Verrazzano Globe

One of the earliest dated globes, this gilded copper sphere depicts the European understanding of world geography following the 1524 journey of Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator searching for a route to the Pacific in the service of the French King. Reaching North America, he sailed along the Atlantic Coast from South Carolina to Newfoundland and recorded his observations in a series of detailed letters. In fact, the earliest known manuscript of Verrazzano's letter to King Francis I of France is preserved in the Morgan's collection. The globe executed by the sculptor Robertus de Bailly in 1530 was based on a 1529 map by Verrazzano's brother, Gerolamo. Like the map, it identifies the newly charted North American continent as Verrazzano.