John Cabot - Knowledge

630:, who had not been identified as part of Cabot's expedition before the discovery of a new document in the late 20th century by historian Margaret Condon. In 2009, historian Evan Jones published this document: a letter from Henry VII ordering the suspension of legal proceedings against Weston because it was the King's intent that Weston would shortly undertake a voyage for the King to the "new founde land". This was probably the voyage under Cabot's patent, making William Weston the first Englishman to lead an expedition to North America. In 2018, Condon and Jones published a further article that showed that Weston and Cabot had been jointly rewarded by the king in January 1498, suggesting that the explorers were working together before the start of the second voyage. The same article revealed that Weston received a £30 reward after he returned from his successful 1499 voyage. 230: 753:

collected in Bristol. The pension was backdated to March 1497, to make clear that Cabot was in the king's service at the time of his expedition. Despite the royal grant, Bristol's customs officers initially refused to pay Cabot his pension, forcing the explorer to obtain an additional warrant from the king. On 3 February 1498, Cabot was given new letters patent covering the voyage and to help him prepare another expedition. In March and April, the king also advanced a number of loans to Lancelot Thirkill of London, Thomas Bradley, and John Cair, who were to accompany Cabot's new expedition.

478:... free authority, faculty and power to sail to all parts, regions, and coasts of the eastern, western and northern sea, under our banners, flags, and ensigns, with five ships or vessels of whatsoever burden and quality they may be, and with so many and with such mariners and men as they may wish to take with them in the said ships, at their own proper costs and charges, to find, discover and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels, in whatsoever part of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians. 862:" in 1499 or 1500, making him the first Englishman to lead the exploration of North America. This find has changed the understanding of English roles in exploration of that continent. In 2018, Condon and Jones published a further article about William Weston. This revealed that Weston and Cabot had received rewards from King Henry VII in January 1498, following a royal audience, thereby confirming that the two explorers were involved by this stage. Condon and Jones also revealed that in 1500 the King rewarded Weston £30 for "his expenses about the finding of the new land". 416:, a major maritime centre, to seek financial backers. This was the only English city to have had a history of undertaking exploratory expeditions into the Atlantic. Cabot's royal patent, issued by the Crown in 1496, stated that all expeditions should be undertaken from Bristol, so his primary financial supporters were probably based in that city. In any case, it also stipulated that the commerce resulting from any discoveries must be conducted with England alone, with goods being brought in only through Bristol. Although those goods would be free of other 1002: 491: 675: 767:(1189–1512) reports that Cabot departed with a fleet of five ships from Bristol at the beginning of May 1498, one of which had been prepared by the king. Some of the ships were said to be carrying merchandise, including cloth, caps, lace points, and other "trifles". This suggests that Cabot intended to engage in trade on this expedition. The Spanish envoy in London reported in July that one of the ships had been caught in a storm and been forced to land in Ireland, but that Cabot and the other four ships had continued on. 991: 869:, a ship for an expedition voyage that summer. Later in 1502 or early 1503, he paid Eliot a reward of £100 for a voyage, or voyages, in "2 ships to the Isle of new finding," as Newfoundland was called. This amount was larger than any previously accounted for in royal support of the explorations. Around this time the Bristol-based explorers established a formal company, backed by Letters Patent, called the Company Adventurers to the New Found Land. This conducted further expeditions in 1503 and 1504. 728: 313: 551:. The letter refers briefly to this voyage but writes mostly about the second, 1497 expedition. Day noted: "Since your Lordship wants information relating to the first voyage, here is what happened: he went with one ship, his crew confused him, he was short of supplies and ran into bad weather, and he decided to turn back." Since Cabot received his royal patent in March 1496, it is believed that he made his first voyage that summer. 960: 593:. This letter has yet to be found. From various written comments made by Ruddock, the letter did not appear to contain a detailed account of the voyage. Ruddock said the letter contained "new evidence supporting the claim that seamen of Bristol had already discovered land across the ocean before John Cabot's arrival in England." She contended that Bristol seamen had reached North America two decades before Cabot's expedition. 241:, Jean Cabot in French, and John Cabot in English. This resulted from a once-ubiquitous European tradition of nativizing names in local documents, something often adhered to by the actual persons themselves. (Many European names have root origins but diverged culturally, e.g. Charles rendered in German becomes Carl or Karl, and Jaques rendered in English becomes Jack.) Cabot signed his name as "Zuan Chabotto" in 597: 58: 623:(according to the 1565 chronicle). It was said to be laden with sufficient supplies for "seven or eight months". The ship departed in May with a crew of 18 to 20 men. They included an unnamed Burgundian (modern-day Netherlands) and a Genoese barber, who presumably accompanied the expedition as the ship's surgeon (barbers in that era also routinely performed dentistry and minor surgery). 366: 977: 839: 634: 719:

The crew appeared to have remained on land just long enough to take on fresh water; they also raised the Venetian and Papal banners, claiming the land for the King of England and recognising the religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church. After this landing, Cabot spent some weeks "discovering the coast", with most "discovered after turning back".

