Currado or Conrad Malaspina, father of Marcello Malaspina, who six years later sheltered Dante in his exile, as foreshadowed in line 136. It was from the convent of the Corvo, overlooking the Gulf of Spezia, in Lunigiana, that Frate Ilario wrote the letter describing Dante’s appearance in the cloister. ↩

Pope Boniface the Eighth. ↩

Before the sun shall be seven times in Aries, or before seven years are passed. ↩

Ecclesiastes 12:11:⁠—

“The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies.”