Giovanni da Verrazzano

It is not easy to reconstruct the life of the great explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, given the numerous difficulties encountered in his historiography entailing lost or counterfeited documents, misunderstandings and cases of mistaken identity, disputes and political machinations.

This work sheds light on the biography of the Tuscan navigator through a meticulous historical and philological investigation, centered, in particular, around the documents that he himself wrote. After analyzing geographical knowledge in the fifteenth century, from which key figures emerge, such as the geographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli and Amerigo Vespucci himself, the narrative moves on to the story of Giovanni, presenting the portrait of a courageous voyager who was also a very accomplished writer. In 1524, he undertook an important transatlantic crossing before going on to explore the vast areas of the American coastline.

A man of action, fully integrated in public life and in a well-structured network of political relations, Giovanni da Verrazzano was a geographer and sailor, the ultimate embodiment of the figure of the navigator and humanist.

Originally published as: Giovanni da Verrazzano. Navigatore e gentiluomo, Mauro Pagliai, Florence, November 2023