coreligiosity 206 – 8; 26, 32, 43 – 4, 47, 129 – 30, 135 – 8, deterioration of 199; diplomatic 145 – 6, 159; European views of 75; exchanges 203, 205; Ethiopian clerics expansion and 23, 37 – 8, 44 ; fantastic and 204; exchange of gifts 25 – 6, 32; creatures in 90, 131 – 2, 147; faranji expansion and 8; Goa as center of [färänğ] community 129 – 42, 145, 197; Jesuits 8 – 9, 166, 185 – 6, 193 – 4, 147 – 8; fortune seekers in 136 – 8; 197 – 8; marriage between royals 40 – 1; geographical knowledge 39; gifts to migration to Ethiopia 135; Prester John Pope 54; historical sources 11; Jesuits myth and 7 – 8, 26 – 8, 36, 65 – 6, 113; in 8 – 9, 56, 185, 197; legendary figures race and 205 – 6; technology transfer 26, 4 – 6; maps 28 – 9, 111, 120; missionary 43 , 49, 129 – 30, 135, 159, 165, 173 activity 184, 197 – 9; Muslims and 37, Ethiopianist knowledge 4, 33, 72 – 4, 47, 66, 108 – 9, 121, 143, 159; negus 86, 93, 114 – 15, 163 – 5, 187, 193, [nǝguś] 13, 23 – 4, 26; Portugal and 100, 197 – 8, 204 107 – 9; relations with Egypt 7, 40; royal Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel [Betä succession 133; scholarship on 8 – 9; Ǝsra’el]) 21 slave trade 9; trade with 40, 138 – 9; Ethiopian-Portuguese relations see travel narratives 8, 11, 62 – 5 Lusophone-Ethiopian relations Ethiopian-Adali War 180 – 3, 187 Ethiopian-Roman relations see Ethiopian-Aragonese encounter 36 – 45; Roman-Ethiopian relations anti-Mamluk alliance 39 – 40, 42 – 4, 47, Ethiopian-Venetian encounter 21 – 2, 24 – 7, 49; marriage between royals 42–3, 49; 30 – 2 Naples 46 – 50; Rhodes 45–6 Eugene IV, Pope 58 – 60, 62 Ethiopian Christians: Adali conquest and European Catholics in Ethiopia see faranji 180 – 1; agency and 203 – 4; expansion [färänğ] (Franks) and 22 – 3, 37; forced conversion of Ewostatewos, Saint 23 180, 199; letters of indulgence 55 – 6,

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 74; military support for 203 – 4; official Faiadell, Phelip 43 Church initiatives 56 – 8; pilgrimage faranji [färänğ] (Franks) 129, 131, 133, 2 – 6, 27 – 8, 30 – 2, 39, 55, 73 – 4, 95; 135 – 42, 145, 147 – 8 Prester John myth and 6, 114 – 15; Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor 46 technology transfer 203 – 4 Fere Seyon [Fǝre Ṣǝyon] 136 Ethiopian Church: abun [abun] 7, 23, 66, Fernandes, João 88 – 9 67, 132, 166; Catholicism and 69 – 71, Fernandez, Joam 122 75 – 6, 119, 121, 142, 161, 173, 184 – 5, Fides, Religio, Moresqve Aethiopum 193 – 5, 197 – 8; Coptic Church and 7, Sub Imperio Preciosi Ioannis (Góis) 23, 66, 69, 132; Council of Constance 172, 174 232 Index Filarete (Antonio di Pietro Averlino) 61, 74 Ibn Taghribirdi 37 Fillastre, Guillaume 40 Ifat [Ifat] Sultanate 23 – 4, 111 Florence, Ethiopian visit to 59 India: assessment as Christian 85, 87, Foresti, Jacopo Filippo 1 – 2, 6 97 – 8; Portuguese in 96 – 8, 100; Prester Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi 27 – 30, 64, 86 John myth and 93 – 4, 97; voyages to 64, Freire, Bernardim 113 91; see also Estado da India; Goa