More on millenarian Spain at time of Columbus

In the article Columbus, Magellan and the "Hidden King,"  the millennial environment that existed in Spain during the time of Columbus and Magellan was discussed.

The kingdom of Valencia, where I have suggested that Sayabiga elements had settled during Moorish times, turns out to be an epicenter of influence that created an environment in Spain favorable both the expeditions of both Columbus and Magellan.  Not only did Valencia host the Sayabiga, but it was also a center of post-Templar influence in Spain.

According to the theory presented here earlier, the "Gypsy" peoples known as the Zutt, who were possibly a Jat group from the Sindh in South Asia, and the Sayabiga from Zabag moved along with their rice farming and buffalo herding through the Middle East.  Probably they were the ones that introduced both rice and the buffalo to Egypt, and from there on to southern Spain.  The rice culture there involves a tidal wet system and the Japonica strain, and I have suggested this rice was farmed by the Sayabiga.


Adoration of the Magi, Northern Spain, 1125-40 (Source: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/50921)

Much of the agriculture in Moorish Spain did come from Egypt both dry and irrigated types.  Tidal rice was also planted by the Sayabiga in southern Mesopotamia, but they would have used regular wet rice agriculture in the Nile Valley before leapfrogging across North Africa to use the tidal system again in places like Lake Albufera in Valencia.

These Sayabiga in Spain, I have suggested, were an important link in the diplomatic efforts of "Prester John" of Zabag in Europe.  They would have been the "Indians" or "fairy people" mentioned by Wolfram von Eschenbach and other medieval writers, and linked with the Plantagenet family and the Holy Grail.


Gypsies in Spain 

The Gypsies in Spain are known as Gitano, a word that had been suggested to have been derived from "Jat," but most likely is a shortened form of Egyptiano "Egyptian."

Like the Romani Gypsies in other parts of Europe, the Gitano show linguistic traces of their origin from India.  Therefore it is quite likely that they are descendants at least partly of the aforementioned Zutt.  At one time, it was widely thought in Spain that the Gitano were descendants of Moriscos -- Muslims who had been converted to Catholicism.  However, after the language relationship with the Romani was discovered, many suggested that the Gitano had migrated into Spain after the Romani appeared in Eastern Europe.

However, researchers like Susan G. Drummond have shown that the evidence suggests two streams of Gypsies into Spain.  A Romani one in the north, and an older Gitano one in the south that dates to Moorish times.  The Calo language of the Gitano displays a large number of Hispano-Arabic words, and their Flamenco music shows similar influence, both of which are absent among the Romani.


Adoration of the Magi, Fuentiduena Chapel, Castilla-Leon, 1175-1200 (Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjr1961/2937556978/sizes/l/)

The presence of the Gitano can be seen as evidence of the migration of Zutt during Moorish times, and their ethnonym would agree with the suggestion that they came directly from Egypt.  Also the fact that they show no signs of Orthodox Christianity would suggest that they converted in Spain, i.e. that they were Moriscos or conversos.

Quite possibly the Gitano were once Zutt buffalo herders, which could explain their wandering ways.  The Zutt and their buffalo were moved to Syria and Anatolia to deal with the lion populations there -- a job that might have required a lot of movement from place to place.  Since the Zutt and Sayabiga tended to move around together, they probably migrated from that region to Egypt with the Sayabiga engaged mainly in farming.  The Sayabiga in Spain would have been rice farmers, and thus sedentary.  Also, the literary evidence would suggest, according to theory suggested here, that they were less endogamous as compared to the Gitano and freely intermarried.


Royal Morisco link from Valencia

Interestingly, both Ferdinand and Isabella, the monarchs of Spain who supported Columbus' voyage, both descend from a Morisca from Valencia.  Her name was Zaida, the daughter-in-law of al-Mutamid, the emir of Seville.  Zaida is sometimes referred to as the daughter of al-Mutamid in latter works, but contemporary Muslim sources state that she was his daughter-in-law of unknown ancestry. She lived in Denia in the Alicante, which was then part of the Kingdom of Valencia but now forms its own province. Like Valencia, Alicante is noted for its rice production.

Zaida, a contemporary of the first "fairy" count of Anjou, Fulk IV,  converted to Christianity and was either married to or was the concubine of Alfonso IV, king of Castile and Leon.  Both Ferdinand and Isabella descend from Zaida through Alfonso Fernandez, King of Castile, who descends through Constance de Hohenstaufen from Constance de Hauteville, the daughter of Elvira Alphonsez.  The latter was in turn was the daughter of Zaida.

