ABSTRACT
The parallel discourse on the legend of Prester John and its gradual demise offers in this regard a suitable approach to the base issue discussed: the shaping of India Tertia into Ethiopia and then into Abyssinia. The text of the Epistola states specifically that in a certain land subject to Prester John bubbles up a spring of marvellous properties at ‘scarcely three days’ journey from Paradise, out of which Adam was driven’. As has been pointed out by E. Cerulli, rumours concerning Prester John located somewhere on the upper Nile were already present in the account of two Irish Minorite friars who went to Jerusalem in 1323. Prester John was soon associated by a number of scholars with the sources and control of the Nile. Contemporary cartographic works of larger scope showed more ambivalence than the portolan charts with regard to the location of Prester John.
