In the epilogue (xlii., xliii.), in answer to the request of two of those noble ladies who throng the ways of Dante’s mystical city of youth and love as God’s Angels guard the terraces of the Mount of Purgation, Dante writes the last sonnet of the book; wherein a “new intelligence,” born of Love, guides the pilgrim spirit beyond the spheres into the Empyrean to behold the blessedness of Beatrice. It is an anticipation of the spiritual ascent of the _Divina Commedia_, which is confirmed in the famous passage which closes the “new life” of Love: “After this sonnet there appeared unto me a wonderful vision: wherein I saw things which made me purpose to say no more of this blessed one, until such time as I could discourse more worthily concerning her. And to attain to that I labour all I can, even as she knoweth verily. Wherefore if it shall be His pleasure, through whom is the life of all things, that my life continue for some years, I hope that I shall yet utter concerning her what hath never been said of any woman. And then may it seem good unto Him, who is the Lord of courtesy, that my soul may go hence to behold the glory of its lady: to wit, of that blessed Beatrice who gazeth gloriously upon the countenance of Him who is blessed throughout all ages.”[10] From the mention of the pilgrimage, and this wonderful vision, it has been sometimes supposed that the closing chapters of the _Vita Nuova_ were written in 1300. It seems, however, almost certain that there is no reference whatever to the year of Jubilee in the first case. When Dante’s positive statement in the _Convivio_, that he wrote the _Vita Nuova_ at the entrance of manhood (_gioventute_ being the twenty years from twenty-five to forty-five, _Conv._ iv. 24), is compared with the internal evidence of the book itself, the most probable date for its completion would be between 1291 and 1293. It should, however, be borne in mind that, while there is documentary evidence that some of the single poems were in circulation before 1300, none of the extant manuscripts of the whole work can be assigned to a date much earlier than the middle of the fourteenth century. It is, therefore, not inconceivable that the reference to the vision may be associated with the spiritual experience of 1300 and slightly later than the rest of the book.[11]