Both monarchs may also descend from Zaida through Henry II's mother, a descendant of Zaida's other daughter Sancha Alfonsez,  but this genealogy is less secure.

A Valencian clan that claimed royal descent was the Borgia family, which rose to great heights during the Renaissance.   Accounts beginning in the early 17th century claim that the Borgias descend from King Ramiro of Spain, but the genealogies differ.  The actual documentation from Valencia and Aragon suggests instead that the Borgias trace their origins to one Gonzalo de Borja, who had no formal title.

The surnames Borja, Borge, Borgia, etc. come from the name of the Moorish town, and the surname is found on lists of Morisco surnames.  Evidence suggests that the Borgia clan, or at least their paternal ancestors, came originally from Borja in Aragon, but had been settled in the huerta of Valencia for some time before rising to prominence.

The first Borgia to gain fame was Alfonso from Canals, Valencia who became Pope Callisto III (Callixtus III) in 1455.  Alfonso had once served as an ambassador for the Aragonese kings.  He and the rest of his family became famed for their corruption and he appointed his nephew Rodrigo de Borgia, from Jativa, Valencia, as cardinal.

Rodrigo would become Pope Alexander VI in the same year that Columbus sailed on his first voyage.  As Pope, he granted the coveted rights to the Americas to Spain after a request from King Ferdinand, who had helped bring Rodrigo to power.

The children of Alexander VI and others in the Borgia clan quickly gained titles of nobility including Duke of Gandia in Valencia, and a number of titles in Italy.  Alexander VI's son Cesare Borgia became Duke of Valentinois, and inspired Machiavelli's work "The Prince."

Annio of Viterbo, possibly with the consent of Alexander VI, created a genealogy for the Borgias that claims the family descends from the Egyptian god-king Osiris -- interesting given the Zutt and Sayabiga's Egypt connection -- although Annio makes these links ancient and extends them to Italy.



The Borgia coat of arms with the bull representing Apis as an aspect of Osiris. (Source: Wikipedia)


Templars in Spain

When the Templars were disbanded, those in Portugal took refuge among the Order of Christ.  The Templars in Spain joined the Order of Montesa in Valencia.  Both of these orders play a part in the navigation to the Indies and the voyages of Columbus. Earlier in this blog, I suggested that the Templars had a political relationship with Prester John via Sayabiga/Assassin intermediaries. 

The Order of Christ knights were used by Prince Henry of Portugal, himself the Grandmaster of the organization, during his voyages of discovery.

An interesting possible direct connection between the Order of Montesa, which was located in the Kingdom of Valencia, and Columbus comes through Carlos de Viana (Charles of Viana). 

Carlos was a prince of Aragon, the son of the future John II, and himself the heir to the crown of Navarre. He also held the title of Prince of Viana.  According to one theory, Prince Carlos was actually Christopher Columbus' father!   A team of geneticists lead by Jose A. Lorente and Mark Stoneking had set out to test whether this theory was valid and they were expected to release results in 2005.  However, I have not seen anything further published on this research.

One of Prince Carlos' sons, Felipe, Count of Beaufort, and possibly a half-brother of Columbus, quit his position as Archbishop of Palermo in 1485 to become Grandmaster of the Order of Montesa.

A member of the Borgia family -- Don Pedro Luis Galceran de Borgia -- would become the last Grandmaster of the Order of Montesa in 1572.


Rise in millenarianism

In Columbus' "Book of Prophecies" (Libro de las profecias), the discoverer claims that he had found the Biblical lands of Tarshish, Cathyr and Ophir.

Likely one of the main reasons that both Columbus and Magellan were able to find fertile ground in Spain while failing elsewhere lies in the millennial environment that existed in the area at the time.  The Valencian alchemist Arnold of Villanova (1235-1311) was probably the first person responsible for popularizing the millenarian views of Joachim of Fiore in Spain.

He modified Joachimite prophecies combining them with earlier material from Pseudo-Methodius and others, and claiming that the Last Emperor who would reconquer Zion would come from Spain.  After Arnold of Villanova, another Valencian, Francesc Eixemensis further popularized these millennial views both in Valencia and throughout Spain.  Peter of Aragon, a member of the royal family and a Franciscan also helped promote the idea in the late 14th century that the King of Aragon would retake Jerusalem.

During the period of King Ferdinand V, the belief that this monarch was the prophesied one were widespread throughout Spain.  Given that Columbus himself was also deeply interested in prophecy, and also apparently considered himself a divine instrument in prophetic fulfillment, he was destined to eventually come to the monarchs of Aragon and Castile.

