The Stella d’Italia (Italian: "Star of Italy") is the most ancient identity symbol of the Italian land. In modern times it has been associated with the Italia Turrita (Towered Italy), the ancient allegorical representation of the Italian peninsula.
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The mythology of the Stella d’Italia goes back to the 6th century BC, when the Siceliot poet Stesichorus, in his poem Iliupersis (The Fall of Troy) creates the legend of Aeneas: escaping from Troy, seized and fired by the Greeks, he goes back to Italy, the land of his ancestors. The tale of Aeneas’ travels by the sea, guided by the maternal Stella Veneris toward the Italian coasts, was later re-used by Varro and Vergil, who give birth to the political tradition of Caesaris Astrum (the star of Caesar) and to the geographical tradition of Italy as Esperia, from the ancient name Greeks gave to it. Both traditions are related to the evening star that identifies Italy as "the land of sunset" but also to the star of Venus, the goddess of love as universal force, which identifies Italy as land of Eros too, sung as such by poets.
Italy’s first allegory – a laurel-crowned female head – appears on the coins coined during the Social War between the Roman Republic and several other cities of central Italy from 91 to 88 BC. Under the emperor Augustus, an allegorical representation of Italy as Saturnia Tellus was sculpted in marble on Ara Pacis’ external wall (13-9 BC) in Rome. Another allegory of Italy appears on the coins coined during the reign of emperor Nerva in 97 AD. The representation of Italia Turrita was proposed under the emperor Trajan, who wanted it to be sculpted on the Trajan’s Arch erected in Benevento in 114-117, and also on one of the two Pluteos called anaglypha, four years later. Afterwards, from 130 AD on, under the emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, Septimius Severus and Caracalla, Roman coins reproduced the allegorical representation of Italy as a dressed and towered woman who sometimes carries a cornucopia. The towered crown is the symbol of Civitas romana (Roman Citizenship), therefore the allegory shows the sovereignty of the Italian peninsula as a land of free cities and of Roman citizens to whom a proper right has been granted: the Ius Italicum.
This mythographical setting-up of the Italian land became also popular during the Middle Ages. In 1490, Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, had an Italia Turrita painted on a medallion of the castle in Piazza Ducale, Vigevano. The Caesaris Astrum appeared again in 1574 on the cover of Historiarium de Regno Italiae, a book written by the historian Carlo Sigonio. On the other hand, still uncertain is the symbolic identification of Caesar’s star with the famous and precious three-coloured star-shaped jewel, studded with green emeralds, white pearls and red rubies, dated about 1329-1333 and kept at the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona. It is supposed to have been made for condottiere Cangrande della Scala, the lord of Verona.
In 1603, in the second edition of his treatise Iconologia, Cesare Ripa associated the two symbols and creates a modern version of Italy’s allegorical personification: woman with a star on top of a towered crown, therefore supplied with the Corona muralis and the Stella Veneris. Ripa’s treatise inspiresd many artists like Canova, Bisson, Maccari, Balla, Sironi, until the 1920s. The allegorical image of the towered and star-topped Italy became popular during the Risorgimento, spreading through a large iconography of statues, friezes and decorative objects, tourist-guide covers, postcards, prints and magazines’ illustrations. In the Risorgimento period, evoking Aeneas’ journey toward the Italian coasts, patriot Giuseppe Mazzini mentioned again the national star’s myth that afterwards was recovered by Cavour and the new Savoy kings of Italy. The reigning house even tried to get possession of it, suggesting that it was the Stella Sabauda (Savoys’ star), a family heraldic pattern about is not mentioned in any historical document preceding the unification of Italy.
In 1947, the Stella d’Italia was included in the centre of the Italian Republic official emblem, drawn by the designer Paolo Paschetto.