ABSTRACT
The date of John Cabot’s birth is not even approximately known. He first appears in historical record at Venice during the term of office of the Doge Nicolo Tron (9 November 1471 to 28 July 1473). At some date in that period he was granted the privilege of Venetian citizenship, having previously been an alien resident in the republic. A Senate entry of 28 March 1476 confirms the grant. A condition of naturalization was that the applicant should have been domiciled in Venice for at least fifteen years. Documents preserved in the archives of Venice and first published in 1948 1 show John Cabot in the years 1482–4 engaged in some complicated property transactions in or near Venice. His wife was named Mattea, and she was a Venetian. His father, deceased, had been a merchant named Egidius or Giulio Caboto, and John had a brother Piero. At the close of 1484 John Cabot was mentioned as the father of two or more sons. In all contemporary references in Italian his Christian name appears as Zuan or one of its variants.
