Gesammelte Aufsätze zur romanischen Philologie – Studienausgabe. Erich Auerbach

antico (Par. XVII, 119–120) is not due to its political doctrine, but to its poetic power. Yet DanteDante’s poetic power would not have reached its highest perfection, had it not been inspired by a visionary truth transcending the immediate and actual meaning. The Christian revival of the Imperium RomanumImperium Romanum is the first conception of political unity on earth, and the Christian interpretation of human life as fall and redemption is at the root of all dialectical understanding of history. DanteDante, in his vision, combined both. He reached conceptions far beyond the horizon of Demosthenes’Demosthenes Athenian democracy. Thus it may well be legitimate that he spoke to his readers, as he still speaks to us, with the authority and the urgency of a prophet.