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.
CONTENTS
* Author's note
* Introduction
* CHAPTER I - Short history of the secrecy of correspondence
* CHAPTER II - Regulations in defence of the secrecy of correspondence
* CHAPTER III - Some introductory remarks
* CHAPTER IV - How old letters were sealed
* CHAPTER V - Description of the kind of seals for old letters
* Appendix I - Letters with peculiar, safe, control or different seals and letters sealed more than once
* CHAPTER VI - Developments and effects of the sealing systems for old letters during the philatelic period
* Appendix II - Adhesive labels and systems to stick them on old letters
* Conclusions
* Bibliography
* The author