Francisco Álvares

Francisco Álvares (* around 1465 in Coimbra , † around 1540 probably in Rome ) was a Portuguese missionary and explorer.

Álvares received training as a priest . In 1515 he took part in a diplomatic mission to the court of the Ethiopian emperor, the Negus Lebna Dengel . Lebna Dengel's grandmother, Empress Eleni, asked King Manuel I of Portugal for help , as Ethiopia was being threatened by the Turks of the Ottoman Empire at the time . The embassy, ​​a mixed troop of soldiers and missionaries, led by Dom Rodrigo de Lima , did not reach Massaua , Ethiopia via India and the port until 1520 .

The embassy stayed in Ethiopia for around six years. In 1533 he delivered a letter of the Negus to Pope Clement VII in Rome . In a book first published in 1540 (“ Verdadeira Informação das Terras do Preste João das Indias ”, “ Truthful Report from the Kingdom of the Priest John of India ”) Francisco Álvares reported on his stay at the court of the Negus and for the first time gives the Christian West an insight into Christian Ethiopia.

Remarks

1. ↑ digitized version

literature

• CF Beckingham, GWB Huntingford (Ed.): Francisco Alvares, The Prester John of the Indies. 2 volumes, Cambridge 1961.
• Richard Punkhurst (Ed.): Travelers in Ethiopia. Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Wilhelm Baum:  Francisco Álvares. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 14-17.