In the introduction to the Book of Prophecies, Columbus also mentions that the islands he had discovered were the same archipelago of 7,448 islands off the coast of South China (Manzi) mentioned by Marco Polo.  In the millenarian views of the time, islands were seen as important elements in the fulfillment of prophecy.  The conquest of the islands at the end of the earth was widely seen as an important mission of the millennial king in the last days.


Message from Prester John

The millenarian environment helped fuel the thirst for exploration, but it was information from the far east that provided the geographic knowledge necessary for Columbus to set off on his journey.

Nicolo di Conti and the eastern ambassador who came together with the entourage of papal envoy Alberto de Sarteano provided that knowledge.  Previously, I have suggested that the eastern delegate came from the kingdom of Prester John, which Conti claimed to have spent much time at during his Asian travels.  The ambassador claims to have come from a Nestorian kingdom in "Upper India" about 20 days from Cathay, i.e., the kingdom of Prester John.

The knowledge they provided completed a set of influences that appear to have convinced Columbus and others of the feasibility of the western voyages.  The other influences were:

• Marco Polo's account of the eastern islands off South China and their richness in gold, which Columbus apparently equates with Biblical gold of Ophir.
• The book attributed to John of Mandeville in the mid to late 14th century suggests that circumnavigation of the world is possible.  Columbus refers to Mandeville's work as having a great influence on him. Mandeville described Prester John's eastern realm as follows:
  
  

  "Toward the east part of Prester John's land is an isle good and great, that men clepe Taprobane, that is full noble and full fructuous...Beside that isle, toward the east, be two other isles. And men clepe that one Orille, and that other Argyte, of the which all the
  land is mine of gold and silver. And those isles be right where that the Red Sea departeth from the sea ocean."

  Orille and Argyte are the Chryse and Argye, the islands of gold and silver mentioned by Ptolemy who  locates them beyond the Golden Chersonese (Malaya Peninsula).
  
  At the extreme east of the kingdoms was the land of Eden:
  
  
  

  "And beyond the land and the isles and the deserts of Prester John's lordship, in going straight toward the east, men find nothing but mountains and rocks, full great. And there is the dark region, where no man may see, neither by day ne by night, as they of the country say. And that desert and that place of darkness dure from this coast unto Paradise terrestrial, where that Adam, our formest father, and Eve were put, that dwelled there but little while: and that is towards the east at the beginning of the earth. But that is not that east that we clepe our east, on this half, where the sun riseth to us. For when the sun is
  east in those parts towards Paradise terrestrial, it is then midnight in our parts on this half, for the roundness of the earth, of the which I have touched to you of before."

  Mandeville then describes the journeys on the 'other half' of the globe that involve "coasting" from the lands of Prester John:
  
  

  "From those isles that I have spoken of before, in the Land of Prester John, that be under earth as to us that be on this half, and of other isles that be more further beyond, whoso will, pursue them for to come again right to the parts that he came from, and so environ all earth. But what for the isles, what for the sea, and what for strong rowing, few folk assay for to pass that passage; albeit that men might do it well, that might be of power to dress them thereto, as I have said you before. And therefore men return from those isles above said by other isles, coasting from the land of Prester John."

Columbus learned of the testimony of Conti and the eastern ambassador at least from the letter of astronomer Paolo Toscanelli to Fernao Martins in 1474.  If the second letter of Toscanelli to Columbus is authentic, Columbus was also told to expect to find Christians on a journey to the East Indies.  Francis Millet Rogers has suggested that Columbus was additionally familiar with Conti through the work of Pero Tafur. If so, then he might easily have connected Prester John as mentioned in Tafur with the eastern ambassador from the Nestorian kingdom in Upper India.  Conti also mentions Nestorians in India, and in Tafur's account he describes the subjects of Prester John saying that "they know nothing of our Romish Church, nor are governed by it."

Tafur suggests that Prester John had an interest in the Christian world: "I learnt from Nicolo de' Conti that Prester John kept him continuously at his court, enquiring of him as to the Christian world, and concerning the princes and their estates, and the wars they were waging, and while he was there he saw Prester John on two occasions dispatch ambassadors to Christian princes, but he did not hear whether any news of them had been received."  Since the king was interested in making contact with Christendom logically he would have sent an ambassador along with Conti.

