328 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2023
Italian text

CREATIVITY FOR A POSTAGE STAMP
The essays of the Historical Museum of Communication

From the archives of the Historical Museum of Communication in Rome, a "treasure" of approximately 1,700 essays for postage stamps never materialized or sometimes "crystallized" at an earlier stage than they would have arrived at the post office counters. Items that have only partially, so far, been published in any specialist article.
Now they are collected, all together, in the book created by the Museum itself in collaboration with the Italian Philatelic Press Union.

The image of each item is proposed, associated with the title, summary description, main thematic categories, author, measures, inventory code attributed by the Museum.

There are numerous specialists, famous and otherwise, who in almost one century, from 1922 to 2000, have tried their hand at this communication method. Their works tell the story of the past, from great characters to battles, from artistic expressions to monuments. But they also document their present, such as institutional and political aspects, sporting events, the post-war recovery effort, European construction, campaigns against smoking and drugs, the protection of nature, road accidents...
Thus we discover the alternatives set aside, titles hypothesized and never realised. In short, a... behind the scenes that brings the reader closer to a fascinating sector, rich in cultural ideas that deserves to be valorised.

228 pp. - more than 180 b/w ill. - hardbound - printed 2008
Italian text

SECRECY OF CORRESPONDENCE
in the period of paper culture

Study of the sealing of old letters, from the arrival of paper in Europe to the end of the second millennium, with historical and social notes on the world of the Post, of writing and language connected to letters exchange.

Before the advent of envelops, when letters were folded, many different people have been engaged in the art of closing and sealing letters. They have used their wit, imagination, inventiveness and craftiness to protect the secrecy of their correspondence, and have found solutions which are simple and handy, or complex, artistic, creative, sometimes unique. The present work tells their story, through illustrations, drawings, information and historical and postal notes.

96 pp. - b/w and colour ill. - softbound - printed 2011
Italian text

BENITO CAROBENE
PHILATELIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Benito Carobene wrote his philatelic autobiography in 1997 for his family and some friends, following his philatelic career and telling about dealers and collectors he met.
The Unione stampa filatelica italiana has decided to publish his work, so that everybody could enjoy his experience. A fascinating story, which help us in understanding the character, at the same time testifying an authentic passion for the history of the Post, which is the history of men, that is our history.

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.

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.

304 pp. - b/w and colour ill. - softbound - printed 2016
Italian text

COLLECTIBLE PENS
USFI: 50 YEARS ON THE NEWS

With the collaboration by Beniamino Bordoni

The volume recreates and narrates the history of the Union of the Italian philatelic press by means of cancelled postcards, postage stamps, letters, magazine covers, documents and pictures taken on the occasion of various events. From the first assembly, that took place in Florence on 8 May 1966, are reported, year by year, the documents, the episodes, the news, the curiosities, the relationships with the Ministry of the Italian Post and the postal service, the whole associated with the passion for philately and post. A work apt to safeguard the historical memory of the protagonists that, during the years, have contributed to keep the Union alive.

72 pp. - colour and b/w ill. - softbound - printed 2018
Italian text

POSTAGE STAMPS & COLLECTING
from A to Z
Philatelic handbook and dictionary

Postage stamps are security papers issued by the State, full of cultural, social and political significance, of artistic and lifestyle interest, that go far beyond the simple franking means, and that become a reliable witness to history.

The volume, in full colour, allows to know the world of postage stamps from A to Z and is divided into four parts:
COLLECTION, a result of civilization - COLLECTORS, profiles, goals and attitudes - POSTAGE STAMPS, features and sheet setting - Philatelic and postal DICTIONARY from A to Z.

228 pp. - about 600 colour ill. - hardbound - printed 2019
Italian text

THE LETTER
Shape, aesthetics, curiosities, surprising aspects

Edited by Lorenzo Carra
With an introductive essay by Clemente Fedele

To discover the curious and hidden aspects of correspondence.
The work, accompanied by about 600 colour illustrations and relevant wide captions, was conceived by an idea of Beppe Ermentini, with the purpose of narrating curious, bizarre, unexpected and hidden aspects of correspondence to the lovers of the world of mail, suggesting the watching of postal documents, also from a point of view broader than the strictly philatelic or postal- historical one.
Unusual, strange, beautiful, curious covers and postcards, photos and notes that can reserve interesting surprises.

