Mysterious Venetian Sea Captain, John Cabot

Belowdecks...Serious rants, etc...

Moderator: Super Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
SquidInk
________________
Posts: 5865
Joined: 03-15-2007 03:48 PM

Mysterious Venetian Sea Captain, John Cabot

Post by SquidInk » 07-15-2012 11:39 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/scien ... wanted=all
In early 1496, a Venetian sea captain named Giovanni Caboto appeared in the southern English port city of Bristol. He had no money, but carried a warrant from King Henry VII to obtain a ship and sail on a voyage of trade and discovery.

England would call him John Cabot, and from 1496 to 1498 — less than a decade after Christopher Columbus — he set sail three times for the New World. The first voyage was aborted, but on the second he made landfall in what is now Newfoundland and claimed North America for England and the Roman Catholic Church.

That much is known. But of his third voyage there is nothing. He left Bristol and apparently vanished — slaughtered by enemies, taken by disease or swallowed by the sea.

And that is not the only enduring mystery about Cabot. Who helped him? Who bankrolled him? Did he really disappear?

But scholars first had to untangle another mystery: the authenticity of spectacular claims made by Alwyn Ruddock , a historian at the University of London who had researched Cabot for more than half her life.

Dr. Ruddock several times promised a book, but never wrote it. Instead, before she died in 2005 at 89, a childless widow, she ordered her executor to destroy her research. Seventy-eight bags of papers were shredded and incinerated, leaving scholars astounded.


Fascinating stuff.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/history/research/cabot.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z20i524feW
The new discovery shows that the first European to set foot in North America since the Viking Leif Ericsson in the 11th Century was financed by a loan of 50 nobles (£16, 13s, 4d) from the Bardi banking house.

Just like Columbus, the Engish voyages were financed by the great Italian merchant banks of the era, receiving the loan in 1496.

John Cabot - also known as Zuan Caboto or Giovanni Chabotte due to his Venetian birth - made two voyages, one in the summer of 1496, one in 1497.

On the second journey, he landed in Newfoundland.

The entry itself is also curious in that the reference to ‘the new land’ implies that the money was given so that Cabot could find a land that was already known about.


Image
Last edited by SquidInk on 07-15-2012 11:58 AM, edited 1 time in total.
For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

User avatar
SquidInk
________________
Posts: 5865
Joined: 03-15-2007 03:48 PM

Post by SquidInk » 07-15-2012 12:01 PM

So unlike when I was in school, it seems like Leif Ericsson is now widely thought to have been the first European to land on the NA continent?

Or was it Zheng He? Or is this a case of the newest 'winners' rewriting everything? http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/24/arts/ ... wanted=all
For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

User avatar
SquidInk
________________
Posts: 5865
Joined: 03-15-2007 03:48 PM

Post by SquidInk » 07-15-2012 12:05 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonear
The town of Carbonear is one of the oldest permanent settlements in Newfoundland and among the oldest settlements in North America lending to a rich and interesting history.

There are a number of different theories about the origin of the town's name. Possibly from the Spanish word "carbonera" (charcoal kiln); Carbonera, a town near Venice Italy where John Cabot is believed to have been born; or from a number of French words, most likely "Charbonnier" or "Carbonnier". One of the more recent and more interesting theories is by Alwyn Ruddock of the University of London, one of the world's foremost experts on John Cabot's expeditions to the New World. She suggests that a group of reformed Augustinian friars led by the high ranking Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis, accompanied Cabot on his second voyage in 1498 to establish a religious community in Newfoundland for the Augustinian order of the Carbonara. She believes that the settlement was established, though was probably short-lived, and a church built in the name of the order, the modern name of the town being a surviving relic. If true, Carbonear would not only have been the first Christian settlement of any kind in North America, but would have been home to the oldest, and only, medieval church built in North America. Evan Jones of the University of Bristol is currently carrying out further investigations of Dr Ruddock's claims.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 597.x/full
While the early Bristol expeditions to North America have always been thought of as a purely English phenomenon, this article demonstrates that they were partly funded by Italian capital. Following the slight leads left behind by a deceased historian, documents have been found which demonstrate that a payment of fifty nobles was made in 1496 to the Venetian explorer, John Cabot, from the London branch of a Florentine company: the Bardi. This article discusses the significance of the payment for Cabot and his expedition, the reasons why the funding might have been advanced, and the position of the Bardi within London's Italian community.

John Cabot, of Venice, on 27 April [1496], is debited for £10 sterling, paid in cash . . . towards the 50 nobles sterling our Aldobrandino Tanagli ordered us to pay him so that he could go and find the new land.1
Last edited by SquidInk on 07-15-2012 12:09 PM, edited 1 time in total.
For if it profit, none dare call it Treason.

Post Reply

Return to “The Murky Bilge”