QuoteReplyTopic: Ethiopian embassy to the Council of Florence (1441 Posted: 11-Apr-2012 at 15:56
Dear all, the information I found at the moment by internet, talking about that Embassy (sent by Emp.Zara Yaqob) composed of Coptian Monks and one person from italian origin. What I would like to find are: ancient ethiopian pictures showing that episode and article or books on line about the italian person surnamed Pietro Rombulo. May
be that Pietro were very closelly to Zara Emperor. Do you know any
detailed story about that? He lived for 37 years in Ethiopia, so I think
would like exist something that can help me in my studies.
Medieval Europeans held the Ethiopians in high esteem for remaining Christian. They were convinced emperor Zara Yakob was the legendary "Prester John" who ruled a lost land surrounded by pagans
This is from "Ethiopian Itineraries, Circa 1400 - 1524", 1955, I access it on Questia: "...In 1407 there arrived in Ethiopia a young man called PietroRombulo;
he remained there for 37 years and then went to India and China on a
mission sent by the emperor, returning after it to Ethiopia. 3 In 1450 he was back in Naples, now a grey-haired man in his sixties; while there he met Pietro
Ranzano, a Dominican monk born at Palermo in 1428, who compiled a
vast and still unpublished -- probably unpublishable -- Latin work
entitled Annales, preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale at Palermo. It is to Ranzano that we are indebted for our knowledge of Rombulo and his travels, for the book or notes he wrote have not survived. Ranzano met him at Naples in 1450 and saw the book, which was full
of all the wonders of the East. Some of these he copied out,
particularly the parts about Egypt, Ethiopia and the journey to India,
and embodied in his own book. This was an ambitious attempt to
describe the whole of the known world, and it suffered the fate of
others of its kind. The author, overwhelmed by his vast mass of notes,
was often led astray by digressions, with the result that he lost,
and never recovered, the thread of his narrative. He was, moreover,
obsessed by a medieval conception of the East inherited from classical
and Alexandrian times. He made a vain attempt to reconcile the
geography of Ptolemy and the statements derived from classical writers
and the Bible with the facts observed and reported by contemporary
travellers, priority being given to the former. During the Middle Ages
this heritage of the past had come to be embroidered by the fancy of
stay-athome monks and others with fantastic tales of monsters and
fabulous creatures, and with visions of the wealth and power and
culture of distant lands and potentates, some of whom were barbarians
or savages, or non-existent. This attitude contaminated both the stories
of the travellers and the narratives of those who, like Ranzano,
attempted to weave them into a consistent story. Ranzano, says
Trasselli, had a firm belief in Ptolemy, and regarded Rombulo's
geographical discoveries merely as curiosities and no more. Ranzano
himself, a bishop and a counsellor of popes and also an ardent admirer
of classical antiquity, belonged rather to the authoritarian régime
of the Middle Ages then passing away than to the new world of
scientific discovery which was just opening up. His mentality, says
Trasselli, constitutes a grave loss for historical geography.
Ranzano describes his meeting at Naples with Rombulo
who had come there as ambassador from Zar'a Yakob, the emperor of
Ethiopia, to Alfonso the Magnanimous, king of Aragon, Sicily, Sardinia
and Naples. Expecting to encounter a man of dark colour speaking a
barbaric language he had brought an interpreter. But to his surprise
he saw a man whose complexion
was no darker than an Egyptian's and who looked quite unlike an Ethiopian.
He seemed, moreover, to be quite a civilized person, tall, bearded,
and well dressed in the Italian style. Ranzano spoke at first to him
through the interpreter, but Rombulo replied that this was unnecessary as he spoke Italian.
