Source: “The Lost Colony of the Templars: Verrazano's Secret Mission to America**”,** By Steven Sora, Destiny Books, 2004.
The Secret Mission Of Verrazano.wav
This podcast explores the intriguing possibility that Giovanni da Verrazano's 1524 voyage to North America had a secret mission beyond finding a route to Asia. Born into wealth and connected to Gnostic-influenced Florence and the maritime city of Dieppe, Verrazano may have been part of an elite network with access to hidden knowledge. The text suggests his true purpose was to locate a lost Templar colony in the New World, an "American Arcadia," with clues like a Native American pilot in Narragansett Bay and the discovery of a European-style baptistery pointing to this hidden agenda. While he found evidence of the colony, it seemingly had not survived, and the author argues this personal disappointment was the true outcome of his famous voyage.
Topic 1 Giovanni da Verrazano's Background and Mysterious Mission: Giovanni da Verrazano was born into an Italian family near Florence in 1485. His family's ancestral home, Castel Verrazano, has deep historical roots. Verrazano played a mysterious and largely unrecorded role in the history of New World exploration. Although his voyage along the North American coast could have provided France with a strong claim to the continent, France showed little interest in colonization before or immediately after his visit to the French king. His mission seemingly aimed to find a route to China, yet he avoided sailing into large bays like the Chesapeake and Delaware, or up the Hudson River. Where he noted a narrow piece of land supposedly leading to the Pacific, he didn't stop to investigate. This suggests his voyage had an ulterior purpose beyond simply seeking a passage to Asia. Historians know very little about him, which is seen as evidence of how well he kept his secrets. His charts and letter to the French monarch offer only hints about his real reasons for sailing and what he discovered.
Topic 2 The Concept of Secret Missions in Exploration: Voyages driven by motives beyond those publicly stated were not uncommon during the age of exploration. For instance, Sir Francis Drake's official mission was to circumnavigate the world, but Queen Elizabeth secretly endorsed his attacks on Spanish fleets. Similarly, merchants from Bristol publicly sailed to discover western lands but were prepared to engage in cod fishing in areas monopolized by the Hansa. However, these secrets were often not kept well and aroused suspicion. Verrazano, in contrast, was notable for the effectiveness with which he maintained the secrecy of his mission, leaving historians with limited information about his true objectives.
Topic 3 Florence: Center of Renaissance and Esoteric Thought: Verrazano was born during the peak years of the Renaissance in Florence, a city known for fostering new ideas and benefiting greatly from commerce, particularly banking and the wool and silk industries. Florence was a major trade crossroads, especially between Venice and France. It was the cultural heart of the Italian Renaissance, home to famous figures like Dante, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and patronized many artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, whose work included depictions of the city's patron saint, Saint John the Baptist. Beyond its commercial and artistic prominence, Florence was also a religious crossroads where new ideas, including Gnostic teachings, spread underground, perhaps to avoid persecution. The city's patron saint is notably Saint John the Baptist, whose image, along with the city's emblem (the lily), appeared on the Florentine florin currency, which replaced the silver penny across Europe.
Topic 4 Gnostic and Mystical Symbolism: Florence was deeply influenced by ancient knowledge and Gnostic thought. The Cathar movement, a Gnostic religion, spread through northern Italy via trade routes from Venice. The city's patron saint, Saint John the Baptist, held symbolic significance. The Corpus Hermeticum, a text believed to contain secrets of Egyptian architecture and geometry, was brought to Florence in 1453 and became a key Gnostic text. Florence's city layout itself reflected mystical ideas, divided into quarters and wards named for symbols like keys, dragons, and unicorns, with the center being dedicated to Saint John. The symbols of Saint John and the goddess Venus were understood to be the same: the dove. The scallop shell, shared by Venus and the goddess Brigit, was also significant, appearing in art like Botticelli's painting of Venus, suggesting the integration of ancient symbols into the modern world. The six-pointed star, which pre-dated its association with the Star of David, was used as a symbol for concepts like "As Above, So Below," male/female principles, and the number six itself was linked to measurement, volume (the cube), and male/sun symbolism, particularly Ra in Egypt. The number six resulting from the union of five (female/moon) and six (male/sun) represented harmony, a concept reportedly repressed in Roman Christianity.
Topic 5 Lyon: A Parallel Center and Refuge: After leaving Florence, possibly to escape persecution by Savonarola in 1494, Verrazano may have been educated in Lyon, a city in southern France. Lyon shared significant characteristics with Florence; it was a center of Gnostic Cathar thought, faced persecution by the Church, and was a hub for the textile trade, particularly silk, attracting Florentine merchants like the Verrazano family. Lyon was also a historical ceremonial center dedicated to the Black Virgin Cybele, an incarnation of Isis, and later to the sun god Lugh, whose feast day on August 1 was celebrated similarly to Saint John the Baptist's on June 24. Saint John replaced Lugh as the patron, just as Notre Dame replaced earlier Black Virgins. Lyon was a known center for Templars, the tarot, occultism, and heresy long before the arrival of the Florentines.
