Commentary Par XV 36

For a recent disagreement with Petrocchi's support for the less-favored variant 'gloria' (rather than the more usual 'grazia'), see Chiavacci Leonardi (DDP Chiavacci.Par.XV.36) and Cardellino (Card.2007.1).  While Cardellino is probably correct in criticizing Petrocchi for believing that 'gloria' is difficilior, his argument for 'grazia' (as is that of the precursors whom he names) is possibly based on a misprision of what the verse refers to.  For those of us who follow Petrocchi in this detail, the text refers precisely to Dante's sense of 'prelibating' his future bliss.  This seems a perfectly reasonable interpretation, even the more natural one.  Those who argue that one can only sense the force of God's glory in the afterlife, in other words, fail to understand that Dante is conflating his present bliss with that which he expects to feel in the afterlife -- and, indeed, in a very few hours, when, as Beatrice has promised him, he will experience 'l'ultima salute' ([Par XXII 124]) in his flesh (when Christ and his Church descend in Canto XXIII).  Sometimes philological correctness is hyper-correct.