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worked on Cabot and his era for 35 years. She suggested that Cabot and his expedition successfully returned to England in the spring of 1500. She claimed their return followed an epic two-year exploration of the east coast of North America, south into the Chesapeake Bay area and perhaps as far as the

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legend, this island lay somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. There was a widespread belief among merchants in the port that Bristol men had discovered the island at an earlier date but had then lost track of it. In a private letter to a colleague (Quinn), Ruddock maintained that she had found evidence in

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Once he gained full Venetian citizenship in 1476, Cabot would have been eligible to engage in maritime trade, including the trade to the eastern Mediterranean that was the source of much of Venice's wealth. He presumably entered this trade shortly thereafter. A 1483 document refers to his selling a

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Once Henry's throne was secure, he gave more thought to Cabot. On 26 September, just a few days after the collapse of the revolt, the king made an award of £2 to Cabot. On 13 December 1497, the explorer was awarded a pension (or salary) of £20 per year. This was to be payable from customs receipts

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On return to Bristol, Cabot rode to London to report to the king. On 10 August 1497, he was given a reward of £10—equivalent to about two years' pay for an ordinary labourer or craftsman. The explorer was fêted; Soncino wrote on 23 August that, similar to Christopher Columbus, Cabot "is called the

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Cabot is reported to have landed only once during the expedition and did not advance "beyond the shooting distance of a crossbow". Pasqualigo and Day both state that the expedition made no contact with any native people; the crew found the remains of a fire, a human trail, nets, and a wooden tool.

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and the other friars who accompanied the 1498 expedition had stayed in Newfoundland and founded a mission. If Carbonariis founded a settlement in North America, it would have been the first Christian settlement on the continent and may have included a church, the only medieval church to have been

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was organized in 2009 to search for the evidence on which Ruddock's claims rest, as well as to undertake related studies of Cabot and his expeditions. The lead researchers on the project, Evan Jones and Margaret Condon, claim to have found further evidence to support aspects of Ruddock's case,

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For centuries, no other records were found (or at least published) that relate to this expedition; it was long believed that Cabot and his fleet were lost at sea. But at least one of the men scheduled to accompany the expedition, Lancelot Thirkill, is recorded as living in London in 1501.

451:. Beyond this, Ruddock stated that Cabot received a loan from an Italian banking house in London. As Ruddock ordered the destruction of all her research notes on her death in 2005, scholars have had to duplicate her research and rediscover documents. The Cabot Project was formed at the 641:

Leaving Bristol, the expedition sailed past Ireland and across the Atlantic, making landfall somewhere on the coast of North America on 24 June 1497. The exact location of the landfall has long been disputed, with different communities vying for the honor. Historians have proposed

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as possibilities. Since the discovery of the John Day letter in the 1950s, it seems most likely that the initial landfall was either on Newfoundland or nearby Cape Breton Island. This is because Day's letter implies that the coastline explored in 1497 lay between the latitudes of

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This year, on St. John the Baptist's Day , the land of America was found by the Merchants of Bristow in a shippe of Bristowe, called the Mathew; the which said ship departed from the port of Bristowe, the second day of May, and came home again the 6th of August next

381:("a letter of recommendation to justice") to the authorities. While in Valencia, "John Cabot Montecalunya" (as he is referred to in local documents) proposed plans for improvements to the harbour. These proposals were rejected, however. Early in 1494 he moved on to 355:, which he said in 1497 to the Milanese ambassador in London. In this Mediterranean trade, he may have acquired better knowledge of the origins of the Eastern merchandise he would have been dealing in (such as spices and silks) than most Europeans at that time. 2543:

exhibited the work in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1952 as "Number 1423, John Cabot – sketch model for the statue on the New Council House, Bristol". The figure is dressed in fifteenth-century clothing, has a fifteenth-century navigational instrument

