Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis

Fr. (Brother) Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis was an Augustinian Friar from Milan who served in London as envoy between the Duke of Milan and King Henry VII. He is known to have sailed with John Cabot (aka Giovanni Caboto) during his 1498 expedition to North America. He may have founded a mission settlement and North America's oldest, and only medieval, church at Carbonear, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis accompanied Francesco Pagano’s diplomatic mission to London at the start of 1490, as did Christopher Carbonariis, who appears to have some family connection. Jones says that "de Carbonariis" appears to be a family name. Giovanni Carbonariis' association to John Cabot has been known since the 19th century, based on his letter of 20 June 1498 to the Duke of Milan. He said that ‘Messer Giovanni Antonio de Carbonariis’ had accompanied Cabot’s recently departed expedition. The Friar had left with five ships provided by King Henry VII of England. The Spanish envoy in London, Pedro de Ayala, wrote to the Crown noting that one of the five ships in Cabot's expedition had been badly damaged in a storm and was forced to land in Ireland, leaving Cabot to sail on. The ambassador notes that on the damaged ship was ‘another Friar Buil.’ This was an allusion to Bernardo Buil, the Minim missionary who had accompanied Christopher Columbus's 1493 expedition. Based on limited information, historians thought that Carbonariis was a minor player in the expeditions, and may not have sailed further than Ireland. Historian James Williamson had ascertained that Carbonariis was 'a man of some importance', having served as an envoy between the Duke of Milan and Henry VII, but the friar had been overlooked by most historians since then interested in the English voyages of exploration from Bristol.

Alwyn Ruddock of the University of London was one of the world's foremost experts on John Cabot's expedition and suggested in correspondence that Carbonariis had a more important role, but due to ill health was unable to publish her findings. After her death in December 2005, all of her research notes and materials were destroyed, according to instructions in her will. Learning of her research, Dr Evan Jones of the University of Bristol has re-investigated her claims, finding new documents and verifying some of her positions. This includes that Carbonariis was an Augustinian friar who had been educated in Pavia. In the late 15th century, he was serving as the deputy papal tax collector in England. Since his principal, Adriano Castellesi, had been in Rome since 1494, Carbonariis was in effective control of one of the most lucrative clerical appointments in England. In this period, the Church still owned about one third of the land in England, and the Pope took ten per cent of the income generated from that property. Based on his position, Carbonariis controlled institutional wealth and had access to King Henry.

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