perception of the believable images." Essentially, for Mazzoni, the purpose of poetry is recreation and pleasure; however, he also attaches a concept he calls "civil faculty." In part, this has to do with the idea that taking a break from serious business (i.e., by creating or consuming poetry) allows one to return to that business afterwards with renewed enthusiasm. Mazzoni also says, however, that there is a distinct pleasure in poetry which, in addition to its ability to delight, carries with it a concealed lesson, moral, or other element that allows it to contribute to the improvement of society. Mazzoni's work is characterized by his methodical attempts to draw distinctions between similar phenomena. In proceeding along this course, he makes some compelling definitions and distinctions, such as that between poetry and poetics, the former being concerned with the formation of poetry (considerations for rhyme or meter for example) and the latter with a poem's relationship to the "civil faculty." The distinction between icastic and phantastic imitation, concepts borrowed from Plato, is also important in Mazzoni's work. Icastic imitation refers to the recreation of something based in reality – a simulation of a real person or the creation of a character based on a real person is icastic imitation. Phantastic imitation is the imitation of something completely the artist's imagination. This distinction would play an important role in Mazzoni's On the Defense of the Comedy of Dante, in which he would argue that the work, being allegorical and based in a divine vision, was icastic mimesis because it imitates something "real." This was meant to counter arguments by writers such as Castravilla who dismissed Dante’s work as lacking in verisimilitude and even claimed that the comedy was not poetry at all, as it was simply the recounting of a vision. Under Mazzoni’s definitions, these were not valid criticisms, as poetry was essentially mimesis made "persuasive" by the use of craft or art. Influences Some of Mazzoni's influences are obvious, such as Plato and Aristotle. Mazzoni regularly makes direct reference to their works and draws some of his ideas directly from theories that they established (the distinction between icastic and phantastic imitation, for example, is drawn from Plato). The influence of other thinkers has also been identified in Mazzoni's work, including neo-platonists such as Proclus and Greek sophists such as Dionysius of Helicarnassus and Aulus Gellius (the latter two particularly in Mazzoni's