Naturalization of political relations and conservation of conquests: The myth of Prester John and political language in the Portuguese Renaissance

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the myth of Prester John as apolitical language of the Portuguese Renaissance. For this we recover the intellectualcontext in which this myth circulated. We do this from different sources, such as letters,treatises and chronicles. Based on these sources, we realize that the arguments in politicaldialogue can be fictitious or real, just like fables were used for the education of children.We conclude that the coexistence of different modes of consciousness in the PortugueseRenaissance must be understood in articulation with the pedagogical prerogative of themonarchical institution in leading of its subjects.