Summary

Giovanni da Verrazzano de Verrazane or (rarely) Jean Verazani, in Latin (according to his signature) Janus Verrazanus, born around 1485 in Lyon or in Tuscany and died in 1528 in the West Indies, was an Italian businessman and explorer of Florentine origin, in the service of Francis I during his three voyages from 1524 to 1528.

In 1524, he was the first European to explore, on behalf of France, the Atlantic coast of North America, a prelude to the French colonization of the Americas; it was he who gave these new territories the name "Nova-Gallia" (New France).

His two other journeys (he died in unknown conditions during the third one, perhaps victim of anthropophagous natives.

About his place of birth

There are two assumptions regarding his place of birth:

Concerning his death: confusion with that of Jean Fleury

Verrazzano is sometimes credited with the death of Jean Fleury (or Florin), a privateer from Dieppe who was hanged by Spain in 1527. This idea was refuted by Luigi Prospero Peragallo (ca) in 1897-1900, but still appears in some works.

Whatever his place of birth, he came from a Florentine family settled in Lyon, a city with a large colony of Italian merchants, notably the Guadagni family, whose name was Frenchized into "Gadagne". He himself spent at least part of his youth in Lyon.

He has a brother: Jerome (Hieronimo in Spanish, Girolamo in Italian).

Until the early 1520s, he lived mainly in Lyon and Paris, where he was presented to the Court.

Context

Verrazzano's voyages are situated in the context of the great discoveries: exploration of the African coast by the Portuguese (voyages of Christopher Columbus and discovery of a new world; circumnavigation voyage of Magellan (1520).

While the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided the New World between the Spanish and the Portuguese (according to the meridian located 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands), other states began to take an interest in it, first of all France (and later, the English, then the Dutch of the United Provinces).

In 1522, after the publication of the accounts of Antonio Pigafetta and his companion Maximilianus Transylvanus, companions of Magellan, the French elites are fascinated by this great expedition. The mother of François I, Louise de Savoie, had Antonio Pigafetta's diary translated into French.)

Preparations for the first trip

In September 1522, Verrazzano gathered in Lyon funds from Italy for the fleet for India "of which he was the captain".

He formed a company with eight other merchants:

At the end of the year, Verrazane was commissioned by the shipowner Jean Ango, from Dieppe, to explore the area between Spanish Florida and Newfoundland, in order to discover an access to the Pacific Ocean and Asia.

The fitting out of the ship La Dauphine took place in Le Havre.

The 1524 voyage to North America

Verrazzano set sail from Dieppe in June 1523, with a crew of about fifty men. He sailed past Ushant, then headed for the Spanish coast across the Bay of Biscay. He then sailed along Portugal towards Madeira where he stopped to refuel.

After having postponed his departure twice, he left on January 17, 1524 for the crossing of the Atlantic. He arrived near Cape Fear on March 7, 1524.

After a brief anchorage, he headed north along the coast of what is now North Carolina. He thought he could see the Pacific Ocean behind a narrow strip of land. But in reality, it was only the Pamlico Bay lagoon, 130 kilometers long and sometimes 48 kilometers wide, separated from the Atlantic by the Outer Banks, a barrier of sandy islands. This error led the cartographers of the time, starting with Vesconte Maggiolo in 1527, and Giovanni's brother, Girolamo da Verrazzano in 1529, to represent North America almost cut in two parts connected by an isthmus, an error that was only corrected several decades later.

As it continued northeast, it probed every major coastal opening, including the Chesapeake Bay and the estuaries of the Delaware and Hudson Rivers.

It continued along Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador.

He returned without having found a passage to the Pacific Ocean.

Follow-up of the first trip

The report of Verrazzano, dated the day of his return, is sent to the king who is in Lyon (he prepares the expedition in Italy which will lead to the disaster of Pavia). The report gives an account of a vast territory claimed as Francescane or Nova-Gallia (New France).

Verrazzane indeed gave these new lands French toponyms that he translated into Italian. The map of 1525, drawn by his brother, claims by its toponymy a continental empire for France, against the treaty of Tordiseillas. In particular, he gave the bay of New York, discovered on April 17, 1524, the name of "La Nouvelle-Angoulême", in homage to François I, Count of Angouleme.

