Biography
Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto, famous to the world as John Cabot - the first person who has reached Canada's banks. Expeditions of the Cabota are considered the earliest European studies of the coastal part of North America.Childhood and youth
Giovanni Caboto, born in 1450, presumably on May 23, was brought up in the family of Julio Caboto and his wife, together with Brother Piero.
Italian cities of Gaet and Castiglion-Kyabarese are considered as the most likely places of its appearance. Historians are leaning towards the first option, because in the archives of the Gaeta there are records (converting 1443) about the valued kind of Caboto. However, Pedro de Aiala, a contemporary traveler, in letters to the Spanish crown described John Kabota as "another Genomez, like Columbus." Castiglione-Kyabareza is a city in Genoa Province, and Gaeta - in Latina province.
It is known for certain that the future conqueror of North America by the Italian nationality.
About the biography of John Cabota knows a little. In 1476, he became a citizen of the Venetian Republic, which required at least 15 years of residence in the city. Accordingly, the researcher's family moved no later than 1461.
Fate
Venetian citizenship gave Kebotu right to participate in maritime trade, including in the Mediterranean Sea. The craft made the Italian savvy in the knowledge of the eastern goods - spices and silk. By purchasing them from Arabs, Kabot was interested in where the spices come from. From the foggy replies, a man concluded that the birthplace of spices is India. The desire to visit this country and inspired Cabota for adventures.
The facts of the personal life of John Cabota are known thanks to the archives. So, by 1484, the researcher married Mattei and had at least two children. In total, three sons were brought up in the family - Louis, santo and Sebastian Cabot. Together with his father, they traveled the world.
On November 5, 1488, John Kabot left Venice as an insolvent debtor and moved to Valencia. The researchers even tried to arrest, contacting the assistance to local authorities, but in Spain raged the Inquisition, no one was affected by a small criminal.
Being in Valencia, John Cabot Montecalunha (so the traveler is mentioned in local documents) suggested a plan for improving the harbor, which was rejected. In early 1494, a man moved to Seville, where he worked on the construction of a stone bridge across the Guadalquivir River. The project was abandoned by decision of the authorities in December of the same year.
After a number of failures in the field of the construction engineer Kabot remembered love for the sea. He asked the authorities of Seville and Lisbon to contribute to the organization of the expedition on the Atlantic Ocean. Without receiving an answer, a man in the middle of 1495 appealed to the Government of England. Having enlisted support, Giovanni Caboto joined the English citizenship, becoming John Cabot.
Expeditions and research
In 1480, John Kabot, being a trader, appealed to the Bristol authorities to organize an expedition to search for High Brazil - the islands of blissful, which, according to Celtic mythology, was in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The island attracted the thickets of the Brazilian tree, from which it was possible to get a valuable red dye. The success of this journey would bring some kind of riches to the cabota, but please remember.
Embed from getty imagesAt the end of the 20th century, the British historian Elvin Raddok published the documentation, according to which John Kabot in June 1495 arrived in London for permission to perform an expedition under the English flag. One of his patrons was the father of Giovanni Antonio de Carbonaries, who, having a good relationship with the royal yard, presented Henry VII traveler.
In March 1496, Kabot received a loan from the Bank of Florence, which though was most of the funds necessary for swimming, but did not close the question of financing. At the same time, Heinrich VII gave a traveler to "swim in all parts, regions and the coast of East, Western and North seas under English banners and flags." The document indicated that the Kabota expedition should start from Bristol, and the discoveries committed on the journey became the property of England.
Embed from getty imagesPresumably, in the summer of 1496, John Kabot made first swimming. Research region, route and travel goal are unknown. Perhaps the Italian still decided to reach the shores of High Brazil. The only thing that indicates the fact of the expedition is the letter of the Bristol merchant John Daia to the navigator Christopher Columbus dated in the winter of 1497. Most of the merchant described the second journey of the cabota, but there are such information:
"He went to one ship with an untested team, in the middle of the way left without reserves and ran into bad weather, so I decided to turn back."The next campaign of Cabot took in 1497. About the journey is known mainly from the Bristol chronicle. According to it, on June 24, "America's land was found by the merchants of Bristol." The vessel "Matty", which is probably named after the spouse of the researcher Mattei, went out of the port on May 2 with 18-20 people on board and returned on August 6.
