Background
John Cabot may have been born slightly earlier than 1450, which is the approximate date most commonly given for his birth. Giovanni Caboto was born in Italy, the son of Giulio Caboto and his wife. He had a brother Piero.
(This exciting book follows the travels of British explore...)
This exciting book follows the travels of British explorer Sir John Franklin on his doomed expedition to the Arctic. Historical information and high-interest fact boxes are presented in an entertaining tabloid style that guides readers through major voyages, explorations, and discoveries. Topics include the search for a Northwest Passage through the Arctic, life stuck in the ice, contact with the native Inuit, Franklin's disappearance, and the long quest to discover the expedition's fate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0778717062/?tag=2022091-20
(The final decade of the fifteenth century was a turning p...)
The final decade of the fifteenth century was a turning point in world history. The Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus sailed westward on the Atlantic Ocean in 1492, famously determined to discover for Spain a shorter and more direct route to the riches of the Indies. Meanwhile, a fellow Italian explorer for hire, John Cabot, set off on his own journey, under England's flag. Here, Douglas Hunter tells the fascinating tale of how, during this expedition, Columbus gained a rival. In the space of a few critical years, these two men engaged in a high-stakes race that threatened the precarious diplomatic balance of Europe-to exploit what they believed was a shortcut to staggering wealth. Instead, they found a New World that neither was looking for. Hunter provides a revelatory look at how the lives of Columbus and Cabot were interconnected, and how neither explorer can be understood properly without understanding both. Together, Cabot and Columbus provide a novel and important perspective on the first years of European experience of the New World.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BOURN0/?tag=2022091-20
John Cabot may have been born slightly earlier than 1450, which is the approximate date most commonly given for his birth. Giovanni Caboto was born in Italy, the son of Giulio Caboto and his wife. He had a brother Piero.
Venetian historical records show that between 1471 and 1473 he was admitted as an adult to citizenship in the republic. A London acquaintance reported in 1497 that Cabot had once been as far east as Mecca and had attempted to learn the Oriental origin of spices.
In view of his Italian birth and Christianity, it seems probable that Cabot visited Jidda, the port of Mecca, rather than the forbidden holy city itself. Cabot was in Spain in the early 1490 and reached England by 1495, determined to make a voyage to Marco Polo's Cathay. English merchants from Bristol had been voyaging into the Atlantic since about 1480, and one expedition, either before or after 1492, had discovered the island of "Brasile, " certainly Newfoundland.
For his own voyage he received letters patent from Henry VII and financial backing in Bristol. In 1497 Cabot sailed from Bristol in the little Matthew with 18 men. From the midpoint of Ireland he went as directly west as possible and made a North American landfall June 24. This was evidently Newfoundland again, perhaps Cape Race. Cabot then followed the coast in regions not precisely identified, but it is thought that he traversed part of Nova Scotia and possibly Maine. He returned to Bristol August 6.
The amazing speed of the entire voyage has caused some scholars to doubt the accuracy of the computation, but it must be remembered that Cabot intended this only as a reconnaissance. When the discoverer reached London, the city hailed him. King Henry, then on rather good terms with Spain, felt that the newly found lands lay far enough northward to be outside any legitimate Spanish sphere.
The King granted Cabot a yearly pension of £20 and gladly gave his consent to a new voyage which would penetrate south of the regions already discovered. In May 1498 Cabot sailed from Bristol again in command of five ships, and here knowledge of him virtually ends. Several of the vessels returned but the one in which Cabot traveled did not; those returning seemed not to know where or when Cabot's ship had been lost. Spanish evidence suggests that one English ship did reach the Caribbean, bearing out the fact that the intention had been to follow the American continent southward.
John Cabot was thought to have been the first to bear the English flag across the Atlantic, but recent evidence shows that another voyage preceded his. Under the commission of Henry VII of England, he was the first European to discover the coast of North America.
There is Cabot Tower (1897) in St. John's, Newfoundland, it was built to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Cabot's voyage. John Cabot University is a United States-affiliated university established in 1972 in Rome, Italy. A 1985 bronze statue of the explorer by Stephen Joyce, is located at Bristol Harbourside. Giovanni Caboto park located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
(This exciting book follows the travels of British explore...)
(The final decade of the fifteenth century was a turning p...)
In 1471 Caboto was accepted into the religious confraternity of St John the Evangelist. Since this was one of the city's prestigious confraternities, his acceptance suggests that he was already a respected member of the community.
He knew of Columbus's discoveries and believed the new land above America could not be China. Cabot believed that on the south Japan and the Great Khan's empire would be found.
Quotes from others about the person
Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy and Cabot's contemporary described him as "another Genoese like Columbus".
John Cabot married to Mattea around 1470. By 1484 he was the father of Sebastian Cabot, who would achieve fame as an explorer, and also children Ludovico and Sancto.