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The John Day letter of winter 1497–98 provides considerable information about Cabot's second voyage. Day is believed to have been familiar with the key figures of the expedition and thus able to report on it. If the lands Cabot had discovered lay west of the

2965:(Hakluyt Society, Second Series, No. 120, CUP, 1962). Considered the essential source-book for Cabot and his voyages. Numerous documents have been discovered in the Italian, Spanish and English archives that provide new insights into these events and eras. 420:, the King was to receive one-fifth of the profit. This would have made Bristol into a monopoly port, with sole right to engage in colonial trade. In stating this, Henry VII of England was presumably influenced by Iberian practices: Portugal having made 811:

including some of the information she intended to use to argue for a successful return of the 1498 expedition to Bristol. These appear to place John Cabot in London by May 1500, although Jones and Condon have yet to publish their documentation.

467:(£16 13s. 4d.) to support Cabot's expedition to "go and find the new land". This payment from the Florentine merchants would have represented a substantial contribution, although it was not enough to finance the expedition completely. 255:

typical to Venice. He continued to use this form in England, at least among Italians. He was referred to by his Italian banker in London as "Giovanni", in the only known contemporaneous document to use this version of his first name.

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Little was recorded of Cabot's first voyage. What is known as the "John Day letter", written by John Day, alias Hugh Say, a Bristol merchant originally of London, was sent during the winter of 1497–98 to an addressee believed to be

2006:, p. 16. Note: Based on Ruddock's letter to Quinn on 1 May 1992, she thought that the bank was Venetian; Condon and Jones found documentation in August 2010 suggesting this conclusion was incorrect and that it was Florentine. 745:

Great Admiral, and vast honour is paid to him and he goes dressed in silk, and these English run after him like mad". Such adulation was short-lived, for over the next few months the king's attention was occupied by the

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It is not known whether Cabot died during the voyage, returned safely and died shortly after, or arrived in the Americas and chose to remain there, perhaps remaining with the Indigenous people in a similar manner to

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and Sancto. The Venetian sources contain references to Cabot's being involved in house building in the city. He may have relied on this experience when seeking work later in Spain as a civil engineer.

447:, the papal tax collector. Ruddock also suggested that Carbonariis accompanied Cabot's 1498 expedition. She further suggested that the friar, on good terms with the King, introduced the explorer to 2502: 2936:

Vol 81, Issue 212 (2008), pp. 224–254. Provides updated information on new discoveries of documents related to Cabot and his voyage, and claims made in the late 20th century by Alwyn Ruddock.

3273: 358:"Zuan Cabotto" is mentioned in a variety of Venetian records of the late 1480s. These indicate that by 1484 he was married to Mattea and already had multiple sons. Cabot's sons were Ludovico, 2794: 616:

The known sources do not concur on all aspects of the events, and none can be assumed to be entirely reliable. Cabot was described as having one "little ship", of 50 tons' burden, called

282:) have both been proposed as his birthplace. The main evidence for Gaeta are records of a Caboto family residing there until the mid-15th century, but ceasing to be traceable after 1443. 1362:“Cabos” was in Medieval Latin a fish with a large head, which gave rise in Occitan and French to the forms “cabotz” and “chabot”. Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, 818:, Newfoundland, located at Conception Bay and believed the likely location for Carbonariis's possible mission settlement. The Archaeology of Historic Carbonear Project, carried out by 2357: 3044: 1236: 1163: 229: 1664: 865:

King Henry VII continued to support exploration from Bristol. The king granted Hugh Eliot, Robert Thorne, and his son a bounty of £20 in January 1502 for purchasing the

822:, has conducted summer fieldwork each season since 2011. So far, it has found evidence of planter habitation since the late 17th century and of trade with Spain through 671:

in southern Ireland. The initial landfall seems to have taken place close to the southern latitude, with the expedition returning home after reaching the northern one.

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The Letters Patents of King Henry the Seventh Granted unto Iohn Cabot and his Three Sonnes, Lewis, Sebastian and Sancius for the Discouerie of New and Unknowen Lands

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In 1897, on the 400th anniversary of Cabot's discovery of North America, the Newfoundland Post Office issued a commemorative stamp honouring Cabot and his discovery.

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Cabot may have been born slightly earlier than 1450, which is the approximate date most commonly given for his birth. In 1471 Cabot was accepted into the religious

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river. This project was abandoned following a decision of the City Council on 24 December 1494. After this Cabot appears to have sought support in Seville and

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found documentation that Cabot went first to London, where he received some financial backing from its Italian community. She suggested one patron was Father

1159: 2016: 586:, or if he intended to sail further west, Columbus would probably have believed that these voyages challenged his monopoly rights for westward exploration. 3248: 482:

Those who received such patents had the right to assign them to third parties for execution. His sons are believed to have still been minors at that time.