Freire, Fulgêncio 185 – 6, 198 Indian Ocean: maps 111, 120; Portuguese frescoes, Vatican 74 exploration of 112, 123 India Recognita (Bracciolini) 64 Gabriel [Gäbrǝᵓl] 132 Innocent VIII, Pope 72 Gabriel VII, Pope 195 Inter Caetera 96 gabsawi [gǝbsawi] (Egyptians) 129 Isabella I, Queen of Spain 137 Galawdewos [Gälawdewos], Emperor of Islam: alliances against 40, 43, 94, 96, 116, Ethiopia 183, 185, 194, 198 143, 146, 161, 182, 184; anti-Muslim Galvão, Duarte 115 – 16, 118, 121 sentiment 96, 115 – 16, 121, 154; Gama, Christóvão da 182 – 3 expansion of 97, 143; see also Muslims Gama, Estêvão da 182 Iter de Venetiis ad Indiam (Bartoli) Gama, Lopo da 122 26 – 7, 32 Gama, Manuel da 182 Gama, Vasco da 97 – 8, 112 Jacopo da Verona 5 – 6 Gambia River 89 Jacopo Gherardi da Volterra 68 Ge’ez language: letters to King Manuel Jaqmaq, Sultan of Egypt 44–5, 59 in 158; publications in 74, 187, 192; Jeleen, Jolof prince 203 translation of 72 – 3, 198 Jerusalem: Ethiopian clerics in 61, 75, 205; Genoa, Ethiopian visit to 2 – 3 liberation of 115; Muslim conquest of Germany, Protestantism in 158 113; quest for Prester John through 95 Ghisleri, Michele, Cardinal see Jesuits: Ethiopian mission 9, 56, 166, Pius V, Pope 185, 194, 197; expulsion from Ethiopia Giovanni Battista Abissino 156, 162 – 4, 8, 197 187, 194 – 8, 204, 206 João Afonso, de Aveiro 92 Giovanni da Calabria 70 – 1 João II, King of Portugal 92 – 6 Giovanni da Montecorvino 205 João III, King of Portugal 146, 153 – 5, Giovio, Paolo 158, 162, 187 158, 161 – 2, 168, 174 – 5, 185 Goa: Portuguese carreira da India 10; João Manuel 174 Portuguese seizure of 108; Society of John II of Cyprus 49 Jesus in 197; see also Estado da India John IV Megas Komnenos 48 Góis, Damião de 114 – 15, 164 – 5, 168 – 9, John VIII Palaeologos 58 171, 174 – 5 John XXII, Pope 205 Gomes, Diogo 90 – 1 Josef of Lamego 95 Gomes, Fernão (João) 91 – 2, 107 – 8 Judaism 154 – 5, 171 Gonçalves, Antão 88 Julius III, Pope 197 Gonçalves, Joam 121 Gorgoryos, abba 137 Keymolen, Jacob 156 Grapheus, Cornelius Scribonius 114 – 15 Kingdom of Castile 92

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 Greek Church 58 Kingdom of Ethiopia see Ethiopia Gregory XII, Pope 55 (sub-Saharan Africa) Guglingen, Paul Walther von 67 Kongo, Kingdom of: Portugal and 203 Guy, King of Lusignan 156 Kublai Khan 205

Hadim Suleiman Pasha 181 La Broquiere, Bertrandon de 130 – 1, Hakluytus Posthumus (Purchas) 64 137, 148 Henrique I, King of Portugal 82 – 5, 88 – 9, Lebna Dengel [Lǝbnä Dǝngǝl], Emperor 137, 174 – 5, 186 of Ethiopia 62; Adali raids 180; Alvares Hunyadi, John 38 and 162; anti-Muslim sentiment 144 – 6; Index 233 army 159; European mission 154, 158, Martin V, Pope 57 160, 173; letters for Portuguese king Massawa: caravan routes to 37, 44; 145 – 6; letters to Pope Clement VII 62, fortification of 144; Portuguese in 147, 146, 158 – 62; Portuguese mission and 182, 185; sacking of 119, 121; trade and 117 – 18, 122, 139 – 47, 165 – 6, 168, 139; travel itineraries 30 204; relations