Commentary Par XXVII 142-148

Tozer (DDP Tozer.Par.XXVII.142-144) interprets the first tercet: 'The reckoning of the Julian calendar involved a yearly error in excess of somewhat less than a hundredth part of a day (la centesma), and this in Dante's time amounted to an error of about nine days, so that January was advanced by so much towards the end of winter and beginning of spring.  It was this which was corrected by the Gregorian calendar two centuries and a half later.  The general meaning, then, of prima che, &c., is "before a very long time has passed"; but it is intended to be understood ironically as meaning "before long," "soon," somewhat in the same way as when we say "not a hundred miles off" for "near."'  Whatever the time involved, it is clear that this is a major prophecy in the poem, in line with those found in Inf. I ('veltro') and Purg. XXXIII ('DXV'), as Hollander (Holl.1969.1), pp. 180-91, has argued.  One of the medieval meanings of 'fortuna' was 'storm at sea' -- cf. [Purg XXXII 116] -- and that clearly seems to be the image Dante uses here.  The word for 'fleet' (classe) is here used for the first time in Italian (according to the Grande Dizionario [Batt.1961.1]); it comes from Latin classis, the name for Ravenna as home of the Roman fleet and (for a time) capital of the empire.  Within the context of the canto, Peter's slam of the papacy also ends with a Roman thought (Scipio defeating Hannibal); it is not really surprising that Beatrice here should prophesy the coming of an emperor who will set things right.  (See, among others, Scott [Scot.1977.1], pp. 232-33; Hollander [Holl.2001.1], pp. 142-44.)  Only then will the human race steer a good course -- and the papacy, too, get straightened out.  Moevs (Moev.2004.1), p. 218, insists that Dante does not claim that the Bible itself actually argues for empire.  But certainly Monarchia (Mon.II.xi.1), on its own authority, does: 'And if the Roman empire was not based on right, Adam's sin was not punished in Christ; but this is false' (tr. P. Shaw).