196 pp. - colour and b/w ill. - softbound - printed 2012
Italian text

GASTONE RIZZO
THE TEACHER OF POSTAGE STAMPS

Published by USFI, the Italian Union of Philatelic Press, it is the story of a schoolteacher, Gastone Rizzo, who used postage stamps as a didactic method. He taught the different subjects with the help of the stamps featuring historical events, geographical places, Jesus' life, concepts of geometry, mathematics, grammatical and logical analysis,...
His method caught the interest of Unesco and of Italian and foreign journalists, and his work was presented in a documentary film titled "A school like this".
He retired in 1978, but his activity aimed at the diffusion of philately among young people goes on.

288 pp. - colour and b/w ill. - softbound - printed 2012
Italian text

ALPINE TROOPS EVENTS
Notes by Giovanni Cuomo.

All the special postmarks relevant to the Alpine Troops, with all the places in the Italian Alps which have created an event to celebrate them and have obtained a special postmark.

196 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2012
Italian text

CORRESPONDENCE AESTHETICS IN THE XIX CENTURY
Stories of paper
Historical and Postal Notes and Documents

A showcase of covers, letter seals, greeting cards, headed letters, postage stamps, cancellations and franking, illustrated postcards, all of them reproduced in colours underlying their aesthetic value and analyzing their content and communication intent also from a social point of view.

216 pp. - b/w and colour ill. - softbound - printed 2012
English text

LUX IN ARCANA
THE VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVE REVEALS ITSELF

100 original documents, selected among the treasures preserved and cherished by the Vatican Secret Archives for centuries, conclaves, heresies, popes and emperors, crusades, excommunications, ciphered letters, manuscripts, codices, and ancient parchments. Really ancient and priceless papal documents leave the Vatican for the first and possibly only time in history.

148 pp. - colour ill. - hardbound - printed 2013
Italian text with Preface also in English

MARINI CENTENARY
1913-2013, ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF ITALIAN PHILATELY

The company celebrate 100 years of activity and in the present publication follow their most important steps and illustrate the events and products for which they are known by Italian and European philatelists and Postal Administrations. An important documentary wealth, albums, catalogues, objects used, photographs of the time, many text from the diary of Ernesto Marini, the company's founder.

280 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2013
Italian text

BI-MILLENNARIANS, WRITERS AND OTHER PRETEXTS
Creative prose on the postage stamps of the Kingdom of Italy

Preface by Francesco De Martino.

77 art prose inspired by 8 series particularly important of the Kingdom of Italy, appeared 1923 to 1942: the Fiftieth of Manzoni's death (1923); the Bi-millennium of Virgilio's death (1930); the "Pro Dante Alighieri" series (1932); the March on Rome Tenth Anniversary (1932); the Exhibition on summer colonies (1937); the Bi-millennium of Augusto's birth (1937); the Bi-millennium of Tito Livio's birth (1941); the third Centenary of Galileo Galilei's death (1942).
The postage stamps, reproduced in colour and enlarged so to highlight details, give the author narrative pretexts to tell the destiny of men. In the preface, the historical and literary context for the characters featured in the vignettes and for the author's texts.
The book is ideally connected to the one issued in 2012 "Forge, grape harvest and timber", dedicated to the postage stamps of the series "Italy at work".

160 pp. - colour ill. - hardbound with gold inscriptions and cover - 1st ed. 2013
English text

The development, introduction and usage of the very first stamps in the world, the Penny Black and the 2 Pence Blue, based on the remarkable exhibit from the outstanding collection of Alan Holyoake.
The exhibit starts with the pre-issue essays and other ephemera that preceded the stamps. Many of these exist in fewer than five examples, if not being unique in their own right. Besides the essays, original documents telling of the forthcoming issues are of major interest, along with the Official VR stamp. The Penny Black (Plates 1, 1a, 1b and 2) and 2d blue (Plate 1), along with the red prints from the 1d plate are all that are shown. The latter completes the picture of the progression of repair to the 1d plate. Uses, shades and varieties of both denominations available in the earliest years of philately add spice to the presentation.
It not only serves as a source of reference for the benefit of like-minded philatelists but, because it includes introductory material and a commentary at the beginning of each section, will also interest the general reader.

160 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2013
Italian text

ITALY
ORIGINALS AND FORGERIES

The compendium of some studies on the subject to help, in an easy and clear way, to understand, and identify, the main differences between original issues and forgeries. The postage stamps of the Kingdom of Italy, of the Italian Social Republic and of the Italian Republic are reproduced and examined one by one with the list of their characteristics, for both originals and forgeries.

At the beginning of the chapters devoted to the different periods, there is a short postal-historical introduction.

Hundreds of colour reproductions.

472 pp. - colour ill. - hardbound - printed 2014
Italian text

ITALY IN EAST AFRICA
HISTORY, MAIL, PHILATELY
Volume I

The text, conceived in two separate volumes, represents a complete work about the Italian presence in East Africa from the point of view of post and of philately.