Upon analyzing the itinerary of Conti as supplied to papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini, Columbus probably noted that Conti's long sojourn with Prester John must have taken place sometime after the former had visited Champa.  That was the period before Conti began his journey back to India and Europe, and the one in which he spent most of his time in Asia. 

Therefore, Columbus quite logically would place Prester John's kingdom somewhere in Southeast Asia, in the same eastern archipelago mentioned by Marco Polo as lying off the coast of South China.  In this location, Columbus, venturing to an unknown part of the world, could expect to meet the friendly Nestorian Christians of Prester John's kingdom.   And Conti's testimony appears to have convinced many including Toscanelli and Columbus that the East Indies could be reached by sailing west from Europe around the globe.

Thus, Columbus' sailing course toward the equatorial latitudes, of which he expected to land in the East Indies, is not surprising.  Magellan also folllowed a similar course, and we know from his notes that he also appeared to be searching for the islands of Tarshish and Ophir.

By the time of Columbus, Valencia had become the commercial capital of the Crown of Aragon, and it was through the city's port that Spain controlled much of the trade that occurred in the European part of the Mediterranean.  Valencia provided the first round of funding for Columbus voyage as financiers like Jewish converso Luis de Santangel responded to Queen Isabella's call for financial backing.

After Prester John of Zabag sent letters to Western Christendom in the latter part of the 12th century, he became relatively quiet.  Maybe the conquests of the Mongols eased the urgency of dealing with expanding threats along the trade routes. However, by the mid-15th century Islam began to expand quickly in Southeast Asia with the establishment of the Sultanate of Aceh, and with Islamic kingdoms already existing in Kedah and Pasai by 1380.  At this time, the remnants of old Zabag were now consolidated into a kingdom known widely as Luzon. So the interest that "Prester John" showed Nicolo di Conti in the goings on of Christian nations in the West is logical.

Spain, for reasons that extend back to the original Prester John of Zabag, was the natural kingdom to have supported Columbus' millenarian plan to reach the fabled islands of Tarshish and Ophir.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Columbus, Christopher, Kay Brigham, and Kay Brigham. Christopher Columbus's Book of Prophecies. Barcelona, Spain: Editorial Clie, 1991.

Constable, Olivia R. Trade and Traders in Muslim Spain: The Commercial Realignment of the Iberian Peninsula, 900-1500. Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought, Ser. 4, 24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Dandelet, Thomas James. Spanish Rome, 1500-1700. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Lorente, Jose A. DNA challenges posed in attempting to solve Christopher Columbus misteries [sic], http://www.promega.com/GENETICIDPROC/ussymp14proc/oralpresentations/Lorente.pdf, 2003.

Reeves, Marjorie. The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages A Study in Joachimism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.

Rogers, Francis Millet. The Quest for Eastern Christians. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962.

Tafur, Pero and Malcolm Letts (translator). Pero Tafur: Travels and Adventures (1435-1439), New York: Harper and Brothers, 1926.

Tompsett, Brian. Directory of Royal Genealogical Data, http://www3.dcs.hull.ac.uk/genealogy/GEDCOM.html, 2005.

Watts, Pauline Moffitt. "Prophecy and Discovery:  On the Spiritual Origins of ChristopherColumbus's 'Enterprise of the Indies'," American Historical Review, Feb. 1985, 73-102.

West, Delno C. "Medieval Ideas of Apocalyptic Mission and the Early Franciscans in Mexico," The Americas vol. XLV, Jan. 1989, no. 3, 292-313.

Nicolo de Conti (Glossary)

Nicolo de Conti (ca.1395-1469), a Venetian merchant, traveled either 36 or 25 years, depending on which account you believe, throughout much of the Indian Ocean and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa.

De Conti's great impact on history is seen through his account to papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini declaring that the Indian Ocean was a wide open sea and not enclosed by land as Europeans had thought since Ptolemy's time.

With good reason it is believed that de Conti's views influenced such persons and cartographers as Fra Mauro and Paolo Toscanelli. The latter in turn either directly or indirectly influenced both Columbus and Magellan in believing that one could venture to the East Indies from the East (traveling West from Europe).

African journey?

Gavin Menzies, in his controversial work on the voyages of Zheng He's fleet, has suggested that Conti had sailed with Zheng toward Africa, and beyond.

Menzies rightfully notes that Conti had great influence on cartographer Fra Mauro, a fellow Venetian. Mauro's map of the world uses place-names, and sources for spices, that appear directly copied from Conti's interviews with Bracciolini. Mauro also is the first to chart the difference between Taprobana (Sri Lanka) and Sumatra, something again first revealed in Conti's testimony.