with Rome 160 – 3, 173; Materazzi, Tommaso 72 request for artisans 145 – 6, 159; Saga Matewos (Mateus) 110, 112 – 16, 118 – 19, Zaab [Ṣagga Zaᵓab] and 168, 171 – 2 122, 145, 154, 169, 204, 207 Legatio Magni Indorvm Imperatoris Mauro, Fra Camaldolese 27 – 30, 64, 86 Presbyteri Ioannis, ad Emanuelem Medici, Juliano di Lorenzo de 117 Lusitaniae Regem, Anno Domini Medici, Lorenzo di Piero de 117 MDXIII (Góis) 114 – 15, 169 Mehmed II, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Leo X, Pope 74, 123 38, 48, 65 Letter of Prester John 4 – 6 Melancthone 174 letters of indulgence 55 – 7 Mendez, Afonzo 122 Lima, Dom Rodrigo de 121, 123, 139 – 47, Meneses, Luis de 146 153 – 4, 156, 162, 166 Mikael [Mikaᵓel] 132 Lisbon: center of geographical knowledge Minas [Minas], Emperor of Ethiopia 199 85 – 6, 93; Ethiopian clerics in 95; Missa qua Ethiopes (Tesfa Seyon) see also Portugal 187, 189 Lopez, Antão 99 Modus Baptizandi (Tesfa Seyon) 187 – 8, 194 Lopez, Pero 122 Mohammed, Sid 107 – 8 Loyola, Ignatius of 166, 174, 185 – 6, 193 – 4 More, John 169 Lusophone-Ethiopian relations: anti-Islam Muhammad ibn Azhar ad-Din, Sultan of sentiment 116; battles with Adali 183; Adal 108, 180 development of 109 – 10, 112 – 15; letters Muslim-Christian relations 22, 44, from Lebna Dengel 144 – 7, 153 – 4; 108, 184 military support 165 – 6; missionary Muslims: Christian Ethiopia and 23 – 4, 44, activity 184; Ottoman expansion 144; 67, 108 – 9, 143, 159; coexistence with political marriage 109; Portuguese Christians 7, 23, 26; jihad and 108 – 9; mission 115 – 19, 121 – 3, 129, 140 – 7, persecution of 37 – 8, 47; Portuguese 153 – 4; Prester John myth and 110, 112, antagonism of 100, 109, 115 – 16, 121; 118, 121 – 3; technology transfer 145 – 6 trade with 38, 83, 139; in Venice 22; Luther, Martin 154, 174 see also Islam Lyas de Barutho 136 – 7 Naod [Naᶜod], Emperor of Ethiopia 180 Magi 54 Naples, Ethiopian embassy visit 46 – 9 Magnus, Johannes 114 Navigationi et Viaggi (Ramusio) 64, Mahfuz ibn Muhammad 108, 180 117, 163 Malfante, Antonio 86 – 8, 90 Nicholas IV, Pope 205 Mamluk Sultanate 2, 23 – 4, 66, 109, 111, Nicholas V, Pope 65, 84 117, 119, 181 Nicodemus 59, 60 – 1 Manuel I, King of Portugal: Ethiopian mission 109 – 10, 112 – 13, 118; letters Order of Christ 83

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 from Lebna Dengel 144 – 6; letter to Orthodox Christians 129 Pope Leo 123; quest for Prester John Otto I, Bishop of Freising 4 96 – 8; religious sameness 208 Ottoman Empire: expansion of 46 – 9, 58, Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor 5 108, 117, 158, 181, 198; Mamluk Egypt Marcellus II, Pope 166 – 7, 187, 192 – 3 takeover 117, 119, 181; Portuguese Mares, Manoel de 121 and 181 – 2; siege of Diu 181; struggles Margalho, Pedro 154 – 5, 170 against 38; support for Adali 181 – 3 Marqos [Marqos], abuna 166 Martinez, Antonio 49 Palharte, Estevam 121 Martinho, Dom 155 – 6, 158, 162 – 3 Patriarch of Alexandria 7, 132, 166 – 7 234 Index Paul III, Pope 166, 184 – 5, 187, 110, 118, 