The first volume is about pre-imperial Italian East Africa and the second one is about the Italian Empire. Nevertheless, in order to facilitate readers, the chapters of Volume I concerning Eritrea and Somalia are developed up to 1941, above all as long as the card-indexing of the offices and their postmarks is concerned.

The study is realised with the maximum historical and documentary rigour; all the information are in fact the result of official and controlled sources. It is useful both to postal history researchers and to collectors, with pages about the organization and the method of services, as well as complete and clearly organized tables of all the post and telegraph offices; for each one of these, all the known postmarks are reproduced. Moreover, the work is accompanied by a rich iconographical background (postal documents, maps, views, people) with images realised with care and reproduced in the original format. The rich quantity of material of every office, that proposes letters and other postal documents left from or arrived there, besides the images of the places and of the environments, represents a quality of the work.

Every volume starts with a historical-descriptive part, followed by the lists of offices and postmarks, divided into chapters like the historical-descriptive part, and placed, in every chapter, in alphabetical order. Every postmark is numbered. Together with the second volume, a catalogue with point valuation is present.

276 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2014
Italian text

THE RULE OF POSTAGE STAMPS
Italian writers in philately

The book dissects in a monographic and comprehensive way the connections between Italian writers and philately: the Author, in his extensive treatment, has followed the way how Italian writers were represented on postage stamps, that thus become a precious means for disseminating information and culture.
He follows in detail the thread of the philatelic issues of traditional Italian nations in the Italian area, namely Italy, San Marino and Vatican City, dividing the treatment into 14 dense chapters.
The first author celebrated in philately was Dante Alighieri, in 1921, followed by Alessandro Manzoni, two years later. Since then, dozen writers have been impressed in a postage stamp. They often are classic authors, but in recent decades the faces and writings of the most important authors of the XXth century have found a place too, Primo Levi to Tomasi di Lampedusa, Montale to Quasimodo.
The book also talks about not Italian writers (Latin and foreign). There are, then, guessable connections to history, since postage stamps also contain a political message, in a more or less evident way, and reflect the changes in habits (think, for example, about the role of women in postage stamps, regarding which the author writes persuasive and informed pages).
159 colour postage stamps of writers are displayed in the appendix to the book, so to have an immediate visual feedback.

434 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2018
Italian text

RIJEKA 1918-1924
Postal services and philately among historical events and every day's life

In over 400 pages, almost all illustrated, the author has analysed to the smallest detail all Rijeka philatelic issues and the relevant postal history with emphasis on historical events. That is very important for Rijeka postage stamps: to know them and to understand their meaning, we must place them in their historical context.

After WWI (1818-1924) Rijeka became an independent city, with its own currency and postage stamps. The search for facts is not easy since almost all the official documentation was destroyed or is lost.

This book represents a must to anyone who wants to study or collect postage stamps or postal history of Rijeka: it is an exhaustive work that consists of the compendium of the passionate commitment of many researchers that have gradually devoted themselves to place all the elements necessary to realise a mosaic as complete and acceptable as possible.

Every issue is examined technically and contextualized in accordance with the peculiar historical moment that has assisted to its birth. This is the reason why the book reports history and less known aspects of economy and of daily life of that period, including the monetary events that accompanied the transition from Hungarian crown to Lira. Also a series of philatelic themes, mostly still unexplored, are dealt with: postal history and, in particular, postal uses - rates, often obscure, failing accepted juridical references - cancellations and censor marks - military by surface, by air and by sea - postal stationery.

The book is divided into the following parts:
Part one - The inter-allied occupation
Part two - The inter-allied occupation goes on
Part three - The period of Gabriele d'Annunzio
Part four - From free State to annexation to Italy

12 pp. - colour ill. - saddle stitch binding - printed 2018
Italian text

ITALIAN STATES
ORIGINALS AND FORGERIES
The forgeries by Jean De Sperati

12 pages with the colour and enlarged reproductions of the originals and of the corresponding forgeries created by Jean De Sperati and the description of the features to distinguish them.
It deals with the forgeries of Regency of Naples, Duchy of Parma, Papal State, Kingdom of Sardinia, Sicily, Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

36 pp. - colour ill. - saddle stitch binding - printed 2018
Italian text

FORGERIES FOR POST
USED IN ITALY UP TO 1863
Lombardy Venetia - Kingdom of Naples and Provinces - Papal State - Kingdom of Italy

36 pages with the colour and enlarged reproductions of the forgeries for post used in the Italian States and in Italy up to 1863.

32 pp. - colour ill. - saddle stitch binding - printed 2014
Italian text

32 pages printed in colour illustrate, by means of tens of enlargements and of details, the overprints of R.S.I. applied on the postage stamps for parcel post. Every single position is photographed and described, highlighting also some varieties previously unknown.

