In 1965 on the occasion of the seventh centenary of Dante Alighieri’s birth, Pio Fedele published an essay entitled Dante and canon law, published both in “Ephemerides Iuris Canonici”, year XXI nn. 3-4, 1965, both as a separate volume-extracted "not wanting to let this anniversary pass without a memory", in which he collects his profound reflections in 184 densely written and annotated pages. The reading of Dante through Pio Fedele constitutes a useful guide for understanding the value of canon law today in the scientific world and in the Church. Some relevant aspects emerge from Dante’s thought: the eminently “cultural” value of canon law, the overcoming of a legalistic conception of law, the recognition of the “transcendent” character of law which has its foundation in the realization of the divine plan of salvation, a peculiar characteristic of human rights, which in the People of God are related to the salvific mission and as a participation in divine justice. The work of Pius Fedele contains the call not to neglect the knowledge of the classics and of the sources also aimed at identifying the role of canon law, as an expression of a not obsolete Christian and human vision and as a tool to respond to research needs. The reinterpretation of Dante’s conception according to the narration of Pio Fedele opens up new perspectives of research in the face of the needs of a contemporaneity that allows us to glimpse a renewed importance of canon law.