Cabot and His World Symposium

Melvin Baker is an archivist and historian at Memorial University of
Newfoundland, and the co-editor of Dictionary of Newfoundland and
Labrador Biography.

In June 1997, Newfoundlanders celebrated the 500th anniversary of
Italian explorer John Cabot’s apparent discovery, for the English
Crown, of the Island of Newfoundland on June 24, 1497. The celebration
was marked with considerable pomp and ceremony as the Newfoundland
government targeted the national and international tourism market. The
Newfoundland Historical Society marked the occasion by hosting a
symposium to provide scholarly context for the Cabot exploration. The
result is a useful compilation of papers organized around several broad
themes: Newfoundland and Labrador before 1497 and Aboriginal
perspectives on their European visitors; European knowledge (including
the Norse experience) of the North Atlantic World before 1497; and the
English background related to the Cabot exploration.

Some papers offer several plausible views of where Cabot may have
landed (Bonavista, Newfoundland; northern Cape Breton Island; or the
Strait of Belle Isle). Other papers deal with the folkloric tradition of
alternative Cabot landfalls in Newfoundland and with how Newfoundlanders
and Canadians have, since 1897, competed vigorously in putting forward
their claims to having been “discovered” by Cabot in 1497. All in
all, the papers and presentations in this book provide general readers
with a solid introduction to Cabot and his world.