Everything about Giovanni De Verrazzano totally explained
Giovanni da Verrazzano (c.
1485 – c.
1528) was an
Italian explorer of
North America, in the service of the
French crown. He is renowned as the first
European to explore the
Atlantic coast of North America between South Carolina and Newfoundland in 1524, including
New York Harbor where the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is named in his honor, and
Narragansett Bay, where the
Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge is located.
Biography
Although Verrazzano left a descriptive account of his journey to
North America, many details about his life remain unknown. He was born approximately 50 km (30 miles) south of
Florence at
Castello Verrazzano, his family's castle in the Val di Greve. His date of birth is uncertain, but it was around 1485. In 1507, he moved to
Dieppe, to pursue a maritime career. He made several voyages to the eastern
Mediterranean, and also visited
Newfoundland.
In
1524 he was sent by King
Francis I of France to explore the region between
Florida and Newfoundland for a route to the
Pacific Ocean. He made landfall near
Cape Fear on or around
March 1, as recorded in his personal journals. He initially sailed south along the coast of present-day
South Carolina, then turned north again. Sailing along the
Outer Banks of present-day
North Carolina, he thought it was a narrow strip of land beyond which was open ocean - it's actually the
estuary of the
Pamlico Sound and the
Albemarle Sound. This mistake led mapmakers, starting with
Visconte Maggiolo in
1527 and Giovanni's brother Girolamo da Verrazzano in
1529, to draw North America as being almost split in two by the "Sea of Verazzano", the two parts connected by a thin
land bridge on the east coast. It would take a century for this error to be corrected.
He made landfall several times and interacted with the
Native Americans of the coast. He missed the
Chesapeake Bay and likewise didn't record the existence of the
Delaware River further north. According to his journals, he sailed along the coast of present-day
New Jersey and entered
Lower New York Bay. He anchored in
The Narrows, the strait between
Staten Island and
Long Island, where he received a
canoe party of
Lenape. A party of his sailors may have taken on fresh water at a spring called "the watering place" on Staten Island -- a monument stands in a tiny park on the corner of Bay Street and Victory Boulevard at the approximate spot -- but Verrazzano's descriptions of the geography of the area are a bit ambiguous. It is fairly firmly held by historians that his ship anchored at the approximate location where the
Verrazano-Narrows Bridge touches down in Brooklyn today. He also observed what he believed to be a large freshwater lake to the north (apparently
Upper New York Bay, also called New York Harbor). He apparently didn't penetrate deeply enough into New York Harbor to observe the existence of the
Hudson River.
From New York Harbor, he continued along the south coast of Long Island, then crossed
Block Island Sound and entered
Naragansett Bay, where he probably met the
Narragansett people. He followed the coast further east and north to
Maine, skirted the southeast coast of
Nova Scotia, then returned to France by way of
Newfoundland.
Verrazzano made two more voyages to the Americas. On the first, he cut
logwood in
Brazil.
Death
The cause of Verrazzano's death isn't known for certain, but the most popular story places his death in
1528, while exploring
Florida, the
Bahamas, and the
Lesser Antilles. Verrazzano anchored away from shore and rowed in in a little boat to greet the natives. But he found that they were not pleasant natives who wanted to trade. Some say that he died in the Caribbean, killed by cannibals who ate him immediately. His brother was in the main boat that was anchored away from shore. He witnessed this, but couldn't do anything about it, as he was out of gunshot range, and couldn't make it to shore in time. According to some other sources, Verrazzano was killed in 1528 on his third voyage to the New World, by the natives of the
Lesser Antilles. Another source says that he was captured by the
Spanish and hanged as a
pirate. Whatever the case, Giovanni da Verrazzano died at the age of 43.
Modern reputation
Although Verrazzano was the first recorded European to visit the East Coast of the present-day United States, his reputation didn't endure and proliferate as much as other explorers of that era. As a prime example, in accordance with the practices of the time, Verrazzano gave a European name to the new land he'd seen, Francesa, after the king. This and other names he bestowed on features he discovered have not survived.
The most important evidence for Verrazzano's voyage is a long letter he wrote to Francis I describing the geography, flora, fauna and native population of the east coast of North America. In the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a great debate in the United States about the letters authenticity, some considered it a fake by someone who hadn't been on the voyage. Others thought it was true, and it's almost universally accepted as authentic today, particularly after the discovery of the letter signed by Francis I which referred to Verrazzano's letter. This debate minimized considerably Verrazzano's reputation (in the United States at least) as the European discoverer of the mid-Atlantic coast of North America, but he's always remained a French and Italian hero.
Verrazzano's reputation was particularly obscure in
New York City, where the 1609 voyage of
Henry Hudson came to be regarded as the
de facto start of the European exploration of New York. It was only with great effort in the 1950s and 1960s that Verrazzano's name and reputation as the European discoverer of the harbour was re-established, during an effort to have the newly built Narrows bridge named after him.
See Naming controversy of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. A Staten Island ferryboat that served New York from the 1950s to the 1990s was also named for him (oddly, the ferry was named the "Verra
zzano", while the bridge, another Staten Island landmark, was named "Verra
zano", indicating the ongoing confusion over the spelling of his name). There are numerous other commemorations on Staten Island itself to the explorer -- a Little League is named for him, for instance --- reflecting not only his connection to Staten island but also the large number of descendants of Italians who live there.
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