Talking with Giovanni Pascoli. In his own home.
PascoliAI is a mediated educational experience we designed for Museo Casa Pascoli. Students talk freely with an AI chat, examine primary sources, and build knowledge together with educators.
The problem
At school, Giovanni Pascoli is sometimes taught as a simplified icon: a language innovator, but trapped by suffocating family ties, and drifting toward shortsighted political views by the end of his life.
But in the places where Pascoli lived, and in the archives, a more complex and vital author emerges: multiple, tormented loves, sweeping political passions, traumas and contradictions. Reading and interpreting the sources well takes time.
And the sources live at the Centro di Documentazione Pascoliano, in the poet's actual home, in San Mauro Pascoli. Being there, surrounded by people who have studied him for a lifetime, who know everything about him and still get excited about a new project - well, that's exciting.
What if "talking with Pascoli" meant you had to be physically in Romagna? It might sound like a less-than-global idea, but it made sense for the institution, for museum staff, for teachers and students: we liked it right away..
The solution
PascoliAI is a mediation tool, accessible as a conversational AI, only at Museo Casa Pascoli.
It was trained on thousands of archival documents — including the poet's correspondence with his brother Raffaele, only recently declassified — and top-tier historical-critical sources.
The chat never searches the web for information, and the avatar follows rigorous, careful instructions: less noise, more meaningful engagement.
Why PascoliAI is different
The knowledge base comes from the institution most qualified to provide it PascoliAI is built on materials curated by the Museum and its research ecosystem: documents and studies that update, and in some cases correct, current knowledge.
It brings out the value of a unique place
PascoliAI works on something rare: the relationship between source, place, and interpretation.Systemic error management.
Like any AI chat, this one makes mistakes too. Rather than pretend otherwise, we built an ecosystem that gives them context. Access is mediated by museum staff. Errors become a source of information and critical reasoning shared between experts, students, and visitors.Testing, research, more testing
For a year we tested with all kinds of users, on-site and remotely. The project even includes a master's thesis, written by Alice Boschetti for the Cultural Heritage program (Beni Archeologici, Artistici e del Paesaggio) at the University of Bologna.
Educational Workshops
PascoliAI - A special correspondent
From dialogue with the poet to the newsroom desk.
After questioning PascoliAI, the class works with primary sources and builds a piece all the way to the front page.
Together with the Museum's experts, we designed workshop formats that make the offering truly integrated.
Together with the musum educators, we designed a set of workshops that really make a difference
Cold Case - The murder of Ruggero Pascoli
An investigation through history, poetry, and mystery.
Students reopen the case of Ruggero Pascoli's murder (1867) and reconstruct a possible narrative.
Each participant creates a symbolic "piece of evidence" (a letter, an object, a drawing, an investigative document).
Whats’ next?
Working this way makes projects modular and replicable — perfect for word-of-mouth and organic content generation by users with real skin in the game.
Graphs
PascoliAI works by making the relationships found in archival documents queryable. It's meticulous, almost heroic work. Then again, archives already are.
“We want to make poetry not of words but of deeds - a collective poetry that returns not to the glory of one, but to the joy of all.”
— Giovanni Pascoli