GÓIS, Damião de.

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Fides, Religio, Moresque Aethiopum sub Imperio Preciosi Ioannis Second edition, following the first of the previous year. This was one of the key books debunking the medieval legend of Prester John, and it also contains an important account of Ethiopia, which features the earliest example of Ge'ez lettering in print. The first part of the work is Góis's history of the Portuguese search for Prester John from Prince Henry the Navigator up to the first Portuguese embassy to Ethiopia of 1520-7. This section includes a series of letters between Emperor Lebna Dengel and Pope Clement VII, which previously appeared in Álvares's Legatio David Aethiopiae regis (1544) and relate to the embassy.Góis's narrative casts light on connections between Ethiopia and the Islamic World. It includes discussions of trade between Ethiopian and Arab merchants and a description of an Ottoman embassy from Cairo to Ethiopia that passed through Suez. Notably, it also contains information of the importance of the Arabic language in the Horn of Africa, giving the Arabic title of the emperor of Ethiopia and describing how he had been taught Arabic as a child.The second part is a direct translation of the Ethiopian priest Saga za Ab's treatise on the beliefs of the Ethiopian church. The humanist scholar and traveller Góis hoped his work would support the Monophysite Ethiopian Church in reconciliation with the Western Christian community. However, Catholic theologians were quick to detect in Saga z-Ab's apolog

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