PhD defence Andrea Peverelli: A Computational Analysis of the Patterns in Neo-Latin Drama

On Monday 2 June, Andrea Peverelli will defend his PhD dissertation ‘Authorial Framework and the Problem of Style through a Computational Analysis of Neo-Latin Drama’. In this dissertation, Peverelli  explores how early modern playwrights used Latin to write and share drama plays across Europe.

Neo-Latin plays

From the fifteenth to the eighteenth century, thousands of Latin plays were performed in schools and universities, forming a rich but often overlooked literary tradition. These plays reflected their authors’ cultural and religious backgrounds and were shaped by earlier works, particularly those of classical Latin playwrights.

Peverelli examines patterns in the style, language, and themes of these Neo-Latin plays, using a combination of traditional literary analysis and modern digital methods. He explores how playwrights imitated earlier works, how their writing styles changed over time, and how religious differences influenced the way stories were told. By using computational techniques to analyse a large collection of plays, he identifies common stylistic trends and unexpected connections between texts.

Interconnected plays

Peverelli shows that Neo-Latin playwrights carefully adapted classical models while developing their own distinct voices. Through digital analysis, he uncovers clusters of plays that share similar stylistic traits that are influenced by time period, geography, and religious background. He reveals that the European network of Neo-Latin drama was highly interconnected: playwrights in different countries borrowed from and responded to each other, sometimes crossing confessional boundaries.

One example of this interconnectedness is how Catholic and Protestant dramatists engaged with similar themes, but expressed them in distinct stylistic ways. By applying digital tools to historical literature, Peverelli sheds new light on how early modern drama evolved across national and cultural borders. He provides a new way to study this forgotten literary tradition on a large scale.