Mauro also displays the Indian Ocean as an open sea with passage possible both in the East and the West.

The African connection comes from notes made by Fra Mauro concerning the voyage of a junk or ship from the Indies around the southern tip of Africa:

About the year 1420 a ship or junk of the Indies passed directly across the Indian Ocean in the direction of the Men-and-Women Islands beyond Cape Diab, and past the Green Islands and the Dark (Sea), sailing (thereafter) west and south-west for 40 days and finding nothing but air and water. According to the estimate of her (company) she travelled 32,000 km. Then, conditions worsening, she returned in 70 days to the aforesaid Cape Diab.

Fra Mauro continues in another passage again suggesting the continuity of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, the former believed to be completely surrounded by land up until that time:

Moreover I have had speech with a person worthy of belief who affirmed that he had passed in a ship of the Indies through a raging storm 40 days out of the Indian Ocean beyond the Cape of Sofala and the Green Islands more or less south-west and west. And according to the calculations of her astronomers, his guides, this person had sailed 32,000 km.

Now, according to Menzies, the 'person worthy of belief' mentioned by Fra Mauro can be none other than Nicolo de Conti himself.

Conti had told Poggio, the papal secretary, that he left Italy in 1419 and using his chronology of events in that account it appears he made his way to India and left from there either in 1421 or 1422 i.e. very near the 'about the year 1420' mentioned for the African journey by Fra Mauro.

Menzies believes that Conti departed India with Zheng He's fleet. The next thing we hear from Poggio's account, though, is that Conti is in Sumatra and there is no mention of an African journey.

Scholars have suggested that Poggio censored Conti's account (see Rubiés, p. 121), and that may have some confirmation when we see the difference between Poggio and Tafur's versions of Conti's journeys.


Three Indias

Conti divided India into three parts as was common in his time. The first India was found from Persia to the Indus River, the second from the Indus to the Ganges, and the third included all the lands beyond the Ganges i.e., India extra-Gangem.

He described India beyond the Ganges as "far surpassing others in wealth, kindness and magnificence, and equaling us in customs and civilization" ("...est opibus, humanitate, lautitia longe praestantior, vita et civili consuetudien nobis aequalis.").

It also should be noted that Fra Mauro describes the African voyage ship that Conti supposedly traveled on as a 'ship or junk of the Indies.'

That's an interesting description because at this time, Southeast Asian ships often were of a hybrid type showing both junk-like characteristics such as transverse bulkheads, and Southeast Asian typology including wooden joints and tropical hardwood materials rather than the fir commonly used to construct Chinese junks.

Even the word "junk" or "zoncho" (Portuguese junco) appears derived from Old Javanese jong and Javanese djong, a name for an ocean-going ship.

Conti himself in his testimony to Pero Tafur had stated that he spent most of his time in the Indian Ocean in the service of "Prester John" of "Greater India."

One interesting discovery has been highlighted by Menzies as proof that ships at that time were circumnavigating the world. The Pandanan wreck off the coast of Palawan in the Philippines is dated to the 15th century and is loaded with andesite metates that Menzies claims must have come from Mesoamerica or South America. The cylindrical stone manos of the metates are rather unusual and do resemble those of the contemporary period "New World."


15th-century Pandanan wreck metate and mano. Source:
http://users.telenet.be/joosdr/amerika/eeuwamerika228.htm

The lusung/lusong mortars and pestles in the Philippines are generally made of wood. In Guam, the Chamorro lusong is stone, but the pestles are wood. Nothing quite similar to the Pandanan metates is known to have been manufactured in this region during the historical period.

Like other ships of that time and in the same region, the Pandanan wreck shared characteristics of both Southeast Asian and Ming-era Chinese ships.

Fra Mauro's map shows junk-like vessels with high stern and square bow plying the Indian Ocean, along with details of what apparently is the island of Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope.

Mauro describes the ships that crossed the Indian Ocean in these terms:

The ships or junks that navigate these seas carry four or more masts, some of which can be raised or lowered, and have 40 to 60 cabins for the merchants and only one tiller. They navigate without a compass, but have an astrologer who stands on the side and with an astrolabe in hand, and gives orders to the navigator.

This does not appear to describe Zheng He's fleet or other Chinese merchant ships at the time, which did use the compass for navigation. Arab ships also began to use the compass by the 12th century at least. As noted earlier most ships of Southeast Asia did not use the compass when the Europeans arrived on the scene, but the "astrolabe" mentioned above was not commonly used either. The single tiller brings to mind the axial rudder as found on junks or hybrid ships.


