Commentary Purg XXXIII 16-18

Those that allegorize the nine steps taken by Beatrice argue that they represent the years between the accession of Pope Clement V in 1305, who agreed to King Philip's desire to move the papacy to France (which he did in 1309), and the deaths of Clement and Philip in 1314, thus possibly allowing the tenth step to point to the advent of the new leader in 1315.  About such things there can be little or no certainty, but the hypothesis is attractive.  Nonetheless, one should probably be aware that, except for a rather contorted effort by Francesco da Buti (DDP Buti.Purg.XXXIII.16-30), none of the early commentators, generally so fond of allegorizing, offers anything more than a literal reading of the detail.  The allegorical reading of the ten steps as ten years is a nineteenth- and twentieth-century discovery, e.g., as it is found in Carroll (DDP Carroll.Purg.XXXIII.16-45).