Giovanni da Verrazzano ( VERR-ə-ZAH-noh, -ət-SAH-, Italian: [dʒoˈvanni da (v)verratˈtsaːno]; often misspelled Verrazano in English; 1491–1528) was an Italian explorer from the Republic of Florence, best known for his expedition to North America. He led most of his later missions, including the one to America, in the service of King Francis I of France.
He is renowned as the first European to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between Florida and New Brunswick in 1524, including New York Bay and Narragansett Bay.
Verrazzano was born in Val di Greve (now Greve in Chianti), south of Florence, the capital and main city of the Republic of Florence. Recent archival research indicates he was born on July 20, 1491 to Frosino di Lodovico di Cece da Verrazzano and Lisabetta di Leonardo Daffi. An older hypothesis identified him with a son born in 1485 to Piero Andrea di Bernardo da Verrazzano and Fiammetta Cappelli.
Other theories, now obsolete, postulated that Verrazzano was born in Lyon, France, the son of Alessandro di Bartolommeo da Verrazano and Giovanna Guadagni. As Ronald S. Love stated, "Verrazzano always considered himself to be Florentine," and he was considered a Florentine by his contemporaries as well.
He signed documents employing a Latin version of his name, "Janus Verrazanus", and he called himself "Jehan de Verrazane" in his will dated 11 May 1526 in Rouen, France (preserved at the Archives départementales de la Seine-Maritime).
In contrast to his detailed account of his voyages to North America, little is definitively known about his personal life. After 1506, he settled in the port of Dieppe, Kingdom of France, where he began his career as a navigator.
He embarked for the American coast probably in 1508 in the company of captain Thomas Aubert, on the ship La Pensée, equipped by the owner, Jean Ango. He explored the region of Newfoundland, possibly during a fishing trip, and possibly the St. Lawrence River in Canada; on other occasions, he made numerous voyages to the eastern Mediterranean.
1522–24 voyage to North America
In September 1522, the surviving members of the Magellan expedition returned to Spain, having circumnavigated the globe. Competition in trade was becoming urgent, especially with Portugal.
French merchants and financiers urged King Francis I of France to establish new trade routes. In 1523, the king asked Verrazzano to explore on France's behalf an area between Florida and Newfoundland, intending to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean. The expedition was funded by a consortium of Florentine merchants based in Lyon and Rouen, including the Gondi, Rucellai, Nasi, and Albizzi families. Over 20,000 écus were raised, with Verrazzano himself contributing as both captain and investor.
Within months, four ships set sail due west for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, but a violent storm and rough seas caused the loss of two ships. The remaining two damaged ships, La Dauphine and La Normande, were forced to return to Brittany.
Repairs were completed in the final weeks of 1523, and the ships set sail again. This time, the ships headed south toward calmer waters under hostile Spanish and Portuguese control.
After a stop in Madeira, complications forced La Normande back to home port, but Verrazzano's ship La Dauphine departed on January 17, 1524, piloted by Antoine de Conflans, and headed once more for the North American continent.
It neared the area of Cape Fear on March 21, 1524
and, after a short stay, reached the Pamlico Sound lagoon of modern North Carolina. In a letter to Francis I, described by historians as the Cèllere Codex, Verrazzano wrote that he was convinced that the Sound was the beginning of the Pacific Ocean from which access could be gained to China.
Continuing to explore the coast further northwards, Verrazzano and his crew came into contact with Native Americans living on the coast. However, he did not notice the entrances to the Chesapeake Bay or the mouth of the Delaware River.
In New York Bay, he encountered the Lenape in about 30 Lenape canoes and observed what he deemed to be a large lake, really the entrance to the Hudson River. He then sailed along Long Island and entered Narragansett Bay, where he received a delegation of Wampanoag and Narragansett people.
The words "Norman villa" are found on the 1527 map by Visconte Maggiolo identifying the site. The historian Samuel Eliot Morison writes that "this occurs at Angouleme (New York) rather than Refugio (Newport). It was probably intended to compliment one of Verrazzano's noble friends. There are several places called 'Normanville' in Normandy, France. The main one is located near Fécamp and another important one near Évreux, which would naturally be it. West of it, conjecturally on the Delaware or New Jersey coast, is a Longa Villa, which Verrazzano certainly named after François d'Orléans, duc de Longueville." He stayed there for two weeks and then moved northwards.