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Francisco Rodríguez Adrados’ La democracia ateniense (1975) was canonical since its publication in 1966 (with a different title). The current article analyses, first, the ideological foundations of the work and, secondly, the prioritization of textual commentary and philological tools in historical analysis, that is, the textual-centrism of the book, pointing out also its accomplishments. The interpretation of our article is based in a textual as well as contextual analysis. It explores the intellectual networks and the configuration of the field of Classics in Spain in the formation of Adrados’s work. On the other hand, it reads the main sources and intertexts of La democracia ateniense, the German philology (Jaeger and Schachermeyr). The aim of this work is to understand the appropriation, limits, scope and ideological horizon of Adrados’ vision of Athenian democracy, as well as his achievements and innovations, the “scholastic creativity”. Adrados is one of the main founding fathers of Classics in Spain.