L’«appassionata ricerca del nuovo»: Mario Segre lettore del «Columbus» di Ubertino Carrara (1715)

This chapter aims to illustrate the method adopted by Mario Segre for the analysis of the Latin epic poem "Columbus" (1715), written by Ubertino Carrara, an author of the Accademia dell’Arcadia. Columbus is the subject of Segre’s first scientific monograph, published in 1925. In this volume, Segre applies a critical reading method based on a geographical perspective - justified by his pupillage with Paolo Revelli and the dialogue with the Geographical Institute of Genova - and focuses on identifying the historical and literary sources Carrara used and reworked. Segre’s critical work looks at the poem as a historical and geographical testimony, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, of the knowledge about the New World territories and the voyages of Cristoforo Colombo.