142 – 3, 147; reality of 184, 193 – 4, 208 197; study of 72; travel narratives 26 – 7; Paul IV, Pope 195 war against the Great Khan 131 Pawlos [Pawlos] 65, 137 prophecy 142 – 3, 145 Payva, Afonso de 95 Protestantism 158, 169 Pedro IV, King of Aragon 131 Psalter (Ethiopian Book of Psalms) 72, 74 Pereira, Gaspar 110, 121 Purchas, Samuel 64, 164 Petros 59 – 65, 75 Philip III, Duke of Burgundy 130, 137 Qait Bay, Sultan of Egypt and Syria 69 Philyppo of Brogognon 136 – 7 Pietro (Peter of Naples) 130 – 3, 148 racial discrimination 205 – 8 pilgrimage 6, 46, 50; Camino de Santiago Ramusio, Giovanni Battista 32, 64, 117, de Compostela 2 – 3, 39, 73, 156; 163 – 5 Ethiopian 2 – 4, 27 – 8, 32, 39, 55, 58, 71; Ranke, Leopold von 9 to the Holy Land 30–1, 95; Jerusalem 5; Ranzano, Pietro 46 – 7, 164 letters of indulgence 55 – 7; to Rome 30, Razzi, Serafino 73 55, 58, 71, 165 – 6 Reformation 154 Pisa, Ethiopian clerics in 73 – 4 Regimini Militantis Ecclesiae 184 Pius IV, Pope 195, 197 relics 24 – 6, 36, 54, 66, 109, 113 – 14 Pius V, Pope 197 Reubeni, David 154 – 5 Pole, Reginald 174 Rio do Ouro 86, 88 Portugal: African exploration 83 – 100, Rodrigues, Gonçalo 185 – 6, 198 108 – 9; American exploration 96; Rodrigues, Simão 174 – 5, 185 anti-Semitism in 154 – 5; Ethiopian Roman Catholic Church see Catholic expedition 115 – 19, 121 – 2, 129; Church Ethiopianist knowledge 86, 93; Roman-Ethiopian relations: Council expansion and 38 – 9, 82 – 92, 100, of Constance 56 – 8; Council of 108 – 10, 112 – 13, 117 – 19, 121 – 3, Florence 58 – 63, 64; Jesuits and 166; 154; history 11; House of Avis 82 – 3; reunification of the church 60, 67 – 8, 71, Indian exploration 97 – 8; kings 210; 75; study of 166 Kongo and 203; mission to Bologna Romanus Pontifex 84 – 5 155 – 6, 158 – 62; Muslims and 38; racial Rombulo, Pietro 37, 45 – 8, 132, discrimination in 205 – 6; Reformation 134 – 5, 204 and 154; slave trade 88, 206; spice trade Rome: as center of Christianity 158; 181 – 2; trade and 39, 83, 85, 90, 112, Ethiopian clerics in 71 – 5, 95, 164 – 5, 119, 139, 154; Venice and 85 – 6 187, 192, 194 – 5, 197 – 8; Ethiopianist Portuguese-Ethiopian relations see scholars in 164 – 5, 187, 192 – 3; Lusophone-Ethiopian relations Ethiopian mission 54 – 5, 59 – 62; Portuguese Inquisition 155, 163, 170, Ethiopian obedience to 159 – 63, 166, 174 – 5 169 – 71; non-European Christians and Portuguese-Ottoman conflict 182 – 4 204 – 5; pilgrimage 55; pontiffs 211 Potken, Johannes 73 – 4 royal marriage 40 – 2, 49 Prester John: ambassador of 110, 112 – 13, 116, 130; control of Nile 30, 44 – 5, Saga Zaab [Ṣägga Zaᵓab] 122, 147, 153 – 6,

