<i>ImitatioInspector</i>: a prototype machine learning tool regarding <i>imitatio Dantis</i> and <i>imitatio Petrarcae</i>

Abstract Imitatio Dantis and imitatio Petrarcae, in this article seen as elements of Dantesque and Petrarchesque writing based on Dante’s Comedy and Petrarch’s Canzoniere, respectively, had a major influence on Italian literature, especially between the 14th and 16th centuries. However, identifying the elements of Dantesque and Petrarchesque writing “manually” is a daunting and time-consuming task. Hence, it is desirable to have a computer system that can help identify (verse) texts that “merit” an intensive close reading of imitatio Dantis and imitatio Petrarcae. Although this is a challenging task, this article presents a machine learning model and ImitatioInspector, a prototype software application based on this model, yielding promising first results that (pre)classify (unknown) Old Italian verses into “Dante,” “Petrarca,” or “unknown” (i.e. neither Dantesque nor Petrarchesque). Despite certain limitations of the application, these results warrant further development.