Giovanni Caboto
Although the Genoese‐born Italian navigator Giovanni Caboto c. 1450 – 1498?) appears in various guises (John Cabot in English, Jean Cabot in French, Zuan Caboto in Venetian) and became a naturalised Venetian citizen before moving to England in 1493; details of his early life are obscure and a matter of some debate.
As a Venetian citizen, he may have traded in the Eastern Mediterranean and seems to have worked as a builder in his adopted home when he ran into financial difficulties. He moved to Spain, where he turned his attention to finding a shorter route to the East by crossing the Atlantic at a higher latitude than his compatriot.
After unsuccessful attempts to find sponsors for his voyage in Seville and Lisbon, he moved to England, where he obtained letters patent from Henry VII and sailed from Bristol, accompanied by his three sons on a voyage that took him to Labrador, Newfoundland and Cape Breton, which he believed to be near Cipangu (Japan). After he disappeared on a second voyage the following year, his son Sebastian attempted the Northwest Passage in 1508.
