Title
Postage Stamp - Vatican City - 2009
Type
Postage Stamp
Coverage
Vatican City
Date Issued
2009-10-21
Description
This postage stamp was issued as part of a joint issue with Italy and San Marino for the Giornata della Lingua Italiana (Celebration Day of the Italian Language) in 2009. It depicts a scene from the beginning of Inferno in which Dante (accompanied by Virgil in this illustration but not in the text) is blocked by three beasts. The scene is taken from a miniature in Codex Urbinate Latino 365, a fifteenth-century manuscript in the Vatican Library. Each stamp is printed adjacent to a label with the first line from Inferno 1: "Nel / mezzo / del cammin / di nostra / vita" (Midway in the journey of our life). The second and third lines of Inferno appear on the San Marino and Italy stamps, respectively. The stamp was designed by Mauro Olivieri and Orlando Tomassi and printed by the Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato.
Denomination: 0,60 (0.60 EUR)
Perforation: 13 ¼ × 13 (comb)
Printing process: Rotogravure
Print run: 600,000
Extent
40 × 30 mm
Bibliographic Citation
Michel no. 1653
Scott no. 1426
Contributor
Mauro Olivieri
Orlando Tomassi
Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (Rome, Italy)
Language
Italian