Joachim De Flora, the Calabrian Abbot whom Dante places in Paradise as “one who possessed the spirit of prophecy,” had foreseen the year 1260 as the beginning of a new age. And there is asense in which we may consider him justified. History is a continuous process—Joachim himself made the fruitio of one age the preparatio of the next—but there are certain periods that give the impression of turning points.