Commentary Inf XXIV 143-150

The riddling expression of the language of prophecy is, at least for a contemporary of Vanni's and Dante's, for the most part not difficult to unravel. Pistoia's White Guelphs will drive out the Black party in 1301; Florence's Blacks will do the same in the same year to the Whites in that city (with one consequence being Dante's exile). In 1302 the Blacks of Pistoia, allied with Moroello Malaspina ('the headlong bolt'), will have their revenge upon the Whites, taking their stronghold at Serravalle. Some understand that Vanni also (or only) refers to the eventual Black victory over the Whites in Pistoia itself in 1306.