Le lenti kelseniane su Dante

Hans Kelsen describes Dante Alighieri as one of the first who had, in medieval times, the idea of the modern state of culture. This image documents two important Kelsenian aspects: the derivation of Kelsenian constitutional law theory from philosophy; the purity of the science of law as the jurist’s object as a philosophical idea. In this work I show how Dante, read through Kelsen's lens, reveals an interesting methodological dualism: his philosophy of law fully reflects the medieval institutional dimension, his political philosophy certainly takes a leap forward. My thesis is that if in Dante the philosophy of law is necessarily in step with its times, political philosophy is extraordinarily modern. This apparent contradiction can be understood only in light of this methodological diversity.