Note 250 — Chapter VII · Globes of the Second Quarter of the Sixteenth Century

Hall, E. H. Giovanni da Verrazano and his Discoveries in North America. (In: Fifteenth Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society. New York, 1910.)

There is an extensive Verrazano literature. The original letter written by the explorer to Francis I of France, under whose auspices he had sailed on his voyage of discovery in the year 1524, seems to have been lost, but copies of the same, it may have been with alterations, were sent to Verrazano’s relatives and friends in Italy. Ramusio, in the year 1556, and Hakluyt, in the year 1582, published one of these copies, and it has since been frequently printed.

In addition to the above, there exists a manuscript copy, sometimes referred to as the Florentine or Magliabechian codex, a fragmentary copy in the Academy of Cimento, and a manuscript copy recently discovered, which from the name of its present owner may be called the Cellere codex. Hall has printed the original document and has given an excellent translation of the same.