Luis de Urreta

Luis de Urreta (ca. 1570, Spain – 1636) was a Spanish Dominican monk. He was professor of theology in Valencia and wrote two volumes glorifying his own order's accomplishments in Ethiopia while diminishing those of the Jesuits, Historia ecclesiastica…de la Etiopia (1610) and Historia de la Sagrada Orden de Predicadores, en los remotos Reynos de la Etiopia (1611). Both volumes are a late example of a stream of geographical fantasies where Ethiopia was pre-sented as the wondrous utopian kingdom of Prester John, and Urreta makes the case for an ancient Dominican presence in the country, preceding that of the Jesuits in the country. He reports the existence in Ethiopia of a copy of the ‘lost’ book of Enoch, claiming to have found the title in a list made by two friars, Antonio Greco and Lorenzo Cremonese, for the librari-an of the Vatican Library, Cardinal Guglielmo Sirleto. The second volume deals specifically with the the Dominican presence in Ethiopia and the history of the Ethiopian saints.