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expedition. In 2009, Jones confirmed that William Weston (who was not previously known to have been involved) led an expedition from Bristol to the "

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in the eleventh century. To mark the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Cabot's expedition, both the Canadian and British governments declared

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Primary Sources: "Raimondo de Raimondi de Soncino, Milanese Ambassador in England, to Ludovico Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, 18 December 1497

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of Bristol, a supporter of Cabot, undertook an independent expedition to North America in 1499, sailing north from Newfoundland up to the

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Cabot appears to have got into financial trouble in the late 1480s and left Venice as an insolvent debtor by 5 November 1488. He moved to

1082: 3268: 3203: 2992:(Ottawa, 1911). Contains transcriptions of many of the original documents in their original languages – i.e. Latin, Spanish and Italian. 2562: 819: 589:

In addition to these letters, Alwyn Ruddock claimed to have found another, written on 10 August 1497 by the London-based bankers of Fr.

288:, the Spanish envoy and Cabot's contemporary in London, described him in a letter to the Spanish Crown in 1498 as "another Genoese like 133: 2004:"The Quinn papers: Transcripts of correspondence relating to the Bristol discovery voyages to North America in the fifteenth century" 1133:

was an electoral district in Bristol (abolished in 2016), indirectly named for the explorer and directly after the local Cabot Tower.

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in 1476; as citizenship required a minimum of fifteen years' residency in the city, he must have lived in Venice from at least 1461.

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for an Atlantic expedition, before moving to London to seek funding and political support. He probably reached England in mid-1495.

930:, one of John's sons, also became an explorer, later making at least one voyage to North America. In 1508 he was searching for the 3037: 2975: 2911:(University of Bristol, Nov. 2016). This short book provides an up-to-date account of the voyages, based on the research of the " 2539:(Bristol, 2002), p. 90. Note: In 1956 this was designated as a "symbolic figure of an Elizabethan seaman," although the sculptor 1787: 1676: 1385: 1065: 2985:

A short introduction; it has been updated based on material published related to The Cabot Project at the University of Bristol.

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The Precursors of Jacques Cartier, 1497–1534: A Collection of Documents Relating to the Early History of the Dominion of Canada

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Presumed course of Sebastian Cabot's voyage of 1508–09, based on Peter Martyr's 1516 account and subsequent references to it

3157:"Raimondo de Raimondi de Soncino, Milanese Ambassador in England, to Ludovico Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, 18 December 1497 3263: 3258: 534:

Italian archives that Bristol men had discovered North America before 1470. As the island was believed to be a source of

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being financed mainly by the Spanish crown. Cabot planned to depart to the west from a northerly latitude in search of a

385:, where he proposed, was contracted to build and, for five months, worked on the construction of a stone bridge over the 3233: 2746: 888:. Following his return to England in 1509, Sebastian found that his sponsor, Henry VII, had died and that the new king, 3079: 3011: 2907: 2415: 3253: 3238: 2980: 1792: 1390: 33: 1031: 647: 2520: 2540: 1022: 927: 922: 907: 877: 873: 490: 359: 293: 157: 122: 674: 3223: 1211:

issued a postage stamp, marking the 400th and 450th anniversaries of Cabot's voyage to that island, respectively.

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Spanish territories in the Caribbean. Her evidence included the well-known world map of the Spanish cartographer

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whom he had acquired while in the territories of the Sultan of Egypt, which then comprised most of what is now

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Evan T. Jones, "Bristol, Cabot and the New Found Land, 1496–1500" in P. E. Pope and S. Lewis-Simpson (eds.),

1578: 643: 3166: 3136: 3113: 2951: 1764: 3146: 2621: 1140: 791:. His chart included the North American coast and seas "discovered by the English" between 1497 and 1500. 456: 275: 1896: 1878: 1647:

Evan T. Jones, "The Matthew of Bristol and the financiers of John Cabot's 1497 voyage to North America",

776: 3208: 3198: 3089: 1197: 1118: 1075: 859: 807: 583: 452: 218: 3156: 2947:, 27 Aug 2009, relates primarily to newly discovered documents related to William Weston's 1499 voyage. 1945: 1924: 1514: 3127:

Introduction and Source: "Salazar's account of Bristol's discovery of the Island of Brasil (pre-1476)"

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P. D'Epiro, M. D. Pinkowish, "Sprezzatura: 50 Ways Italian Genius Shaped the World", pp. 179–180

2087: 1456: 1183: 1041: 687: 579: 548: 511: 459:, found some of Ruddock's documentation, confirming that Cabot received money in March 1496 from the 448: 289: 206: 703:

For the 500th-anniversary celebrations, the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom designated

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as representing Cabot's first landing site. However, alternative locations have also been proposed.