Junk-like ship with four masts from Fra Mauro's map positioned west of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Tracing from: De Santarem, M. Visconde. Atlas Compse de Mappemondes et de Cartes Hydrographiques et Historiques, Maulde and Renou, Paris, 1895.

Prester John

Conti tells Tafur that he had personally witnessed Prester John send two missions to 'Christian princes' but had not heard whether these had met with success. The king was also said to have been making preparations for a visit or conquest of Jerusalem. These reports indicate that Conti's Prester John was involved in long-range maritime missions.

Unfortunately Conti's account gives us little information useful in locating this Prester John of the Indies. In his interviews with Poggio, he is aware of the then-existing claims of both an "Indian" and an Ethiopian Prester John. Tafur makes it clear that the Prester John of Greater India is distinct from that of Ethiopia, when he talks of the varying complexions of people in both regions.

Conti mentions a Nestorian king who lived somewhere near Cathay along with the Ethiopian king, and Poggio is said to have interviewed emissaries from the East after his discussions with Conti.

Poggio describes the eastern ambassador as coming from "Upper India" as an envoy of a Nestorian kingdom located 20 days journey from Cathay.

'Upper India' during Poggio's time meant the same as 'Greater India.' With Lower, Middle and Upper India corresponding to the West to East order and Upper India referring to the region beyond the Ganges.

We have seen during this period that the kingdom of Lusung was practicing a policy of attraction with the Ming dynasty, and at the arrival of the Portuguese they were well-dispersed throughout Southeast Asia and eager to provide navigational assistance to the newcomers.

Toscanelli, a friend of Poggio, also met with the Eastern ambassador but he confuses his kingdom with that of Marco Polo's "Great Khan," which by this time had faded into history.

Columbus in his annotated copy of Historia rerum with his own notes copies Toscanelli's letter to Martins referring to Nicolo de Conti's testimony.

Magellan, when faced with a doubtful crew near the tip of South America, told them of a chart he had seen made by Martin Behaim displaying a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Behaim also appeared to have been strongly influenced by Toscanelli as his famed Behaim Globe is nearly a copy of Toscanelli's reconstructed chart.

As Toscanelli himself was indebted to Conti (and also possibly to the Eastern ambassador), it can be said that few persons so influenced the European age of discovery as Nicolo de Conti.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Larner, John. Marco Polo and the Discovery of the World, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 9.

Rubiés, Joan-Pau. Travel and Ethnology in the Renaissance: South India Through European Eyes, 1250-1625, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 93.

Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered America, HarperCollins, 2003.

Vignaud, Henry. Toscanelli and Columbus: The Letter and Chart of Toscanelli on the Route to the Indies by Way of..., Sands & Co., 1902.

Glossary: Letters of Prester John

When analyzing the letters of Prester John, we should distinguish between those said to have been received by the Popes or kings of Europe, and those circulated for general public consumption.

Obviously some of the latter were designed more for entertainment purposes than anything else.

However, when we learn that the Pope sent his personal physician, Magister Philippus, on a mission to Prester John, the completely fictional character of the king becomes a more difficult proposition.

Although many copies of the original letters exist, there are numerous variations in the manuscripts.

Actual specimens of letters addressed to the "Emperor of Rome" and the "King of France" are stated to be preserved at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris (Beazely, p. 278).

Pope Alexander III in Indorum regi sacerdotum santissimo (1177) told of Philippus' encounters with the emissaries of Prester John in the East, and the eastern king's desire to learn about the Roman Catholic Church.

Interestingly, while traveler's reports claiming to have found Prester John's kingdom in Central Asia or Ethiopia are seen as authentic, the accounts of this kingdom in "further India" are viewed as completely fictional and/or fraudulent. This includes the original letter attributed to Prester John, the story of John Mandeville and even the account of Nicolo de Conti given centuries after the first letter.

However, as we have noted, two geographically vast trade empires existed in further India at the time that are certainly deserving of consideration. All the more so when we consider that evidence exists that at least one of these empires appears to have had a long-term strategic policy of courting new allies.

