In a more intuitively obvious configuration, the culture of the Italian Renaissance has conformed to this norm. On the one hand, it developed perfect individuality; on the other hand, it developed a disposition and a morality that transcended by far the boundaries of the narrower social milieu. This is explicit, for example, in the words of Dante where he says that—with all his passionate love for Florence—the world is as much home to him and his kind as the sea to fish.

SEED: Dante's 'sea to fish' metaphor for cosmopolitan identity could anchor an essay on the tension between local loyalty and universal belonging.

Georg Simmel, on individuality and social…, loc. 661