Ranzano's version of Rombulo's
account of Ethiopia contains both facts and fancy, and it must be
remembered that he used other sources as well. The ruler of the land
was that Prester John who was then commonly believed to be a king of
India; he was a Christian and his rule extended also over Mahomedans
and pagans. The country was divided into twelve kingdoms, each
subdivided into principalities, paying tribute and assisting the
emperor in his wars with Egypt and the Arabs. So far the facts; the
fancies then take charge and describe his vast armies and his
elephants, and his rich jewels. Arabic mixed with 'Egyptian' was
spoken in the region between Aswan and Meroe, and Arabic only on the
Red Sea coast; between Meroe and Somaliland ('cinnamomipheram regionem')
there was another language. Then comes an account of the natural
features, plants and animals of Ethiopia, and of the dwellings and
mode of life of its inhabitants. Then there is a long section on the
route followed from Alexandria into Ethiopia which in its latter part
agrees very closely, as Trasselli shows, with our Iter F. It proceeds
up the Nile from Cairo, and thence across the desert to Aidap, Suakin
and Addan, which last point is the limit of the Sultan of Egypt's
domains. Thence it goes by Mons Moria (where Ethiopia begins), Gianges
(an Ethiopian frontier fort), Tuccaica (in a very fair region), Udeb, Aptisment, Torat, and so to Caxum (Axum).
Then comes a geographical farrago which I suspect to be largely
Ranzano's own contribution, derived from written sources. We are told
of a western kingdom of Achi (capital Ubet) where they live in tents;
to it belongs the island of Meroe, called now Mara by the Ethiopians.
On the other (west) bank of the Nile live the Nubei, 'magna plane natio, et
aliquando Christi cultrix, ut ante dictum est'.
To the east of this is another kingdom called Baccho on the Astapus
(now called Oastia), a tributary of the Nile, whose capital is
Seccher. The third kingdom is Duarum with capital Sabboch. The fourth
is called Mago with capital Sciava; there the king lives during the
summer, to get away from the excessive heat. Round Mago flows a great
river whose source is in Mons Lunae where the Nile rises.
Though there are differences there are also some names in this list
which also occur in our Iter F; it will be convenient to give
Ranzano's in tabular form:
KINGDOM
IDENTIFICATION
CAPITAL
IDENTIFICATION
Achi
Lake Haik
Ubet
--
Baccho
--
Seccher
--
Duarum
Dawaro
Sabboch
--
Mago
--
Sciava
Shoa
Vehte
--
Nize
--
Darubie
Dembia?
Furfura
--
Gorgiar
Gojam
Ganimel
--
Hueleghe
(on R. Walaqa)
Anguda
Angot
Gud
--
Siene
Aswan
Seravj
Serave
Inghera
--
Damor
Damot
Aptisment
Between Adua and
Asmara
Mer
--
Tucaica
Between Adua and
Asmara
There can be little doubt that Rombulo
had nothing to do with this compilation of mis-spelt and misapplied
names. Ptolemy's influence appears in the Astapus, Mons Lunae, Meroe
and Siene, 'per quani astrologi produsweetie medium climatis secundi'.
The names do not occur on the extant maps of the fourteenth or
fifteenth centuries, nor on the other hand do some of the names
regularly appearing on those maps (such as Dobaa and Sobaha) appear in
Ranzano's lists. Nor have they anything in common with the strange
names in the Book of Knowledge, or those of Idrisi.
Trasselli concludes his excellent article by stating that Rombulo was one of the first Europeans whose motive for travel was neither religious nor commercial, but just curiosity.
The first European embassy to reach Ethiopia was that -- if such it was -- sent there by the Duke of Berry; it consisted of a Neapolitan called Pietro, a Frenchman and a Spaniard. Bertrandon de la Brocquièee met Pietro in Pera in 1432. Pietro told him that he had married an Ethiopian
in the land of Prestre Jehan. He went to Alexandria and thence by
Cairo 15 days' journey up the Nile, thence across the desert to the
Red Sea and on by sea. Prestre Jehan, he reported, was a good
Catholic; he was continually at war with a great lord near his country
to the east called Chinemachin, 'and we call him "le Grant Can". He
has round his land twelve great lords who pay him tribute annually in
slaves and gold.' 1 The rest of his account of Ethiopia is mainly fabulous; Pietro's
two companions, he said, had died in 1430, and were therefore no longer
available. But part of the story may well be true. It was 15 days'
journey up the Nile to the starting-point of the desert crossing to
the Red Sea ports, and the route described was the usual one to be
followed by the Ethiopian
patriarchs. The emperors were continuously at war; the enemy was the
Mohamedan kingdom of Adel, which was often confused with Indiay and
the Asiatic countries, as Iter F shows. The confusion dates back to
classical times. 2..." pgs. 6-9. Most lamentably I cannot give a link to it because it against the rules of Questia /it's accessible with a subscription/.
