This allusion to the church of San Giovanni, where Dante was baptized, and which in Inferno XIX 17 he calls “ il mio bel San Giovanni ,” is a fitting prelude to the canto in which St. John is to appear. ↩

As described in Canto XXIV 152:⁠—

“So, giving me its benediction, singing,

Three times encircled me, when I was silent,

The apostolic light.”