Requests for assistance from the Sung emperor by the king of Sanfotsi against his enemies to the south began in the late 10th century. During the same general period over several centuries, Suvarnadvipa engaged in what apparently was an effort to strengthen political ties with eastern and southern India and Tibet. The Srikalacakra Tantra, having links with Suvarnadvipa gurus, contains not only interesting hopeful prophecies of Buddhist victories against invading hordes, but even a manual of the "art of war" as part of its contents. The presence of Suvarnadvipa influence (Sanfotsi/Zabag) in South India and Sri Lanka is also confirmed by independent Chinese and Muslim sources during this period including Ma Tuan-lin and Chau Ju-Kua.

We know that prior to the initial Prester John letters there had been visits by an "archbishop of India" to Constantinople, and by a "Patriarch John" from the same country to Rome in 1122. These visits are confirmed by two apparently independent sources, one anonymous and the other from Odo of Reims who was in Rome during the event.

These accounts confirm that people at least claiming to be authorities from India were able to venture to the West some 50 years before the first Prester John letter. As we know that merchants and even kings from Suvarnadvipa were journeying to India during this period, the necessary linkage existed.

Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, published only about 35 years after the first letter, was the first in a series of Grail epics that sought to give European roots to the eastern king and to link him with a sacred relic known as the Holy Grail. In this literature, the Grail almost invariably returns to a mountain in far India.

If the letters had some hints of being penned by a Nestorian, this would not automatically effect its authenticity. Cosmas Indicopleustes refers to Nestorians from Siam as early as the 6th century CE. The Persian writer Abu Saliah mentions during the 7th century, a Nestorian church at Fansur (Sumatra or Borneo).

John of Marignolli says that he encounters "Christians" at Sabah during the 14th century, when travelling from China to India.

Even the letters themselves tend to imply they were written by someone in Prester John's service, which according to the king included 'Frankish' knights. We might relate this to Nicolo de Conti's claim much later of having served in the the court of Prester John during his 15th century travels to Asia.

After the Mongol conquests, as Europeans began traveling again to India, and particularly to South India, two advocates of the establishment of a Christian navy in the Indian Ocean arise in Europe. They were Jordanus of Columbum and Marino Sanuto, both of whom located Regnum Joannis Prebyteri in the far Indies. Their world maps though were still Ptolemaic in fashion showing the easternmost islands as part of the Asian continent.

Sanuto wrote an appeal to the Pope for a new crusade known as Secreta fidelium crucis "The Secrets of the Faithful of the Cross."

In this work, Sanuto included many maps, apparently the work of Pietro Vesconte, that were the first to show significant advances over earlier Christian maps. They were known as portolanos, discussed previously in this blog in relation to Austronesian wind compasses, and were valuable new additions to the navigational repetoire of European seafarers.

A pattern of contact, of which I have endeavored to lay out in this blog, continues up to the arrival of Portuguese fleets in the 1500s. The flow of knowledge from the East may be coded in von Eschenbach's account of the visitors Feirfez, Cundrie and Malcreatiure from the kingdom of Tribalibot "near the Ganges." The author even credits the tale of Parzival to a mysterious "pagan" from Toledo. The Grail itself may also allude partly to this new knowledge from the Far East.

It is impossible to say whether Luções "helpfulness" to the Portuguese had strategic rather than purely mercantile or mercenary motivations. However, the situation in Lusung certainly paints a picture of a kingdom in flux.

The land granted to Chinese migrants on the Pasig River, the first major foreign Chinese settlement in history, may have been a conscious policy to curry protectorate sentiments with Ming emperors.

Lusung at the arrival of the Spanish was divided between Islam and the indigenous religions. While the king in Tondo, Lakandula, appeared indigenous by his name, his close neighbor Soliman of Manila was a "Moro."

In the end, one can say that according to the thesis of this blog the lords of the dragon and bird clan succeeded in halting the Muslim juggernaut and the threat from the South, but only at great costs. The letters of "Prester John" worked. However, the land ended up colonized anyway and at one point the Lusung lords could not even conduct trade from village to village with each other under Spanish rule.

However, from the standpoint of the old trading clan the situation could be seen as profound according to their own worldview that I have attempted to reconstruct. Two conflicting exclusive ideologies, from the same root, meeting full circle back at the place where it all started, after nearly a millenium of intense warfare.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento

References

Beazely, C. Raymond (Editor). The Texts and Versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis, London: The Hakluyt Society, 1903.

Coedes, G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia, University of Hawaii Press, 1975-06.

Manansala, Paul. The Kingdom of Prester John, http://asiapacificuniverse.com/pkm/presterjohn.htm, 2003.

Voyage to Cipangu

Marco Polo's confusion of Japan and the easternmost Indies had a lasting effect on European geographers up until the time of Columbus' voyages.