This is from the "Nile Histories, cultures, Myths",edited by Haggai
Erlich and Israel Gershoni, 2000, again from Questia: "...It is not clear whether Pietro
from Naples, whose personal description of Ethiopia and the Nile was
recorded by a French traveler at Pera in 1432, is to be identified
with PietroRombulo. See La Broquière, Le Voyage d'Outremer, pp. 142–148; and Trasselli, “Un Italiano in Etiopia nel XV secolo, ” pp. 173–202....", pg. 117
Don, good and fantastic work! From your post I read further info about Rombulo. So, you think it's possibile to find ancient ethiopian picture that identify Pietro Rombulo? Or ancient books...Or documents that describes the court of Zara...Because if he was so closelly to Zara Jacob may be exist figures, frescos or anythink else. What do you think about? Thanks for your help!
Thanks Nick! In your post I'ave got other important information about Prester Jhon in connection to Italy. It seems a neverending story about this person. Please continue in your searching to help me? :)
Don, good and fantastic work! From your post I read further info about Rombulo. So, you think it's possibile to find ancient ethiopian picture that identify Pietro Rombulo? Or ancient books...Or documents that describes the court of Zara...Because if he was so closelly to Zara Jacob may be exist figures, frescos or anythink else. What do you think about? Thanks for your help!
Thanks, Aury. So far I cannot find a picture, I found a "Chronicle of the Emperor Zara Jacob" posted here http://tezetaethiopia.wordpress.com/2005/06/01/the-chronicle-of-the-emperor-zara-yaqob-1434-1468/ . On Questia I found "The realm of Prester John", by Robert Silverberg, 1972, with those remarks about Rombulo and the embassy: "...A young Italian traveler, PietroRombulo,
arrived in Ethiopa in 1407; his motive for making the journey appears
to have been neither commercial nor religious, but one of curiosity
alone. He settled there and enrolled in the service of King Yeshak (
1414-29), whom he persuaded to seek an alliance with a European prince
against Islam. In .1428, King Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon received two Ethiopian
ambassadors at his court in Valencia, bearing a letter from Yeshak in
which the Ethiopian monarch proposed not merely an alliance but a double
royal marriage, with Alfonso's son to marry an Ethiopian princess.
Alfonso sidestepped the marriage proposal, but he did send thirteen of
his subjects to Ethiopia, including some artisans whom Yeshak had
requested to decorate one of his palaces. All, however, perished en
mute. .."pg. 179
"...On the basis of what Abbot Nicodemus told
him about Pope Eugenius and his ecumenical scheme, King Zar'a Yakob
ordered the abbot to nominate two monks from the Ethiopian monastery
at Jerusalem as delegates to the Council of Florence. The Ethiopian
delegates sailed to Rhodes in October 1440, waiting there with Fra
Alberto until the arrival of a Coptic delegation the following spring.
In August 1441 the party of. Italian friars, Egyptians, and
Ethiopians reached Florence, and on September 2 the Ethiopians addressed
the ecumenical conference. Later that year Zar'a Yakob's envoys
signed a decree formally acknowledging the submission of the Coptic
Church (including its Ethiopian branch) to the Church of Rome. But
this agreement, so laboriously arrived at, went the way of the one two
years earlier that had united the Greek and Roman churches: the
Ethiopians, like the Byzantines, simply paid no attention to it, the
Pope and his whole Church being as remote to them as the valleys of
the moon, and the priests of Prester John's land continued to practice
their rites heedless of the doctrines promulgated in Rome.
