Maps and Exploration

Cèllere Codex

The Cèllere Codex (officially, Del Viaggio del Verrazzano Nobile Fiorentino al Servizio di Francesco I, Ri de Francia, fatto nel 1524 all'America Settentrionale, also Morgan MS. MA. 776) is one of three surviving copies of a manuscript letter sent by Giovanni da Verrazzano (1481–1528) in 1524 to King Francis I of France describing the former's navigation of the East Coast of the United States. It is nowadays preserved at the Morgan Library of New York. Verrazzano was an Italian who lived in France, and he undertook his voyage in Francis' service. The King, prompted by the French mercantile community, charged Verrazzano to discover whether there was a direct passage from the Atlantic to China and Japan. The Codex is considered by scholars to be the most important of the three copies, although there is debate as to how much weight should be given to some of the detail it provides. Over twelve pages, the Codex describes how Verrazzano sailed due west from Madeira in December 1523, and in little more than a month had arrived at North Carolina. From there they journeyed south, towards Florida. This direction was not without danger, as Florida represented the northerly point of the Spanish Empire, and Spanish warships patrolled the sea. Verrazzano then turned northwards again and, hugging the coast, passed Virginia, New Jersey, and eventually New York, where he anchored in what is now New York Harbor. He then continued north around New England, to Newfoundland, where, with provisions running low, he turned eastwards. Verrazzano and crew returned to Dieppe in July 1524. The Codex describes Verrazzano's journey in a far greater degree of detail than the other versions of his letter, which may be because it was originally transcribed by Verrazzano's brother, and then further annotated by Verrazzano himself. It was sent via a series of letters to colleagues of Verrazzano in France and then to Italy, where it then remained undiscovered in a Viterbo library until the early twentieth century. Until its discovery there had been some doubt as to whether Verrazzano had ever made the voyage at all.

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See also

• ▸Jens Olsen's World Clock
• ▸Jan Matejko
• ▸Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.