Divided into 25 chapters, each one devoted to a specific subject or kind of postal document, the book shows the reproductions of the relevant documents by category.

340 pp - colour and b/w ill. - softbound - printed 2020
Italian text

WRITING ABOUT POSTAGE STAMPS
Italian philatelic magazines from the origins to 1945

Analysis of Italian specialized periodicals, from the origins to the end of World War II, which allowed to improve the knowledge on the oldest ones, discovering the existence of bulletins born in small localities or with a short life, and to dissect the events of the most authoritative periodicals, still today a point of reference for studies on classical philately.

In this study, periodicals that, at least in intention, had the objective of becoming a regular publication were taken into consideration; therefore, single numbers printed for philatelic events, newsletters reserved for members of the associations, auctions and sales lists, catalogues and sheets with quotations prepared by dealers have been excluded.

The book is divided into two parts: the first one contains a general excursus on the history of paper philatelic magazines up to the present day; the second one includes some chapters dedicated to the main journals, structured in such a way as to allow an exhaustive overview of the varied world of sector publications with short in-depth news for other periodicals as well. There are curiosities and anecdotes, significant for the life of the bulletin.

In each chapter there is a summary sheet with the fundamental characteristics, referring to the time of constitution:
* title and subtitle
* place and start date (any transfers or interruptions in the issues are indicated in the text);
* founder and legal manager;
* publisher (if the magazine has a publishing house);
* periodicity;
* dimensions (only very significant variations are highlighted);
* known term of the publications (with any notification if it was merged into another newspaper);
* main contributors, found or published in the magazine itself, who have succeeded in the life of the periodical;
* libraries where consultation is possible (those where the greatest number of issues is available are indicated).

64 pp. - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2021
series "Quaderno AISP" n.1
Italian text

DOTTED PAPERS FOR THE USE OF THE BLIND
A definitive (hopefully!) discussion

The project of the «Aisp Notebooks» continues in order to offer the deserved visibility on a specialized topic of great interest from a collecting and socio-cultural point of view, which is the study of dotted papers for the use of the blind.

This Notebook aims to demonstrate how in the past the topic has sometimes been described with inaccuracies or unclear statements: by resorting to primary sources, that is decrees, circulars, press releases, bulletins, the author has been able to clarify the obscure points.
A fundamental tool for collectors and postal history scholars, especially of the modern-contemporary period, who usually deal with correspondence for the blind in their collections, even at an exhibition level.

262 pp - colour ill. - softbound - printed 2022
Italian text

UN BOLLO IN MASCHERA
Philatelic authors and the pandemic
With a review of the issues relevant to Covid-19

Published by USFI

The purpose of this book is to give the word to philatelic authors on the topic of the coronavirus. Spanning between memories, emotions and sensations, the texts are enriched by appropriate philatelic and postal historical references.

Promoted by the Italian Philatelic Press Union, this "Single Number" collects the testimonies of forty authors, with a single common thread, that of the pandemic, however developed in different ways, according to their own interests, knowledge, specializations. There are those who have made a general analysis, those who have described themselves as a collector stuck at home, those who have seen the consequences in prisons or in sport, those who have examined the effects on sectorial exhibitions, those who have highlighted the traces of postmarks…

The Covid-19 pandemic is an event that will remain in history and in history there will also be specific reflections and insights, some very technical and others more "light" and curious, entrusted to the printed paper by journalists and authors who write with continuity of postage stamps and postal history.

The publication is completed with a review of about 1,500 stamps, from 118 countries, issued since 2020 on the theme of the pandemic, starting from the prescriptions to stem the contagion to get to the celebration of the heroes of the first hour, up to the variants and vaccines.