In 1450 another ambassador from Zara Yakob came to Europe. The only
surviving account of his visit is the work of a Dominican monk named Pietro Ranzano, who encountered the Ethiopian emissary in Naples. Fra Pietro
had expected to meet a dark-skinned man who spoke a strange language,
and so he brought with him an interpreter. He was surprised to find
that the "Ethiopian" was quite European in complexion and dressed in
Italian style. The monk addressed him through the interpreter, but the
envoy replied that that was unnecessary, for he spoke Italian. He was,
indeed, PietroRombulo, who had gone to Ethiopia in 1407. After residing there for thirty-seven years, Rombulo
said, he had been sent on diplomatic missions to India and China by
Zar'a Yakob, and now had come to Europe to revive a project
that had miscarried in 1428--an alliance between Ethiopia and King Alfonso the Magnanimous of Aragon. Rombulo
had brought with him a manuscript about his travels, which has not
survived to our time except in the form of the extracts taken from it by
Fra Pietro for a book of his own. Unfortunately, Fra Pietro mixed into Rombulo's
factual account a number of current geographical fantasies drawn from
less trustworthy sources, so what might have been the first reliable
firsthand description by a European of Prester John's court became
badly diluted by imaginary wonders. Fra Pietro
says that Prester John is a Christian but that many of his subjects
are Moslems or pagans, which was the case; and the information given
on Ethiopian geography and natural history is accurate. However, the
depiction of Prester John's vast army, his elephants and his jewels,
could not have come from anything Rombulo
had said, and the details of the African kingdoms west and south of
Ethiopia bear no resemblance to those in any other contemporary account.
Rombulo,
accompanied by an Ethiopian envoy known as Fra Michele, went on to
have an audience with Alfonso of Aragon, who had transferred his court
from Spain to Naples. Ibis energetic and intelligent prince remembered
the exchange of letters he had had with King Yeshak of Ethiopia
twenty-two years before, and at Rombulo's
urging now sent a new message to Zar'a Yakob, offering to open
diplomatic relations and expressing a willingness to send artisans to
the Ethiopian court--provided Zar'a Yakob could guarantee their safe
arrival, Alfonso added, recalling the death of the thirteen craftsmen he
had dispatched to Ethiopia in 147.8.Again, nothing came of this endeavor...." pgs. 187-88.
I'll continue to dig around and if I come up with something I'll post it.
Thanks Don, The Chronicle were in my possess but not developed from Pankrust, so what you posted help me in addition to my modest consideration. Also, if Pankrust dedicated some time in translating and studying it means that it's a credible piece of originary history!
Waiting further and interesting and precious news from you abour Rombulo.
I found this quote, from "An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia, from Early Times to 1800", by Richard Pankhurst, 1961, in Questia, pg. 70. It doesn't say antything new except that those events weren't recorded in Ethiopian chronicles. "...
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contact between
Ethiopians and the Christians of Europe steadily increased. In 1321 a
certain Brother Jordanus was told by Italian merchants in India that
'the way into Ethiopia was open' and toward the end of the century a
Florentine, Antonio Bartoli, actually reached the country. Not long
afterwards in 1407 a young Italian, PietroRombulo,
visited Ethiopia and was subsequently sent by the Emperor on a
mission to India and China. Many years later in 1450 he told his
adventures to Pietro Ranzano, a Dominican monk in Naples who recorded much of what he heard in an unpublished Latin work entitled Annales, which is preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale at Palermo, Sicily. Rombulo was closely followed by an embassy, sent by the French Duc de Berry, consisting of a Neapolitan called Pietro, a Frenchman and a Spaniard. Bernard de la Brocquière, who met Pietro in 1432, records that he had married an Ethiopian in the land of Prester John. 182
Faced by the increasing pressure of Islam and determined to maintain
the faith of their fathers, the Christian sovereigns of Ethiopia
continued their efforts to maintain relations with the rest of
Christendom. The Emperor Zara Yaqob ( Constantine I, 1434- 1468),
insisted that Saturday, the ancient Biblical sabbath, should be
observed as well as Sunday and authorized Nicodemus, the superior of
the Ethiopian community at Jerusalem, to enter into negotiations with the Roman See. Two Ethiopian
delegates from Jerusalem therefore attended the ecclesiastical
Council of Florence. Though this conference ostensibly reached an
agreement it was repudiated when the delegates returned to their
mother churches. There is no mention of these events in the Ethiopianchronicles,
though it is known that at about this time there was much theological
disputation, apparently with a enetian artist, Nicolo Brancaleone,
who settled in Ethiopia. 183Ethiopian ecclesiastics continued, however, to visit Jerusalem, where a large Ethiopian community resided, and Rome, where they were granted an establishment during Zara Yaqob's reign. 184..."
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