This study examines a hitherto neglected but nonetheless cardinal aspect of the history of the concept of imitatio. It demonstrates that imitatio as a category highly operative in the Renaissance humanist tradition took shape in mutual interdependence with the religious ideal of imitatio Christi and its impact on contemporary life. This perspective brings with it an appreciation of sources and stages of the imitatio tradition not formerly perceived as such and also casts new light on those facets of its development that have long been in the forefront of scholarly interest. Discussion centres around Dante`s "Divina commedia", Christine de Pizan`s "Chemin de long estude", Petrarch`s "De vita solitaria", "De otio religioso" and "Familiares", the dispute ciceroniane of the 15th/16th century and the concept of imitatio underlying instruction in rhetoric and poetry in the 12th/13th century.