FEPA News

FEPA NEWS 45 58 The World of Research Postal History, a vital element of the history of communications The Third International Congress on Postal History from Multidisciplinary and Diachronic Perspectives, Prato, Italy, 20 th -22 nd June 2024 Bill Hedley writes: Bruno Crevato-Selvaggi RDP and his colleagues at the Istituto di Studi Storici Postali Aldo Cecchi deserve huge congratulations for organising another superb Congress on postal history studies. The Congress took place, with the support of Poste Italiane, in the delightful and historic city of Prato, close to Florence. The Institute exists to promote greater understanding of the importance of postal history in research on a wide range of studies in which the history of communications is integral, including social and cultural developments, diplomatic systems, management, entrepreneurship, and commerce, journalism, historical geography, epistolography, palaeography and, of course, philately. As the focus is on historical research rather than philately, most of the delegates at the Congress were from universities or other academic institutions in Europe and further afield. Many of the presenters do not have a collecting background but it was striking to see how much of their work overlaps with studies undertaken by postal historians in the collecting world. Thirty presentations were given covering a vast range of subjects spread over three millennia. They were: First Day: ◊ Mario Infelise, Ca’ Foscari University in Venice: ‘Postal History and Media History, Examples and Considerations’. ◊ Linda McGuire, independent Researcher: ‘Profile of an ancient letter-carrier: evidence from the late Roman Republic’. ◊ Robert Abensur, Académie de Philatélie de Paris: ‘How an envelope from 1615 for an ambassador becomes part of postal history’. [Concerned a letter sent to M. Renon Le Bailly, Ambassador from the Spanish Netherlands to France]. ◊ Sylvie Crogiez-Pétrequin, University of Tours: ‘Geography and economy of the cursus publicus’. ◊ José Araneda Riquelme, Rome University Tre: ‘Overseas secrets. Analysing the epistolary communications between colonial Chile and the Spanish Crown (1598-1670)’. ◊ Diane DeBlois & Robert Dalton Harris, editors ‘Postal History Journal’: ‘Denizens of Pseudo-Post spanning the history of the US Post Office’. ◊ Silvio Antonio Pellico, independent Researcher: ‘Postal Market: Goods coming through the Post’. ◊ Stephan Sander-Faes, University of Bergen, ‘’Cold War Greetings’: A Central Europe collection of c40,000 postcards’. Second Day: ◊ Alessia Ceccarelli, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome: ‘From the Roman Curia to the Nunciature in Madrid. The maritime postal route managed by Geronimo and Filippo Spinola, Postmaster Generals of Genoa and ‘messengers of the popes’ (1645-1658)’. ◊ Juraj Kittler, St Lawrence University NY: ‘From Alexandria to Cairo and Damascus: Venetian Merchants and their experience with the Mamluk Posts in Egypt in the early 1400s’. Delegates at the Prato Congress, June 2024