Giacomo Costantino Beltrami (1779-1855) nella letteratura western

The essay focuses on Beltrami’s Découverte des sources du Mississippi (1824), which directly influenced The Last of the Mohicans (1826), one of the most famous novels by James Fenimore Cooper. The analysis of the two works shows how the same descriptions, dialogues, settings and characters where the action took place, depend on forms of plagiarism as Beltrami himself wrote in some of his travel letters. Furthermore the essay highlights the historical, biographical, and anthropological elements useful for understanding the historical framework in which Beltrami worked, and shows his new perspective on the Native American people.