The years 1525-1526

Very quickly, Verrazzano began to prepare a new voyage in order to find a passage to Asia other than the Strait of Magellan. But his ships were requisitioned for the war and the capture of Francis I at Pavia put an end to this project.

During the captivity of the king of France, Varrazzano frequented the courts of kings John III of Portugal and Henry VIII of England.

In April 1526, Spain sent Sebastian Cabot to find another way to the Pacific.

In the spring of 1526, Verrazzano returned to France where a new project was being considered by Admiral Philippe Chabot and the shipowner Jean Ango.

The journey of 1526-1527

"We have this day deliberated that, for the good, proffit and utility of the public thing of the kingdom of France, to put on top of two of our gallyons being at present in the Havre de Grace with a nef belonging to Jehan Ango, of Dieppe, of the port seventy tonaulx or approximately, for these three vesseaulx, to esquipper , And for this purpose we have concluded and deliberated, with these men, to pay and use up to the sum of twenty thousand livres tournoys, that is to say, for us Admiral four thousand livres tournoys, maistre Guillaume Preudhomme, general of Normandy, two thousand livres tournoy ; Pierre Despinolles, one thousand pounds tour; Jehan Ango, two thousand pounds tour; Jacques Boursier, same sum of two thousand pounds tournoys, messire Jehan de Varesam, principal pilot, similar sum of two thousand pounds tournoys.  "

- Philippe Chabot

In June 1526, Verrazzano left Europe with his brother Girolamo, at the head of three ships in an attempt to round the Cape of Good Hope. A storm and a mutiny prevented the Verrazzano brothers from progressing, while the third ship reached the Indian Ocean. Going too far south, the ship passed Madagascar without seeing it and crossed the entire Indian Ocean to arrive in Sumatra. From there, it headed back to the Maldives, then south to Madagascar where the crew was shipwrecked. Only a few survivors reached Mozambique.

Meanwhile, the Verrazzano brothers headed west and reached Brazil where they took a cargo of pernambuco. In September 1527, they were back in France.

The journey of 1528 and the death of Verrazzano

A last trip in 1528, recounted by Girolamo da Verrazano, took them to the West Indies, perhaps to Guadeloupe, where Giovanni was killed by anthropophagous natives.

A continent in the Atlantic

The explorations made by Verrazzano in 1524 lead to the famous map of 1529 drawn by his brother Girolamo :

"Verrazano's map forms one of those indefinite, but effective, demonstrations made against Ptolemy's system in the mid-sixteenth century, when the shape of the American continent was developed. Ptolemy's system assumed that no continent existed in the Atlantic, and that it was possible to sail from Western Europe to India. This was the view of Columbus, who had no original ideas, being a mere copyist, and who died believing that he had actually demonstrated the truth of the old theory."

- De Costa, 1880 (translation)

This map names for the first time places along the North American coast, north of Florida.

Nova Gallia: New France

On a map produced in 1529, Verrazzano depicts the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and names the territory Nova Gallia. This is the first known mention of New France, several years before Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain.

Monuments

In an autograph of Giovanni, which appears in the "document of Rouen", as well as on the map drawn by his brother Hieronimo da Verrazano, the name is written with a single "z".

"Verrazano" is spelled with two "z "s in some copies of documents, but according to Benjamin Franklin DeCosta, these are errors introduced by copyists.

The controversy continues to this day, and New York's Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge was added a "z" by executive order in 2018.

Spanish, Portuguese and French variants

The Spanish and Portuguese write Verazano, Verrazano, Verozan or Veramsan; in Portuguese we also find Joâo Verezano.

In France, there are several Frenchized forms: Verrazan, Varacenne, Varrasenne, Varassane, Varrasonne, Varezam, Verrassane, Verrazzane, Verassane. The first name of Giovanni is francized into Jehan. The particle da becomes de, but is sometimes omitted.

Sources

1. Giovanni da Verrazzano
2. Giovanni da Verrazzano
3. ^ "Verrazano". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
4. Ou Verrazano.
5. Ou Jehan.
6. Morison, Samuel Eliot (1971). The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 283.
7. Ellis, Edward Robb (20 de septiembre de 2011). The Epic of New York City: A Narrative History (en inglés). Basic Books. pp. 11-23. ISBN 978-0-465-03053-8. Consultado el 27 de julio de 2022.