Interesting facts from the expedition open in the letters of John Daia, who, by the assumptions of historians, was located on Matthew. A merchant indicates that the ship spent 35 days in the open sea. Next, about a month of Cabot devoted to the study of sushi, moving towards High Brazil. The return path took 15 days.
With the first landing of Kabot declared the land belonging to the English king. The exact place of landing for a long time was the subject of the disputes of historians and geographers. As possible options, Labrador Islands, Maine, Cape Breton, Cape Bonavist were considered. In the 500th anniversary of the Expedition of Canada and Great Britain, the Official Place of Looking Caber Island Newfoundland.
Embed from getty imagesThe proof of this conclusion is the letter of the Milan Ambassador Raymonto de Raymondi de Sacino, dated December 1497, which indicates that the Keabot expedition found a place at the Island of Newfoundland, "Ray fish". Later, the point in the Atlantic Ocean is rich in the Atlantic Ocean received the name of a large Newfoundland Bank.
The merchant Lorenzo Pasqualigo from Venice in a letter, whose recipient is unknown, indicates that the journey of the Cabota is nothing more than rumors. I supposedly "Venetian who went from Bristol on a small ship, returned and says that he found the Earth in 700 leagues from Bristol." Having passed along the coast of 300 leagues, Cabot did not meet people, but finds - the fire, animal feces, fishing gear - allowed to conclude that there are residents on this earth.
Elvin Raddok, referring to the letter of Giovanni Antonio de Carbonary, says that Bristol's sailors discovered the land over the ocean and before the journey of Cabota, so his contribution to science is very overvalued. According to the historian, the expedition to the shores of North America took place 20 years before the Italian navigator. However, the letter in question is still not found because it is unknown, to what archives Raddow appealed.
Returning to Bristol, John Kabot went to the king's audience. For valuable geographical discoveries on August 10, 1497, the traveler received a remuneration of £ 10, which for those times was equivalent to the salary of an ordinary employee or artisan for 2 years. In December of the same year, Heinrich VII appointed a penc of £ 20 per year.
On February 3, 1498, the researcher received a patent for new travels, and already in May of the same year, he brought 5 ships from the port of Bristol, one of which was equipped with the king. Some vessels stored fabrics and laces, which Kabot planned to trade on the expedition.
In July, one of the ships fell into the storm and was forced to moor to the shores of Ireland, the rest of the procession continued the path. In 1498, the Cabota crew reached North America and went along the coast. They say the journey ended on the border of Spanish territories in the Caribbean, but there is no reliable information about the events of that expedition.
Death
Date, circumstances and cause of the death of John Kabota are still a stumbling block. It is believed that the ships were lost in the sea on the way back, but at least one of the crew members, Lancelot Tirkill, died in London already in 1501.Embed from getty imagesAccording to an alternative version, Kabot died on the way. Command took his eldest son Sebastian. By the way, the young man went in the footsteps of the Father, in 1508 by making swimming for North America, and in 1526-1530 - to South.
Elvin Raddok suggests that Kabot returned safely to England in the spring of 1500. Such a conclusion of the historian did on the basis of the Map of Juan de la Spit, which was as part of the Italian team. He struck final geographical points in 1500.
Memory
After the death of the Cabota in the world, and especially in the UK, countless portraits and architectural structures dedicated to the memory of the researcher were created.
Embed from getty imagesSo, on the land of Newfoundland and in Bristol to the 400th anniversary of the Great Swimming, the Kabota towers appeared, one of which reaches a height of 30 meters. By the 500th anniversary of the Bonavist Cape and the Bristol's shores "moored" the bronze copies "Matty".
Newfoundland and Labrador, Square in London and Montreal, University in Rome, Catholic School in Canada are named after Kabota. But a truly important historical event is that John Cabot's travels inspired Henry Hudzon to swim.