Well, yes and no and it doesn’t matter, in that lovely way that a lot of Medieval history and literature end up sort of overlapping and, well, causing each other. The Prester John letter(s) had a pretty big impact, and starting in the 12th century, a lot of campaigns and exploration groups were sent to try and find the kingdom of Prester John. I know there’s at least one rather dry academic collection of documents and articles on this: Prester John, The Mongols, And The Ten Lost Tribes by Bernard Hamilton and C. F Beckingham. From the description:
This study makes an important contribution to the study of the Prester John legend and will be of interest to a wide range of scholars working in the field of medieval history and literature. The principal sources relating to Prester John are reprinted here for the first time in more than a century, together with a number of key modern articles on this topic. In addition, an international group of scholars has contributed six new studies which examine the legend in the context of Mongol history, Russian literature, the medieval Jewish accounts of the Ten Lost Tribes, the crusading movement, and the Portuguese voyages of exploration.
SFF writer Robert Silverberg wrote something that I’ve gathered is a bit more accessible-The Realm of Prester John. From the description:
Robert Silverberg, whose work is well known to science fiction fans, originally published The Realm of Prester John in 1972. The first modern account of the genesis of a great medieval myth — which was perpetuated for centuries by European Christians who looked to Asia and Africa for a strong ruler out of the east — Silverberg’s romantic and fabulous tale is now available in paperback for the first time.
Prester John had a massive impact and effect on Medieval European society and culture regardless of being fictitious or not, and in the end it actually doesn’t matter much (kind of like King Arthur, who first appeared in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae/History of the Kings of Britain).
As the article I originally linked above points out:
In 1177, Pope Alexander III sent his friend Master Philip to find Prester John; he never did. Despite that failed reconnaissance, countless explorations had the goal of reaching and rescuing Prester John’s kingdom that had rivers filled with gold and was the home of the Fountain of Youth (his letters are the first recorded mention of such a fountain). By the fourteenth century, exploration had proved that Prester John’s kingdom did not lie in Asia, so subsequent letters (published as a ten-page manuscript in several languages), wrote that the besieged kingdom was located in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia).
When the kingdom moved to Abyssinia after a 1340 edition of the letter, expeditions and voyages began to head to Africa to rescue the kingdom. Portugal sent expeditions to find Prester John throughout the fifteenth century. The legend lived on as cartographers continued to include the kingdom of Prester John on maps through the seventeenth century.
Though some scholars think that the basis for Prester John came from the great empire of Genghis Khan, others conclude it was merely a fantasy. Either way, Prester John profoundly affected the geographical knowledge of Europe by stimulating interest in foreign lands and sparking expeditions outside of Europe.
Prester John is an integral part of Medieval European history, and the influence continued well into the colonial era. For obvious reasons. And in the end, it really doesn’t matter whether or not anyone thinks he was a real person (which is perfectly likely), or whether he was an invention by someone who had financial interest in selling travel gear to Europeans.
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