24 pp. - colour ill. - saddle stitch binding - printed 2019
Italian text

2 GRANA POSTAGE STAMPS OF THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES

24 pages printed in colour illustrate, by means of tens of enlargements and details, the main features of the 2 grana postage stamps of the Kingdom of Naples, including the numerous interesting engraving varieties of these stamps created by the mastery of Giuseppe Masini and Gennaro De Masa.

The complete reconstructions of the I and of the II plate are printed in colour for the first time.

252 pp. - 56 colour ill. - softbound - printed 2015
Italian text

ALSO AS FREE BOOK (class B)

ON EAGLE'S COURSES
Italian writers in world philately

The title of the book draws on the juxtaposition between Dante and the eagle, present on an Italian stamp of 1921. The Florentine writer has always been considered abroad, properly, one of the most pregnant symbols of Italian character and, as a consequence, the interest towards his person and work has often coincided with the attention towards the Italian culture in general or, at least, towards the literary one.
This is the starting point to examine the way how Italian writers have been considered in foreign philately, for a long time, up to the present days.
Starting from the interpretation of philatelic data, widening the speech with data taken from history, history of art and, in general, from the universe of communication, the text spreads onto the consideration shown abroad towards the main Italian writers. In fact all the stamps studied in this book are the ones that various nations, among which USA, Russia, Germany and Argentina, have devoted to writers of the calibre of Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio, Machiavelli and Goldoni, up to more recent ones, such as Grazia Deledda, Dino Buzzati and Dario Fo.
In appendix, a section in colour of philatelic plates shows the main postal values proposed in the text.

402 pp. - b/w and colour ill. - hardbound - printed 2015
italian text

1860
LETTERS FROM THE WAR OF ITALY
ON THE TRAIL OF GARIBALDI'S SOLDIERS

The Authors use postal materials as historical source, relating the historical events to postal history, and vice versa, also thanks to the fortunate recovery of two letters of that period that are systematically analyzed.

The scenery is the enterprise of Garibaldi's Thousand to conquer the Kingdom of Two Sicilies: in this context, the system of postal communications that played a strategic role in it is examined. This central event of Italian Risorgimento is narrated from a different and unreleased viewpoint, highlighting also a slice of the daily life of some participants to Garibaldi's enterprise, exploring for the first time the contents of the letters that often narrate events in a different way.

The book develops in parallel a rigorous postal-historical study of the rates and of the ways of sending mail from and to the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, highlighting the fast changes in postal communication, determined by Garibaldi's advance and by the other events connected to the development of the Kingdom of Italy.

Dealing with a period of war and revolution, the Authors have found some difficulties in finding the norms that determined the changes in the correspondence rates.

36 pp. - colour ill. - saddle stitch binding - printed 2018
Italian text

2 GRANA POSTAGE STAMPS OF THE KINGDOM OF SICILY

The three plates prepared for the print of 2 grana postage stamps of the Kingdom of Sicily are reproduced in over thirty plates in colour and b/w.
All the retouches and also the single plates (whole, divided into two and four parts) are examined in detail with minute enlargements, so to make the consultation of every single postage stamp easy even to less expert people.

352 pp. - colour ill. - hardbound - printed 2015
Italian text

THE PRIORITY SERVICE
History, postage stamps, rates and collecting aspects
PHILATELIC AND POSTAL HISTORICAL MONOGRAPH

The work, after an introduction about the services of urgent mail as forerunners of the Priority Service in Italy, narrates the economic political context which Italian Post conceived and started this postal product in; it is therefore the tale of its history from the origin of the service on 1 December 1997 as experimental phase, its real start on 21 June 1999 and its end in May 2006.

Like the Express service, it was represented by peculiar postage stamps, initially golden, the first self-sticking ordinary postage stamps. The first one of these postage stamps was issued 7 days before the creation of the service; during this period, they have been used improperly generating interesting combinations and uses for the happiness of collectors. The postage stamp continued being printed until mid-2009, though it was no more necessary, it was replaced by the issue of the subsequent ordinary series of Italian Post (Flying little letter with tricolour contrail).

The volume accompanies readers in a chronological way through the issue of various postage stamps (fifty including booklets) the innumerable varieties and fakes, the rate changes and so the possible uses, some of which extremely rare for printings some of which very limited. The authors have also identified postage stamps that show the interference disc of different sizes; these findings, not catalogued yet, can be count on the fingers of one hand.

128 pp. - colour ill. - hardbound - horizontal format - printed 2003
French text

JEAN DE SPERATI
THE MAN WHO COPIED POSTAGE STAMPS
A BIOGRAPHY

Result of the fruitful meeting between the author and Sperati's daughter, Yvonne, who made available to the journalist thousands of unreleased family documents, the book is the compendium of a long research of archive that combines private aspects and public events of the famous faker of international reputation.
Numerous are the images that enrich the book, by means of documents, letters, postage stamps and photos.
A work useful both to expert collectors and philatelists, both to those who are simply attracted or intrigued by the eccentric personality of Jean de Sperati, that helps to understand better the reasons and the results of his peculiar work.