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Prester John: A Fourteenth-Century Manuscript at Cambridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Malcolm Letts
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Extract

The text of the forged Letter of Prester John which began to circulate in Europe about the year 1165 was settled and printed by Professor Fr. Zarncke more than sixty years ago, and although later scholars have added their contributions to the subject and fresh manuscripts have come to light, students as a whole must still base their studies on Professor Zarncke's learned and painstaking work.

Type
Research Article
Information
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 29 , December 1947 , pp. 19 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1947

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References

page 19 note 1 Fr. Zarncke, , ‘Der Priester Johannes’ in Abhandlungen der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil. Hist. Classe, vii (1879), viii (1883)Google Scholar. See also Olschki, L., ‘II Prete Gianni’, in Storia Letteraria delle Scoperte Geografiche (Florence, 1937), p. 194Google Scholar, and the same writer's article in Hist. Zeitschrift, cxliv (1931), 1Google Scholar; also Ch. Langlois, V., ‘Les Merveilles du Prêtre Jehan’, in La Vie en France au Moyen-Age, iii. 44.Google Scholar

page 19 note 2 Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores, xx. 266.Google Scholar

page 19 note 3 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ed. Bury, J. B., v. 159.Google Scholar

page 20 note 1 ‘Prester John: Sources and Illustrations’, clxxxviii (1945), 178, 204, 246, 266Google Scholar; clxxxix. 4. The letter is translated, without the interpolations, by SirRoss, E. Denison in Travel and Travellers of the Middle AgesGoogle Scholar, ed. Newton, A. P. (1926), p. 174.Google Scholar

page 21 note 1 Brit. Mus. MS. Harl. 1781 (Flower, R., Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, ii. 543)Google Scholar; National Library of Scotland, Gaelic MS. XLI (Mackinnon, , Catalogue of Gaelic Manuscripts in Scotland, p. 119).Google Scholar

page 21 note 2 University Library, Oo. vii. 48Google Scholar (Catalogue of Manuscripts, iv. (1861), 552, no. 3235)Google Scholar. Printed by Fr. Zarncke, in Berichte der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil. Hist. Classe (1877), p. 139.Google Scholar

page 23 note 1 The story however is related, and its truth doubted, by the German traveller von Harff, Arnold (1496–99), The Pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff translated and edited by Letts, M. (Hakluyt Society, 1946), p. 170.Google Scholar

page 24 note 1 Edward Webbe, his Travails (1590), ed. Arber, , English Reprints (1868), p. 25.Google Scholar

page 24 note 2 Printed by Fr. Zarncke, in ‘Der Priester Johannes’, i. 837Google Scholar. See Notes and Queries, clxxxviii. 179.Google Scholar

page 24 note 3 Printed by Fr. Zarncke in the contribution referred to above, p. 21, n. 2, at pp. 118–36.

page 25 note 1 de Hese, John, 1389Google Scholar, printed by Fr. Zarncke, in ‘Der Priester Johannes’, ii. 169Google Scholar. Cf. Notes and Queries, clxxxix. 5.Google Scholar

page 26 note 1 Royal, B. M., 17D. xxGoogle Scholar; Catalogue of Royal and King's MSS. (1921), ii. 256Google Scholar. Printed by Fr. Zarncke, in Berichte der Königl. Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, Phil. Hist. Classe (1878), p. 41.Google Scholar