FEPA Medal for exceptional philatelic study and research – 2008
Mario Mentaschi and Thomas Matha (Italy)
For “Letter mail from and to the Old Italian States 1850-1870”, published by Vaccari in 2008 (320 pages, 717 B&W illustrations in the book, in colour in the accompanying CD).
Their work presents the postal rates and the routes of mail from and to the Old Italian States from 1850 to the introduction of the Sardinian / Italian rates in 1859-1861, with extensions to 1866 (for Austrian-Venetia) and 1870 (for the Papal States) when the conquest of Rome marked the end of the last Old Italian State.
The book is of high significance at international level, as it provides information of interest for all students of postal history of both the Italian area and the many countries that had postal relationships with the Old Italian States.