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Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His Divine Comedy is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante is known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at a time when most poetry was written in Latin, which was accessible only to educated readers. His use of the Florentine dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and Divine Comedy helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language. By writing his poem in the Italian vernacular rather than in Latin, Dante influenced the course of literary development, making Italian the literary language in western Europe for several centuries. His work set a precedent that important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would later follow. 
Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy and is considered to be among the country's national poets and the Western world's greatest literary icons. His depictions of Hell, Purgatory and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art and literature. He influenced English writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, and Alfred Tennyson, among many others. He died 14 September 1321. 
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The €1,15 stamp was issued in a mini sheet of four stamps on the occasion of the seventh centenary of the death of Dante. It shows him explaining to the Prince of the Apostles the fundamental truths of the faith. The margin features a group of three lines of verse rhyming together in which the poet describes faith as "spark, which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, and, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me" (Par. XXIV, 145-147).

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