The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery

In the wake of historian Alwyn Amy's order to destroy her groundbreaking but uncompleted work on the late 15th-century adventurer John Cabot, his mysterious background and rivalry with Columbus, Canadian historian Hunter (Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World) sets out to illuminate the often querulous and competitive relationship between Cabot, Columbus, and other early explorers. Using fresh archival evidence, Hunter expertly recounts Columbus insinuating his way into the Spanish court of Fernando and Isabel through marriage, and Cabot's escape from a bridge-building scheme turned bad in Venice into the arms of an England lusting after the riches attained by ocean exploration. By 1487 Cabot had revived a proposed plan to prove a northerly sea passage to Asia that would rival the more tropical one pursued by Columbus. In a fresh account, Hunter recovers the life and broken career of Martin Behaim, who built one of the first globes and likely fashioned Cabot's proposed route to Asia; Behaim's cartography influenced the voyages of both Columbus and Cabot. Hunter's occasionally tedious narrative opens new windows on the history of exploration. 2 maps. (Sept.)