On the occasion of the seventh centenary of the birth of Francesco Petrarca, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Oscar Wilde and the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian writer Anton Cechov the Autonomous State Philatelic and Numismatic Company commemorates these three great symbols of literature from three different cultures in a single issue.
The € 0,45 stamp bears the image of Francesco Petrarca, who was born in Arezzo in 1304 and died in Arquà in 1374. In the background we glimpse the profile of his beloved Laura, who inspired the dreams of his entire life, and was the constant and metaphoric center of his Canzoniere.
The € 1,50 stamp shows Oscar Wilde, the celebrated Irish writer who lived from 1854 to 1900, author of many plays and novels that are among the most famous in western literature, such as "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", "An Ideal Husband" and "Lady Windermere's Fan". The € 2,20 stamp porttrays Anton Cechov (1860 ­ 1904), on the 100th anniversary of his death. Superb writeer of novels and theatrical works, adversary of any system, any dogma, any despotism, and great worker, his stories described ordinary lives, where the spiritual striving of souls is tightly bound by prosaic detail.