[249] Polidori, P. De vita gestis et moribus Marceli II, Pontificis Maximi commentarius. Romae, 1744; Cordella, L. Memorie storiche dei Cardinali della Sancta Romana Chiesa. Roma, 1792. Vol. IV, p. 225.
Marcello Cervino was born in the year 1501. For his attainments in the field of literature, Italian, Latin, and Greek, in philosophy, jurisprudence, and mathematics he held a place of great distinction among his contemporaries. In the year 1539 he was made a cardinal prefect of the Vatican, and the year 1555 he was elevated to the Papacy, but died twenty-one days thereafter.
[250] Hall, E. H. Giovanni da Verrazano and his Discoveries in North America. (In: Fifteenth Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society. New York, 1910.)
There is an extensive Verrazano literature. The original letter written by the explorer to Francis I of France, under whose auspices he had sailed on his voyage of discovery in the year 1524, seems to have been lost, but copies of the same, it may have been with alterations, were sent to Verrazano’s relatives and friends in Italy. Ramusio, in the year 1556, and Hakluyt, in the year 1582, published one of these copies, and it has since been frequently printed.
In addition to the above, there exists a manuscript copy, sometimes referred to as the Florentine or Magliabechian codex, a fragmentary copy in the Academy of Cimento, and a manuscript copy recently discovered, which from the name of its present owner may be called the Cellere codex. Hall has printed the original document and has given an excellent translation of the same.
[251] Tiraboschi. Storia. Tom. VII, pt. i, p. 205.
[252] Fiorini, op. cit., p. 117.
[253] Navarrete, M. F. de. Noticia biografia de Alonso de Santa Cruz. Madrid, 1835. Reprinted in his Opúsculos. Tom. II; Nicolao, A. Biblioteca Hispana. Romae, 1672. Tom, I, p. 37; Harrisse. Discovery, p. 736; also in his Jean et Sébastian Cabot, p. 173; Espada, J. de la. Relaciones geograficas de Indias, publicalas el Ministerio de Fomento Perú. Madrid, 1885. Tom. II, p. xxi; pp. xxx-xxxvi.
In the second reference is a reprint of an inventory, made at the time of the death of Santa Cruz, of his collection of maps, pictures, and manuscripts and especially referred to in the receipt given by Juan Lopez, his successor as Royal Cosmographer, mention being made of no less than eighty-seven items.
[254] He seems to have produced nothing of special importance in his capacity as “Historicus Regius,” giving, however, some attention to the subjects of heraldry, and genealogy. The question of the determination of longitude interested him, and there is still preserved, in the Royal Library of Madrid, his manuscript bearing the title “Libro de las longitudes y manera que hasta ago se ha tenido en el arte de navegar con sus demonstraciones y examplos.” At the time of his death there was also left a paper in manuscript, treating of the subject of longitude, which probably contains a summary of suggestions made to the Junta in Sevilla in the year 1536 “sobre la orden que se ha tenido en el dar de la longitud.”