Cultural Encounter as a Precondition for European Identity

Even today a core stratum of European identity can only be explained as a result of the repeated diachronic encounter with the cultural heritage of classical Antiquity and especially with the heritage of ancient Rome. European culture always had the literary, linguistic, and visual models of ancient Rome as a central point of reference, appropriated by each successive generation in a form that was necessarily mediated by previous encounters with classical cultural manifestations. One encounter, however, proved more influential than preceding and following ones, namely the one referred to as the Renaissance: its conscious emulation of classical models in large areas of society, combined with beginning scientific research into the classical world, provided a mold for all subsequent revivals as well as the necessary preconditions for the Enlightenment.