7 February 1997 - Commemorative Postage Stamp: 450th Anniversary of the Birth of Miguel de Cervantes

Size: 29.82 mm x 35.50 Value: Kn 2.20 Paper: white, 102 g, gummed Comb Perforation: 14 Printing: Multicolour Offsetprint, AKD - Hrvatski tiskarski zavod, Zagreb Issued: 350000

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616)

Shakespeare's Spanish contemporary and fellow literary genius, Cervantes inaugurated the modern novel with his extraordinary Don Quijote de la Mancha, 1602, which has since been translated into every language in the world. It is the most widely published book in the world after the Bible.

Cervantes genius as an observer and recorder of human nature has been recognized not only by the great novelists from Flaubert to Dostoyevski but thinkers such as Sigmund Freud credited Cervantes with inspiring some of his important psychoanalytical discoveries. His novel Entremeses is another one of his great works, a collection of short stories.

Source: Famous Hispanic Writers, www.clark.net

See also:

• Postage stamps of the Republic of Croatia
• Other 1997 issues