1700th Anniversary of the Edict of Milan

With the sheet dedicated to the Edict of Milan of 313 A.D., the AASFN offers all enthusiasts not only a prestigious and collector's item, but a true ‘Lectio Magistralis’ on the history of Milan and the processes that introduced the concept of religious freedom. Seventeen hundred years after the pronouncement that the emperors of the West, Constantine I, and of the East, Licinius, proclaimed to decree the neutrality of the Empire towards any faith, the sketch artist Chiara Principe offers a summary in images, as didactic as it is suggestive. In the foreground, in fact, in the background of the sheet, there is a topographical map of Milan, in which the Forma Urbis of Mediolanum is highlighted, which etymologically indicated a ‘locality in the middle of the plain’. The first of the two stamps depicts the two Emperors, authors of the Edict. On the left is Constantine, on the right Licinius, next to some subjects. The image was taken from a bas-relief on the portal of Milan Cathedral made by the Israelite sculptor Arrigo Minerbi. On the stamp on the right is a map of Europe, on which Mediolanum is also shown. It is from the latter that the scroll on which the symbol of Chrismon appears, a monogram formed by superimposing the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, X (Chi) and P (Rho). The symbol was chosen by Constantine as the ‘signum crucis’ and from then on spread throughout the Empire, becoming the representation par excellence of the Christian faith. The medallion depicting the Emperor, highlighted in the sketch, is an artefact found in Thessaloniki and preserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Seventeen centuries later, this is a reminder of a historical passage that sanctioned the time of religious tolerance. "We, therefore, Constantine Augustus and Licinius Augustus have resolved to grant Christians and all others the freedom to follow the religion that each one believes, so that the divinity that is in heaven, whatever it may be, may give us and all our subjects peace and prosperity". Ancient words those of the two Emperors, which today, thanks to the Republic of San Marino's leaflet, return to ‘travel’, between time and space.