Commentary Inf I 100-105
In a canto filled with passages that have called forth rivers of commentators' ink, perhaps none has resulted in so much interpretive excitement as this one. For this writer's view, see Holl.1969.1, pp. 89-91. What we deal with here is the first of three (see also [Purg XXXIII 37-45], [Par XXVII 142-148]) 'world-historical' prophecies of the coming of a political figure (in the last two surely an emperor) who, in his advent, also looks forward to the Second Coming of Christ. The present prophecy, insofar as Dante, as maker of prophetic utterance, wants to allow his audience to penetrate the veil, however, is of Cangrande della Scala. That is one man's opinion. It finds much fellowship in the late nineteenth century (e.g., DDP Campi.Inf.I.101). But see Pasquini (Pasq.2001.1), p. 163, reiterating the familar argument that the veltro cannot refer to Cangrande because the latter was only nine years old in 1300. However, some documents contemporary to this moment of the fortunes of the Scaligeri stress that the young Cangrande, born in 1291 but general of the armies of Verona in his early teens, was something of a Wunderkind. See the note to Paradiso XVII.76-78.

For an excellent review of the entire problem see C. T. Davis, 'veltro,' ED.1976.5, pp. 908a-912b. The view of this reader is largely in accord with Mazzoni's (Mazz.1967.1), pp. 131-133, namely, that the prophecy is insistently 'Ghibelline,' and not of a good pope or of a reform of the mendicant orders, etc. For the view that there is indeed a Virgilian (and imperial) source for Dante's prophecy in the prediction of Augustan rule in Aeneid I ({Virg.Aen.I.286-296}) see Holl.1969.1, pp. 90-91. This view was anticipated in a discussion that has not received much attention. The so-called 'Ottimo commento' (DDP Ottimo.Inf.I.100-111) minces no words about the resonance of that Virgilian passage here. One wonders why his observation has been so neglected. And, for the Virgilian resonance of the second 'world-historical' prophecy, the 'five hundred ten and five' of [Purg XXXIII 43], see R. Hollander and H. Russo (Holl.2003.1).