This work is a pilot study that used neurometric indexes during thelistening of selected pieces of Dante’s “Divina Commedia” in 20 participants.Half of them had a literary formation (Humanist; university students of literature)while the other half of is attending other university courses (Not Humanist). Thestudy applied the electroencephalographic (EEG) rhythms variations, the heartrate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) during the listening of the excerpts.The neurometric indexes here employed were the Approach Withdrawal (AW),the Cerebral Effort (CE) and the Emotional indexes (EI). Results for the compar‐isons of the estimated AW, CE and EI related to the perception of the canticas showed as the Humanist group reported higher AW and EI values when comparedto the Not Humanist sample (p < 0.03 and p < 0.01, respectively). Results suggestthat the perception of the aesthetic experience is significantly modulated by theprevious specific knowledge experienced by the participants. Finally, results of this kind of research could find application in the implementation of software anddevices based on symbiotic relation with the perspective reader or listener of a literature opera, in order to personalize and maximize the fruition of them