2878:"Cabot Institute for the Environment | Cabot Institute for the Environment | University of Bristol" 2456: 1204: 1093: 733: 618: 63: 727: 568:

of the city of Bristol (then often spelt Bristow). The chronicle entry for 1496–97 says in full:

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Technical Documentary "Caboto": I and Catalan origins have been proved to be without foundation.

963: 939: 538:(from which a valuable red dye could be obtained), merchants had economic incentive to find it. 2338: 1614: 3093: 2726: 2720: 2699: 2436: 2216: 1958: 1006: 931: 855: 564:

Information about the 1497 voyage comes mostly from four short letters and an entry in a 1565

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is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America since the Norse visits to

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Exploring Atlantic Transitions: Archaeologies of Permanence and Transience in New Found Lands

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The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery

3022: 2922: 2065: 2017:'Henry VII’s letter to John Morton concerning William Weston’s voyage to the new found land' 1839: 1747: 1626: 1596: 1219: 1059: 967: 178: 170: 2289: 1048:, England. A 30-metre-tall red sandstone tower begun in 1897 to mark the 400th anniversary. 312: 3054: 3048: 3040:

El mito de "John Cabot": construcción británica para reclamar la soberanía de Norteamérica

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Palimpsests: Biographies of 50 City Districts. International Case Studies of Urban Change

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John Cabot and his sons receive the charter from Henry VII to sail in search of new lands

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John Cabot and his sons receive the charter from Henry VII to sail in search of new lands

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Primary Sources: "First Letters Patent granted by Henry VII to John Cabot, 5 March 1496"

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in 2009 to research Cabot and the Bristol expeditions. Francesco Guidi Bruscoli, of the

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Cabot was born in Italy, the son of Giulio Caboto and his wife; he had a brother Piero.

263:(= head), refers to a type of fish, and was perhaps a nickname which became hereditary. 3085: 2549: 2326: 2173: 2083: 1723: 1350: 1176:, Newfoundland. Plaques in English, French and Italian commemorate the historic voyage. 1173: 1130: 1107: 885: 704: 471: 424:

into such a monopoly port, while Spain was in the process of doing the same thing with

285: 214: 2169: 3192: 3167:'Letter, author unknown: "News sent from London to the Duke of Milan, 24 August 1497" 2479: 2361: 1844: 1823: 1751: 851: 783: 668: 626:

It is likely that two ranking Bristol merchants were part of the expedition. One was

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M. Balesteros-Gaibrois, "Juan Caboto en España: nueva luz sobre un problema viejo",

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to arrange preparations for his voyage. Bristol was the second-largest seaport in

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built to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the 1497 voyage, docked in Bristol.

938:'s voyage around the world. He became diverted by searching for silver along the 814:

The project is collaborating on an archaeological excavation at the community of

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Sources: "First Letters Patent granted by Henry VII to John Cabot, 5 March 1496"

2800:. City of St. John's Archives. 25 September 2012. pp. 38–39. Archived from 1662:

The Commercial Policy of England Toward the American Colonies: the Acts of Trade

1615:"The Cabot Dilemma: John Cabot's 1497 Voyage & the Limits of Historiography" 1333:

Edoardo Giuffrida, "New documents on Giovanni Caboto" in R. Mamoli Zorzi (ed.),

1114: 596: 525:. From 1480 onward it had supplied several expeditions to look for the mythical 198: 57: 2647:"The history and seasons of the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia" 711:

along with members of the Italian and Canadian governments greeted the replica

2941:"Henry VII and the Bristol expeditions to North America: the Condon documents" 2382:"Henry VII and the Bristol expeditions to North America: the Condon documents" 2029:'Henry VII and the Bristol expeditions to North America: the Condon documents' 1671:, p. 38; in Emory R. Johnson, T. W. Van Metre, G. G. Huebner, D. S. Hanchett, 889: 881: 535: 417: 351:. This is not sufficient to prove Cabot's later assertion that he had visited 3099: 3012: