San Marino · 750th anniversary of the birth of Dante Alighieri

Issue date8 Apr 2015

Total mintage102,400

EU maximum104,000

Editions2

Edge lettering2 ★ × 6, alternately upright/inverted

InscriptionDANTE / SAN MARINO / R / 1265 / 2015 / AM

DesignerAnnalisa Masini

mintInstituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, Roma

Issue occasion

The coin commemorates the 750th birthday of Dante Alighieri. The design created by Annalisa Masini shows a portrait of Dante based on a fresco by Botticelli, along with the inscriptions “DANTE” and “SAN MARINO” and the years “1265” and “2015”. The typeface used is based on the first editions of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” (“Göttliche Komödie”).

The design

The design by Annalisa Masini depicts a portrait of Dante based on a fresco by Botticelli. To the right of the portrait, the inscription “DANTE” can be seen on a vertical axis. On the right side of the inner coin ring, the name of the issuing country, “SAN MARINO”, is inscribed in a semicircle. Between these two inscriptions are the mintmark “R”, the years “1265” and “2015”, and the artist’s initials “AM”. The typeface used for the designation of the issuing country and the theme is based on the lettering in the first editions of Dante’s “Divina Commedia”.

The twelve stars of the European flag are depicted on the outer coin ring.

Background on the topic

Dante Alighieri came from Florence (Florenz) and worked as a poet, political officeholder and theoretical writer. His lifetime was shaped by conflicts between the political groups of the Guelphs (Guelfen) and Ghibellines (Ghibellinen), as well as by internal disputes among the Florentine Guelphs. Dante belonged to the White Guelphs. After their opponents seized power, he was banished from Florence (Florenz). Since he did not accept the conditions imposed on him, he never returned permanently to his home city. He subsequently lived at various courts in northern and central Italy and died in 1321 in Ravenna.

His principal work describes a journey through the three realms of the afterlife: Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. At first, the ancient Roman poet Virgil (Vergil) guides the narrator; later, Beatrice takes over this role. The poem combines Christian theology and medieval cosmology with ancient literature, philosophy, contemporary history and personal experiences. Numerous historical and contemporary figures appear in it as inhabitants of the afterlife; their fates also serve as a basis for moral and political debate.

Dante did not write the work in Latin, the language of many scholarly texts at the time, but in an Italian vernacular based primarily on Tuscan. His writings thereby contributed to the literary recognition of this language and, in the long term, to the development of modern standard Italian. In addition to the poem about the afterlife, he wrote, among other works, love poetry, treatises on language theory and the political work “Monarchia”. In “Vita nuova”, he combined poems about Beatrice with explanatory prose texts.

For San Marino, Dante belongs to the shared Italian-speaking cultural sphere, although the republic is politically independent of Italy. The anniversary therefore provided an occasion to commemorate an author whose work, transcending regional and national borders, is part of Europe’s literary heritage. At the same time, the issue ties in with San Marino’s close linguistic and cultural connection with the Italian Peninsula.