Very little is known about the life of Giovanni da Verrazano (ca. 1485–ca. 1528); even his birthplace is a matter of dispute: some scholars place it in Tuscany while others claim that he was born to Italian parents in the French city of Lyon. There is some speculation that he began voyaging to the New World as early as 1508 as part of the expanding French fishing industry in the Grand Banks. His experience led to his appointment by King Francis I of France in 1523 to head an expedition seeking a passage through the New World to the Pacific...