Conclusion
The conclusion suggests that Virgil’s importance was greater in the twelfth century than previously thought. Dante was not the first to “resuscitate” Virgilianism after the Carolingian period, as is often claimed, nor were Renaissance authors the first—another thing sometimes claimed. Furthermore, the importance of the Virgilian commentary tradition in shaping these epics suggests an alternative origin for the Platonism that has previously been detected in the poetry of this period. Winthrop Wetherbee had argued in Platonism and Poetry that the reason for such Platonism in the poetry of the twelfth century was due to the so-called Chartrian interest in Calcidius’s translation of the Timaeus. The research presented in this book suggests that nearly all of such Platonism detected by Wetherbee—especially the Platonic ascent of the soul to the creator—can be explained through commentary on the Aeneid without direct recourse to the Timaeus.