During his entire life Paolo Emilio Taviani was both a scholar and a political activist. In his role of university professor of economic history, Taviani dedicated many efforts, with a passion typical of his native Genoa, to studying the endeavours of Christopher Columbus. He was, indeed, considered the greatest world expert on Columbus. The author has written many books on Christopher Columbus, and they have been translated into many languages. First published in 1989 and unavailable for many years, "The Adventure of Christopher Columbus" is, as Taviani loved to say, a novel of real facts: in this text he displayed, in an almost narrative form, all the fruits of his inquiries. This account of the life of Columbus is intricately researched, but it's also a pleasant recollection of places, characters, and moods, which benefits from the author's indisputable story-telling talent.

Paolo Emilio Taviani (1912-2001), one of the major figures of Italy's republican age, was a member of the national government for 24 years.