Click here to view video announcement. Verrazzano, the son of a noble family, was born at the Castello Verrazzano in Greve near Florence, Italy. In his early 20s he moved to Dieppe to start a maritime career, and sailed on behalf of the French monarchy. In 1523, with the support of the French king Francois I, as well as Florentine bankers, Verrazzano set sail on the ship Dauphine in search of a passage to the Pacific Ocean and the Far East.
 
On this voyage, Verrazzano explored the coast line now comprising the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada, and, on April 17, 1524, became the first European known to have entered New York Bay. On sighting the mouth of the harbor, he later described “a very agreeable site located between two hills between which flowed to the sea a very great river.” Verrazzano wrote a report based on his travels to the New World.
 
This document, called the Cellere Codes (a copy of which is located in the Morgan Library in New York City) later served to instruct explorers such as Henry Hudson. Located in New York City's Battery Park, this bronze sculpture of Italian explorer and navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano is by Ettore Ximenes and was dedicated October 9, 1909.