Mapmakers tended to show Cipangu as a vast island covering sometimes more than 30 degrees of latitude from near the equator to 35 degrees north or more. In other words, Cipangu included most of Taiwan, the Philippines and the Moluccas. That this was the case is evident in the fact that many maps including the Behaim Globe show locations known as the Nutmeg Forest and the Pepper Forest in the extreme south of Cipangu. Neither of these spices, or the gold or pearls the island was famous for were abundant, if existent at all, in Japan.

Furthermore Cipangu was shown always in the "Indian Ocean" usually off the coast of Champa, or off the coast between Champa and Manzi.


The world according to Paolo Toscanelli, 1474, reconstructed by Hapgood.


A reconstruction from the Laon Globe of 1493


A section from the Waldseemüller map showing the southern end of Cipangu at about 5 degrees North with the north end at about 35 degrees North.



Toscanelli recreated by Hapgood showing how close Europe thought Cipangu was from the West

As one can see from the last map, European geographers of the time thought the East Indies were much closer to the West than was actually the case. This was due in large part to the incorrect distance assigned to a degree of longitude. As noted earlier, this fault extends back to Marinus and Ptolemy. According to my theory, it would have been in the interests of the Dragon and Bird Clan to allow this error to persist.

Columbus is said to have corresponded with Paolo Toscanelli, and he carried a globe with him during his journeys. The two surviving globes from the period just prior to his journey -- the Laon and Behaim globes -- both show Cipangu in very much the same position as Toscanelli.

Apparently, Columbus also believed that Cipangu was the ancient source of spices like nutmeg, cloves, cassia and Indonesian cinnamon. He expressly stated that he was destined for that island in search of these types of aromatics.

The expedition first made landfall in the New World while cruising at 24 degrees North longitude. Columbus then sailed southwest in his search for Cipangu. He believed that the fabled golden kingdom was that of Cibao, located in the modern nation of the Dominican Republic at about 19 1/2 degrees North latitude. This shows quite clearly that the explorer believed Cipangu was located in the tropics although he greatly underestimated its distance to the West. As you may remember, navigators at this time could accurately determine latitude but not longitude.

There is one important thing we must note regarding Columbus' explorations. Paolo Toscanelli is said to have been the first person to suggest a westward voyage to the Indies and Cipangu. The first documentation of this is a letter by Toscanelli to the confessor Canon Ferdam Martins of Lisbon, which Columbus had read. This started a correspondence between the two geographers.

The important link here is the man generally known as one of Toscanelli's main informants -- Nicolo de Conti. This Venetian traveler had spent many years traveling throughout the East including the island regions of Southeast Asia. Most importantly, de Conti claimed to have had a close personal relationship with Prester John of the Indies!

Pero Tafur, a Spanish traveler met de Conti along the Red Sea near the Sinai during one of his journeys. The Venetian nobleman explained how he had gotten lost in India and finally ended up in the court of Prester John in India Major (Greater India):

When I arrived in India 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.

Unfortunately, de Conti does not give any specific details on just where in Greater India Prester John was located. However, he does provide some details of his kingdom:

I asked him concerning Prester John' and his authority, and he told me that he was a great lord, and that he had twenty-five kings in his service, although they were not great rulers, and also that many people who live without law, but follow heathen rites, are in subjection to him.

Notice that the number of kings under Prester John is reduced from the 72 monarchs claimed in his 1165 letter.

De Conti also tells Tafur that the king had a great interest in the Chrisitan kingdoms of Europe and that he had twice witnessed emissaries sent to "Christian princes" but was unaware if they had ever completed their mission:

I learnt from Nicolo de' Conti that Prester John kept him continuously at his court, enquiring of him as to the Christian world, and concerning the princes and their estates, and the wars they were waging, and while he was there he saw Prester John on two occasions dispatch ambassadors to Christian princes, but he did not hear whether any news of them had been received

Many of the items related by Tafur are confirmed by accounts given to Poggio Bracciolini, the papal secretary. Pope Eugenius IV had ordered de Conti to furnish his history in penance for his renunciation of Christianity during his wanderings.

As for de Conti as a source his accounts are generally considered the best journals of the East during the entire 15th century. He was the first person in Europe to clearly distinguish Sri Lanka from Sumatra. He also was known to have suggested traveling to the East by sailing around Africa. While there is no direct evidence that de Conti ever suggested a westward voyage, the connection with Toscanelli leaves this as an irresistable possibility.

Regards,
Paul Kekai Manansala
Sacramento