Topic 6 Connections to Templars, Banking, and Secret Societies: The sources highlight strong connections between Florentine and Lyon banking communities and the Templars. Lyon was unique as one of the few cities where the Templar invention of branch deposit banking persisted after the order's demise. Verrazano is suggested to have belonged to an elite network possibly linked to continuities between organizations like the Templars and later groups such as Freemasons. The world of trade and banking relied heavily on trust, with phrases like "being on the level" possibly originating as Masonic codes for trustworthiness. Verrazano, coming from Florence and possibly residing in Lyon, both hotbeds of unconventional beliefs and under persecution, would have needed and used trusted connections within these circles. His relation by marriage to the wealthy Guadagni family, prominent Italian merchants and bankers who moved to France, further solidified these connections.
Topic 7 The Port of Dieppe and French Maritime Activity: Verrazano went to the port city of Dieppe in Normandy in 1506 to gain seafaring experience. Dieppe had a long history as a commercial hub and was becoming an important departure point for explorers, notably through the efforts of Jean d'Ango and King Francis I. The nearby forests provided timber for shipbuilding. Dieppe had a history of long-distance trade, including a trading colony established in modern Sierra Leone as early as 1362. The city was home to powerful mercantile families like the Dufours, Pelletiers, and the d'Angos, many of whom had connections to Italian banking and trade centers like Geneva and Lyon, and to families like the Rucellais and Medici, who were backers of Verrazano. Jean d'Ango, a major shipowner and figure in Dieppe, frequently collaborated with King Francis I, supporting explorations often in secret.
Topic 8 King Francis I and French Ambitions: Francis I became king of France in 1515. He was energetic, expanding his kingdom through marriage and annexations. He played a significant role in importing the Renaissance from Italy, welcoming Italian bankers, merchants, artists, and explorers, including Leonardo da Vinci. Despite fostering a cultural renaissance and supporting transoceanic exploration, Francis I's reign was heavily impacted by his compulsion for war, particularly against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He led multiple military campaigns (1521-1525, 1527-1529, 1536-1538, and a fourth later war) which, despite defeats, often resulted in recovered positions through negotiation. Being at war for nearly half of his reign delayed France's full focus on the New World but did not entirely prevent him from supporting exploration, often with the financial help of figures like Jean d'Ango.
Topic 9 Early French Voyages from Dieppe: Dieppe was a base for numerous voyages at the beginning of the sixteenth century, primarily for fishing. A Norman ship reached the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in 1504. In 1508, Aubert of Dieppe explored up to the St. Lawrence Seaway; Giovanni da Verrazano was aboard one of d'Ango's ships on this voyage, indicating his early Atlantic crossing experience. In 1518, Baron de Lery attempted a colony on Sable Island. Dieppe fishermen were encountered by John Cabot in Newfoundland. Jean Parmentier and Jean Ribaut were other early visitors to the New World from Dieppe. The city is also the source of legends, such as Jean Cousin of Dieppe purportedly reaching Brazil four years before Columbus, with Columbus's future captain Martin Alonso Pinzon aboard. While city archives were destroyed in 1694, making verification difficult, Dieppe clearly had a tradition of early maritime activity and exploration. Verrazano himself embarked from Dieppe on his 1524 voyage to Newport.
Topic 10 The True Mission: Searching for and Finding Evidence of a Templar Colony in America: The sources propose that Verrazano's primary, secret mission was not to find a route to Cathay, but to locate a Templar colony in America, which was believed to have been founded under the leadership of the Sinclair family and served as a refuge. The concept of "Arcadia" from Sannazaro's poem, which blended idyllic paradise with arcane knowledge and included the theme of an underground stream of knowledge, was potentially used to unlock the idea of this New World refuge for King Francis. Verrazano's voyage focused surprisingly on the area around what is now Newport, Rhode Island. There, he was guided into a safe harbor and, significantly, found a European building. This structure, described in his brother Girolamo's map as a "Norman Villa," is identified in the source as a Templar baptistery. It is described as being built from local materials but resembling European models and sharing measurements of structures built by Templars and Cistercians. The sources argue that its existence was out of place and would have shocked a typical European discoverer, yet Verrazano's account shows no surprise, suggesting he knew where to look. The Native American names for the area, Norumbega and Anorumbega, meaning "Norse" or "Norman," are also presented as evidence for Northmen (French Norman survivors of the Templar demise, Scottish ex-Templars, Orkney mariners) having been there. Girolamo's map also labeled the port "Refugio," or "the Refuge," aligning with the idea of Arcadia as a refuge colony. Early maps corroborated these findings, showing a structure and labeling the area as Norumbega and Port du Refuge. Verrazano found this evidence, indicating the Templars had been there, but concluded that the Arcadian colony had not survived, leading to his personal disappointment.