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The legend of Prester John has received much scholarly attention over the last hundred years, but never before have the sources been collected and coherently presented to readers. This book now brings together a fully-representative set of texts setting out the many and various sources from which we get our knowledge of the legend. These texts, spanning a time period from the Crusades to the Enlightenment, are presented in their original languages and in English translation (for many it is the first time they have been available in English). The story of the mysterious oriental leader Prester John, ruler of a land teeming with marvels who may come to the aid of Christians in the Levant, held an intense grip on the medieval mind from the first references in twelfth-century Crusader literature and into the early-modern period. But Prester John was a man of shifting identity, being at different times and for different reasons associated with Chingis Khan and the Mongols, with the Christian kingdom of Ethiopia, with China, Tibet, South Africa and West Africa. In order to orient the reader, each of these iterations is explained in the comprehensive introduction, and in the introductions to texts and sections. The introduction also raises a thorny question not often considered: whether or not medieval audiences believed in the reality of Prester John and the Prester John Letter. The book is completed with three valuable appendices: a list of all known references to Prester John in medieval and early modern sources, a thorough description of the manuscript traditions of the all-important Prester John Letter, and a brief description of Prester John in the history of cartography.

History of civilization --- Literature --- Prester John --- anno 1200-1799 --- anno 1100-1199 --- Prester John (Legendary character) --- Literature, Medieval --- Johannes, Presbyter (Legendary character) --- John, Prester (Legendary character) --- John the Elder (Legendary character) --- Presbyter Johannes (Legendary character) --- Presbyter John (Legendary character) --- Prete Gianni (Legendary character) --- Prêtre-Jean (Legendary character) --- Priest John (Legendary character) --- History and criticism. --- History and criticism --- Prester John [Fictitious character] --- Literature, Medieval - History and criticism --- Iohannes presbiter --- Prester John - (Legendary character) - Sources --- Johannes Presbyter. --- Iohannes presbyter --- Prester John - (Legendary character) --- Prêtre-Jean,

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William of Tyre’s monumental twelfth-century history of the First Crusade and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem inspired a rich series of interrelated Old French continuations that proved very popular in the later Middle Ages. In contrast to the thriving literary afterlife that William’s work enjoyed in the vernacular, however, only one continuation of the text is known to have survived in Latin, the language in which William himself wrote. Completed in the early thirteenth century by an unknown ecclesiastical writer in England, this so-called Latin Continuation of William of Tyre picks up the threads of William’s narrative soon after it breaks off in 1184 and goes on to provide a detailed account of the Muslimconquest of Jerusalemin 1187 and the subsequent Third Crusade. Drawing on a range of other written sources, the anonymous continuator of William’s work nevertheless offers a unique contemporary perspective on the tumultuous events of the 1180s and early 1190s and on the crusaders’ failure to recover Jerusalem. For the first time ever, this book provides a complete English translation of the Latin Continuation, together with a new critical edition of the text which, unlike the previous edition of 1934, incorporates both extant manuscripts. Written with both students and researchers in mind, the edition and translation are accompanied by a full critical apparatus, explanatory notes, and a detailed new discussion of the text in the introduction.

Crusades --- William, --- Godfrey, --- Jerusalem --- History --- Medieval Latin literature --- History of Asia --- Guillaume of Tyre --- anno 1100-1199