History of Philately

When we speak of stamps, we must remember that behind the small multi-coloured piece of paper, there is the long and adventurous story of the postal system.

According to the scholar, Cujacio, the word “post” comes from “Apostolis”, that is, the habit of sending “Apostolic Letters” from the Roman Curia and the Papacy. This word appears for the first time in Charlemagne’s capitularies, and later, in the third book of the Lombard Laws. Ever since her early days, the Church has always made use of messengers, known as “cursores”,  to communicate with other parts of the world. The most important abbeys and convents had a postal service with messengers on horseback, or made use of their own friars on foot or on horse. Private individuals also made use of mendicant friars to send their messages. However, because very few people knew how to read and write at that time and it was very rare to travel, there was not a great demand for messages. It was not until commerce and art flourished and the resulting birth of a rich and powerful social class, the bourgeoisie class, that there was an increase in the need for long distance communication, a need which was met by the emergence of the Poste Universitarie and the Merchant Post.

A few ambassadors asked the Pope to be able to receive diplomatic correspondence through their couriers, which the Pope accepted, leading to the establishment of “National Post Offices” in Rome. The first office was established in Spain by Pope Alexander VI in 1499, and was immediately followed by one in Naples and one in Milan. The postal services of Rome and Florence were instituted in 1536 by Paul III.

In Great Britain, to avoid the problem of postal tariffs, which were very expensive, an educator named Rowland Hill suggested that payment be made with a postmark to be paid in advance, a huge cost as it was calculated on the basis of the weight of the message and valid for all destinations. To foster the prepayment, Hill suggested using “a bit of paper just large enough to bear the stamp, and covered at the back with a glutinous wash which, by applying a little moisture, might be attached to the letter”. The “seal”, that is the postal marking which indicated the duty paid, was thus used not only as a stamp but also as a seal, replacing the sealing wax that was still very much in use at the time.

This somewhat vague idea of a stamp was perfected over the following months, and on 1 May 1840, a postal reform was implemented with two different solutions: one was the so-called postal stationery, that is envelopes and sheets of paper already equipped with stamps and ready for use; the other was a rubbery “label” that could be easily attached to any letter, newspaper or parcel to be sent via post. The success of the English reform immediately went beyond the United Kingdom’s borders. The uniform tariff on the basis of weight and stamps had already been adopted in 1843 in the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Geneva, and in Brazil. In 1845, they were adopted by Basel and so on and so forth and ever more quickly in all the other countries.

Almost all of Italy’s small states introduced stamps and uniform tariffs between 1850 and 1852.

The Papal States introduced them on 1 January 1852. The postal system was considered to be of vital importance during the time of the Papal States, and was very efficient. It was the responsibility of the Cardinale Camerario of the Holy Church, who promulgated laws regarding the service via decrees, and established the tariffs. At a time when there was much debate about the Pope’s temporal power, Pius IX never wanted his portrait to appear on stamps, preferring instead just the symbol of the power of the papacy, that is, the crossed keys surmounted by the papal tiara. This is why the Pontifical series are somewhat monotonous in their design, despite the fact that the frames changed. The first issue was printed in the typography of the Apostolic Chamber with stereotypes joined in four blocks of 25. The first series was substituted by another with value in cents in 1867, after the monetary reform. The following year, a third series was issued, which was the same as the one before, but engrailed, and printed on glossy coloured paper on the front side and white on the back.

A big problem, however, still remained unsolved: postal traffic abroad. The solution came in 1874 with the creation of the General Postal Union. In short it, was an agreement signed by 21 countries, including almost all of Europe, Egypt, Turkey and the United States of America, who formed “a single territory” with regards to postal traffic, thus allowing for fixed rules and uniform tariffs for all member countries, irrespective of the route or method. In this case too, the success was immediate. The number of countries requesting to join the agreement was so large that in 1878, a decision was made to adopt a new and more suitable name: Universal Postal Union. In 1870, there had also been the revolutionary idea of the postcard, a new means of communication, which in exchange for a reduced tariff, required giving up the ancient security of the secrecy of correspondence. In the 1900s, picture postcards were introduced, which became very popular, also thanks to the development of colour printing.

In accordance with article 2 of the Lateran Treaty of 2 June 1929, Italy recognized  “the sovereignty of the Holy See in international matters as an inherent attribute in conformity with its traditions and the requirements of its mission to the world”. Thus, the rights of the new State had been wholly recognized, which included the right to have its own postal service. Vatican City State was admitted into the Universal Postal Union on 1 June 1929, and the Italian government agreed to provide personnel and materials to establish the service.

On 29 June 1929, Vatican City State and the Italian State reached an agreement on the execution of postal services on the basis of the Stockholm Convention of 28 August 1924, the Fundamental Law of Vatican State and the Sources of Law, respectively n.1 and n. 2 of 7 June 1929, promulgated by the Pope. The Vatican postal service was established by Decree VIII of 30 July 1929 and launched on 1 August of that year.

All Vatican issues are ratified by Decrees published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, a sort of official publication of the Holy See. Both the decrees and the Acta, stamped and postmarked as First day of issue, are a collector’s item and of great philatelic interest. Later, in the same manner, issues of postal stationery, postcards and aerograms were also authorized.

The adventure of letters continues today too in our computer and electronic age. The written word endures, and narrates the wonderful history of human communication over roughly 1,000 years. It was a history made of letters and postcards, stamps and postal markings, graphic signs and labels, a history that each of us can re-elaborate, recreate, reinvent or use at one’s pleasure, entering the immense, passionate, diversified world of philatelic collection, a world without limitations of space, time and ideas.