ABSTRACT
This book, in two volumes, contains an annotated English translation of the História da Ethiópia by the Spanish Jesuit missionary priest Pedro Páez (Pêro Pais in Portuguese), 1564-1622, who worked in the Portuguese padroado missions, first in India and then in Ethiopia, long thought to be the kingdom of the legendary Prester John. His history of Ethiopia was written in Portuguese in the last ten years of his life and survives in only two manuscripts. The translation, by Christopher J. Tribe, is based on the new critical edition of the Portuguese text by Isabel Boavida, Hervé Pennec and Manuel João Ramos, which was published in Lisbon in 2008. They are also the editors of this English version. The History of Ethiopia is an essential source for several areas of study - from the history of the Catholic missions in that country and the relations between the European religious orders, to the history of art and religions; from the history of geographical exploration to the ideological contextualization of the Ethiopian kingdom; from material culture to Abyssinian political and territorial administration; and from an analysis of local circumstances to changes in human ecology in the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean. It is a repository of empirical knowledge on the political geography, religion, customs, flora and fauna of Ethiopia. It combines travel narrative with a historico-ethnographic monograph, and is a chronicle of the activities of Jesuit missionaries in their Ethiopian mission. It also reworks a wide variety of documents, including the first translations into a European language of a number of Ethiopian literary texts, from royal chronicles to hagiographies. It complements other early accounts of Ethiopia by Ludovico de Varthema, Francisco Alvares, Castanhoso, Bermudez, Arnold von Harff, Manoel de Almeida, Bahrey, Alessandro Zorzi, Jerónimo Lobo and Václav Prutky, all published by The Hakluyt Society.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |142 pages
{[f. 315]} <[f. 258/248]>1 Book III Which Reports Some Histories of Emperors of Ethiopia, with the Missions that Fathers of the Society Undertook to this Empire at the Time of Each of them
chapter Chapter I|9 pages
Which reports the history of Emperor Amd Ceôn or, by another name, Gâbra Mazcâl
chapter Chapter III|3 pages
Which deals with Emperor Claudio, who on succeeding to the empire titled himself Atanâf Çaguêd
chapter Chapter XVIII|4 pages
On how they took us to the Moorish king and what happened to us on the journey and on our arrival
chapter Chapter XIX|5 pages
On how they took us to the Turks and on the interrogation that they gave us when we reached them
chapter Chapter XXI|6 pages
Which deals with the hardships that the Turks gave us because of the ransom
chapter Chapter XXII|5 pages
On how Father Abraham de Georgis1 was sent to Ethiopia and on the journey was captured and martyred by the Turks
part |214 pages
{[f. 401]}1<[f. 355/344]> Book IV Which Deals with the Last Three Emperors that There have been in it Until Today and with the Missions that the Fathers of the Society have Undertaken to this Empire During Their Time