Description

The Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato (IPZS) has issued (14th September) new coins in gold and silver which pay tribute to the great fourteenth-century author Dante Alighieri on the 700th anniversary of his death. The coins focus on La Divina Commedia (“The Divine Comedy”), Dante’s most well-known work, and was composed during his exile, most likely between 1308 and 1321.

Durante degli Alighieri, simply called Dante (c. 1265 – 1321), was a major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa and later christened Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.

Dante has been called "the Father of the Italian language" and one of the greatest poets of world literature. In Italy, Dante is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet") and il Poeta.

Artist: Claudia Momoni

Obverse

Profile of Dante Alighieri, a detail inspired by a painting by Sandro Botticelli (private collection). Around, the inscription “REPUBBLICA ITALIANA” with a star at its end.

REPUBBLICA ITALIANA

Reverse

Depicts a stylised reproduction of Dante’s Inferno with the nine circles described in the Divine Comedy showing the devil’s wings, fire and ice in colour. Within the composition, on the left, detail from Luca Signorelli’s frescoes in the Cathedral of Orvieto. Around, the inscription “and thence we came forth to see again the stars”, the closing verse of the cantica named Inferno, encircled by stars; at the centre, the value and the years of Dante’s death and the coin’s issue; the mintmark "R" on the left, the name of the designer “MOMONI” on the right.

Inferno (Italian for "Hell") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. The Inferno describes Dante's journey through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine concentric circles of torment located within the Earth; it is the "realm ... of those who have rejected spiritual values by yielding to bestial appetites or violence, or by perverting their human intellect to fraud or malice against their fellowmen".

Painted by Luca Signorelli from 1499 to 1503 in the San Brizio Chapel in the Cathedral in Orvieto, Italy, the fresco represents one part of the End of Days narrative, when Christ returns to judge mankind—and to separate those who will go to heaven (the blessed) from those who will go to hell (the damned).

E QUINDI USCIMMO
20 1321 2021
EURO MOMONI
R
A RIVEDER LE STELLE

Edge
Characteristics
Type Commemorative Issue (Non-circulating)
Material Gold
Fineness 0.900
Weight 6.451 g
Diameter 21 mm
Thickness -
Shape round
Alignment Medal
Mint
Italian State Mint and Polygraphic Institute (IPZS)

Related coins

Inferno

700th Anniversary of Death of Dante Alighieri

Silver, 18 g, ⌀ 32 mm
Purgatorio

700th Anniversary of Death of Dante Alighieri

Silver, 18 g, ⌀ 32 mm
Paradiso

700th Anniversary of Death of Dante Alighieri

Silver, 18 g, ⌀ 32 mm