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 131 – 2; discourse on 5, 30, 60, 63, 160, 162, 165 – 72, 174, 180, 204, 207 – 8 86 – 8, 93 – 4, 100, 131 – 3, 135, 138 – 9, Sager, Francesco 70 154, 156, 158, 169, 186; eyewitness Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria 24 account 164; kingdom of 28, 30, 89 – 90, Salama II [Sälama] 23 92, 95 – 6, 98, 118, 122 – 3, 128, 131; Samara Krestos [Krǝstos] 119, 121 knowledge of 85 – 7; legend of 4 – 7, 25, Sanchez, João 107, 109 32, 36, 59–60, 65 – 6, 89 – 91, 94, 121, Santo Stefano degli Abissini 71 – 4, 163 – 5, 137, 159, 173, 197, 204, 207; letters 167, 187, 193, 195, 197 – 8 5 – 6; Portuguese ambassador to 121 – 3, Santo Stefano degli Indiani 71 140 – 1; quest for 88, 91 – 3, 95 – 100, Sarteano, Alberto da 58 Index 235 Sebastião I, King of Portugal 175 Treaty of Tordesillas 96 Sequeira, Diogo Lopes de 119, 122, True Cross 25 – 6, 113 142, 153 Sernigi, Girolamo 98 Usodimare, Antoniotto 89 – 90 Severac, Jordanus de 205 shared identity of 206 – 7 Valencia, Ethiopian embassy visit 40 – 1 Sixtus IV, Pope 68 – 9, 71 Valois, House of 131, 137 Skanderbeg, George 38 Venice: Ethiopian embassy visit 21 – 2, slave trade: association with blackness 206; 24 – 30, 32; Ethiopianist knowledge Atlantic coast of Africa 83; Portuguese 27, 32; geographical knowledge 22, 88, 206; Sultanate of Adal 181 27 – 8, 30 – 2; trade in 21 – 2, 32; travel Society of Jesus 184, 186, 197 – 9 narratives 22 Sousa, Diogo de 155 Verdadeira Informação das Terras do spice trade 181 – 2 Preste João das Indias (Alvares) 163 – 5 Stèno, Michele 25 Vilamari, Bernat de 48 sub-Saharan Africa see Ethiopia Vilhegas, Diogo Ortiz de 170 (sub-Saharan Africa) Vite dei santi (Razzi) 73 Suleiman, Sultan of the Ottoman Vittorio, Mariano 192 Empire 158 Voyage d’Outremer (Bertrandon) 130 Sultanate of Adal see Adal Sultanate Sultanate of Ifat see Ifat Sultanate Wedem Arad [Wǝdǝm Räᶜad], Emperor Supplementum Chronicarum (Foresti) 1 – 2 of Ethiopia 2, 6, 23 Suriano, Francesco 75, 136 Susenyos [Susǝnyos], Emperor of Xavier, Francis 185 – 6 Ethiopia 199 Yagbe Seyon [Yagba Ṣǝyon], Emperor Tabrizi, Ali 40, 43 – 4, 204 of Ethiopia 23 Tafur, Pero 131 – 4 Yaqob [Yaᶜeqob] the Ethiopian Takla Maryam [Täklä Maryam], Emperor 114 – 16, 206 of Ethiopia 130 Yaqob [Yaᶜeqob] the Indian 90 – 1, 95 Tatar I, Sultan of Egypt 37 Yekuno Amlak [Yǝkunno Amlak], Teixeira, Pero Gomez 119, 121 – 3, 142 Emperor of Ethiopia 22 Temptation of Moses (Botticelli) 74 Yeshaq [Yǝsḥaq], Emperor of Ethiopia 37, Tesfa Seyon [Täsfa Ṣǝyon] 167, 186 – 7, 40 – 4, 130, 132, 204 191 – 7, 204, 206 Yeshaq [Yǝsḥaq], bahr negus [Baḥǝr Testamentum Novum (Tesfa Seyon) 187, nägaš] 183 190, 193, 195 Yohannes XI [Yoḥannǝs], Emperor of Tewodros I [Tewodros], Emperor of Ethiopia 59 Ethiopia 37, 65, 137 Yosab [Yosab] 185 Tomacelli, Giovanni 67, 70 – 1 Tomas Walda Samuel [Tomas Wāldā Zara Yaqob [Zärᵓa Yaᶜeqob], Emperor of Samuᵓel] 73 – 4 Ethiopia 37, 44 – 5, 46 – 9, 61 – 2, 65, travel itineraries 30 – 1 134, 137 travel narratives 4; Ethiopia 11, 63 – 5; Zeila: caravan routes to 37, 44, 99, 181;

Downloaded by [New York University] at 00:26 03 December 2016 eyewitness accounts 62 – 3; Roman fortification of 144; incursions from 62 – 3; Venice 22; West Africa 86 – 8 180; sacking of 37, 118 Treaty of Alcáçovas 92 Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe 9 – 10 Treaty of Lodi 38 Zorzi, Alex 30 – 1, 117, 138