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Cod. 1135E
EUR 170,00
Special Price
EUR 85,00


Paolo Vollmeier
THE POSTAL HISTORY OF SICILY FROM ITS BEGINNINGS TO THE INTRODUCTION OF THE POSTAGE STAMP

700 pp. - 64 colour tables - b/w ill. - hardbound with colour cover - printed 1998
POINT VALUATIONS
In English

ALSO AS FREE BOOK (class C)

The text comes from the notes and studies by Lorenzo Previteri (the first to make a serious study of the postal history of Sicily in the prephilatelic period), and the book is dedicated to him. Paolo Vollmeier reorganised the material, then translated from Italian into English by Roy A. Dehn.
The study is devoted to the history of the Post under the Bourbons, up until the introduction of postage stamps on 1 January 1859.

This history can be divided into four periods.
1. up to 1535: first regulation for the postal service.
2. from 1535 to May 1786: running of the service contracted out to private persons.
3. from June 1786 to 31 March 1820: in 1786 the postal service was taken back by the state and the first handstamps were introduced in Palermo and Messina.
4. from 1 April 1820 to 31 December 1858: on 1 April 1820 the new postal regulation came into force and 116 post offices were issued with handstamps. Of particular interest are the periods of popular rising against the king in 1820 and 1848/49, which left their mark on the postal service.

Catalogue of cancellations and their valuation in points.

CONTENTS

* The political background
* The letters of the Viceroys in Sicily
* Chronology of the Maestri di Posta
* The regulations
* The postal routes
* The introduction of departure handstamps in the Palermo and Messia offices
* The Postal Office
* The control marks used by the Postal Administration
* Taxation marks (Group 8)
* The 'P' mark (Group 7)
* ROCM (Royal Office of Corriere Maggiore)
* The staffette
* The royal decree of 10 November 1819
* The risings of 1820 in Sicily
* The postal service during the 1820-21 Revolution
* Free-frankking
* Post office countersignatures for free-franking
* Post office countersignatures for free-franking
* The countersign stamps prepared by the post for use by governmental offices
* Countersignatures for freefranking and administration marks
* Real Servizio (Royal Service)
* Franca - postage prepaid
* Insured letters
* Letters wrongly rated - mal tassate
* Misdirected letters
* Letters where addressee had moved house
* Undelivered letters - lettere non distribuite
* Two-route letters - doppia corsa
* The cross routes
* The corriers for the lottery
* Article 14 of the postal regulation of 10 November 1819
* Letterbox - Buca
* The date-stamps of Palermo used on arrival from 1787 to 1819
* The date-stamps of Palermo from 1817 to 1858
* The date-stamps of Messina
* Postage on credit - Lettere a credito
* Communal offices - Cancellerie Comunali
* The Sicilian Revolution of 1848-49
* The postal service during the 1848-1849 Revolution
* The postal handstamps and the trinacria symbols used during the 1848-1849 Revolution
* Sea-Mail - Via di Mare
* The Butera courier
* Health
* The forwarding agent
* The telegraph service
* Handwritten place-names
* British troops in Sicily
* Worn-out or damaged handstamps
* Postal tariffs and rates levied
* The inks used in the offices to stamp letters
* Forged handstamps

* Annex
* Documents
* Catalogue
* Bibliography

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