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Something to declare: America named after Welsh Customs man
The Observer [UK] ^
| Sunday April 28, 2002
| Amelia Hill
Posted on 04/28/2002 8:37:13 PM PDT by aculeus
America was named after a British Customs officer and not, as historians have long believed, the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who participated in Christopher Columbus's voyages to the New World.
Martin Waldseemuller, whose 1507 map of the world was the first to show the so-called Unknown Territory as a separate continent, has long been credited with naming the new land after the Florentine nobleman. But according to a new book by Rodney Broome - Amerike, The Briton Who Gave America its Name - the country was named in 1496, years before Vespucci's voyage, by John Cabot - the Bristol-based explorer who stumbled on the continent while searching for trading opportunities.
'Cabot didn't know he had discovered a separate continent during his earlier journey, but he mapped the land he saw in detail and named it after the main sponsor of his trip, a Welsh aristocrat called Richard Amerike,' said Broome. wealthy landowner and merchant trader who lived with his wife, Lucy, and their two teenage daughters in Bristol's Clifton Manor.
He built a profitable career by trading with merchants in Spain and Portugal in the latter half of the fifteenth century. In 1486 he was made King's Customs' Officer and was encouraged by the king to send his ships on journeys of discovery.
When Cabot was given permission by Henry VII in 1496 to challenge Columbus in the race to discover a trading route through the mysterious land mass that barred Europe's route to valuable trading opportunities in Asia, Amerike was in the perfect position to help, says Broome.
According to papers Broome discovered in Westminster Abbey's archives, Vespucci and Columbus used Cabot's maps secretly. 'As their fame grew and Cabot's declined, the misconception grew that it was they who had named the new land,' he said.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002
TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: alwynruddock; ancientnavigation; bardi; bristol; cabotproject; davidquinn; epigraphyandlanguage; evanjones; florence; giovannichabotte; godsgravesglyphs; guidibruscoli; italy; johncabot; johnday; margaretcondon; navigation; newfoundland; peterpope; richardamerike; robertstraunge; thomascroft; unitedkingdom; williamdelfount; williamspenser; williamweston
He was a capitalist married to a woman named Lucy.
That works for me.
1
posted on
04/28/2002 8:37:14 PM PDT
by
aculeus
To: aculeus
Oh, come on John cabot was really an Arab seafarer, Al-Kabut.
To: aculeus
But if this is true, I can no longer sing God Bless Vespucciland!
3
posted on
04/28/2002 9:25:09 PM PDT
by
Erasmus
To: aculeus
My husband is part Welsh and part Hungarian. That would make him a Wellhung.
To: concerned about politics
Thats actually pretty funny.
5
posted on
04/28/2002 9:52:50 PM PDT
by
Sonny M
To: aculeus
Amerigo Ameriwent Amerigone
6
posted on
04/28/2002 10:00:46 PM PDT
by
smorgle
To: concerned about politics, Sonny M
It is pretty funny, but sort of racy for a biblical scholar, don't you think?
7
posted on
04/28/2002 10:20:18 PM PDT
by
tjg
To: tjg
Not TOO racy, I hope...........
NIV Jeremiah 5:8
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife.
NIV Ezekiel 23:20
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
8
posted on
04/29/2002 4:05:01 AM PDT
by
Elsie
To: aculeus
Interesting... I've been up Cabot's Tower in Bristol (no puns please). It's on Brandon Hill and gives you a good view all over the city... Each side has a brass plaque with distances to all the major cities around the world (now isn't that exciting!).
VRN
9
posted on
04/29/2002 6:30:37 AM PDT
by
Voronin
To: Elsie
Just goes to show, the Good Book has something for everybody.
10
posted on
04/30/2002 9:05:58 PM PDT
by
tjg
To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
These are some oldies I found and added the other day, listed alphabetically (ignoring the indefinite article), but didn't ping. Enjoy!
Keyword: alwynruddock
11
posted on
04/21/2015 6:02:43 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
To: Elsie
12
posted on
04/21/2015 6:03:47 AM PDT
by
MrB
(The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
To: tjg
To: concerned about politics
To: aculeus
America sounds German to me.
15
posted on
04/21/2015 6:10:59 PM PDT
by
ZULU
(Je Suis Charlie. . GET IT OBAMA, OR DON'T YOU??)
To: Voronin
>>I’ve been up Cabot’s Tower ... Each side has a brass plaque with distances to all the major cities around the world (now isn’t that exciting!).<<
How did Cabot know the distances to all those cities, when several hadn’t even been founded yet? *<];-’)
16
posted on
04/21/2015 7:02:28 PM PDT
by
ApplegateRanch
(Love me, love my guns!©)
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