Now, collecting stamps and even better first day issues were something I only had a passing interest in.
Not so our Stella who pretty much collected lots of things, and this week I revisited her collection of stamps which were issued for the first time.
And as you do I was drawn to two from Italy.
The first and in some ways my favourite I came across was one issued in Rome for the 700th anniversary of the birth of the Italian poet Dante, which one source describes as “known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, making it accessible only to the most educated readers.
His De vulgari eloquentia (On Eloquence in the Vernacular) was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Tuscan dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and Divine Comedy helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language, and set a precedent that important later Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would follow.
Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and his depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art.
He is cited as an influence on Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton and Alfred Tennyson, among many others.
In addition, the first use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or the terza rima, is attributed to him.
He is described as the "father" of the Italian language, and in Italy he is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet"). Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called the tre corone ("three crowns") of Italian literature”.
All of just leaves me with the second which commemorated the 1962 Road Cycling World Championships held in Salò in Italy on September 2nd.
That is it …….. more to follow.
Location; Italy
Pictures; first day of issue stamps, 1962 & 1965, from the collection of Stella Simpson
*Dante Alighieri, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Alighieri
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