Cabot House

John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) was an Italian navigator and explorer. His 1497 discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England is the earliest known European exploration of coastal North America (since the Norse visits to Vinland in the 11th century).

Cabot prepared for his voyages in Bristol, England.

Information about the 1497 voyage comes mostly from four short letters and an entry in a 1565 chronicle of the city of Bristol (then often spelt Bristow). The chronicle entry for 1496–97 says

This year, on St. John the Baptist’s Day [24 June 1497], 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 following.