The International Association of Philatelic Journalists (AIJP) has released an eight-page brochure outlining the Heinrich Köhler & AIJP Summit on Philatelic Literature and the Auction of Tomas Bjäringer’s PARIS Library of Philatelic Literature. The four-day event will be held in Wiesbaden, with the Summit taking place on 13–14 November, followed by the auction on 15–16 November.
The summit will feature 20 distinguished speakers, each delivering a 30-minute presentation on topics related to philatelic literature. The presentations will be given in English or German, with translation support available.
On 14 November, following the conclusion of the summit, the AIJP will hold its Annual Congress, which will include the election of the successor of Wolfgang Maassen, who has led the association for the past 20 years.
The auction catalogue—a valuable reference in itself—will include detailed descriptions of 1,300 from Bjäringer’s collection and will be available in late August from Heinrich Köhler.
Postal Intelligence connects and situates histories of the post and government intelligence alongside print technology and state power in the wider context of the early modern communications revolution. In the sixteenth century, postal services became central to domestic governance and foreign policy enterprises, extended government reach and surveillance, and offered new control over the public sphere.
Rachel Midura focuses on the Tassis family, members of which served as official postmasters to the dukes of Milan, the pope, Spanish kings, and Holy Roman emperors. Using administrative records and family correspondence, she follows the Tassis family, their agents, and their rivals as their influence expanded from northern Italy across Europe. Postal Intelligence shows how postmasters and postmistresses were key players in early modern diplomacy, commerce, and journalism, whose ultimate success depended on both administrative ingenuity and strategic ambiguity.
For as long as people have been communicating through writing, they have found ways to keep their messages private. Before the invention of the gummed envelope in 1830, securing correspondence involved letterlocking, an ingenious process of folding a flat sheet of paper to become its own envelope, often using a combination of folds, tucks, slits, or adhesives such as sealing wax. Letter writers from Erasmus to Catherine de’ Medici to Emily Dickinson employed these techniques, which Jana Dambrogio, the MIT Libraries’ Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, has named “letterlocking.”
Published by MIT Press, the 528-page book contains more than 300 images and diagrams, and explores the practice’s history through real examples from all over the world. It includes a dictionary of 60 technical terms and concepts, systems the authors developed while studying more than 250,000 historic letters.
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https://fepanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/letterlocking-800.jpg800800Costas Chazapishttps://fepanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/fepanews_logo-107x138-1.pngCostas Chazapis2025-08-02 10:43:442025-08-02 10:43:44Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter
Heinrich Köhler & AIJP Summit on Philatelic Literature
The International Association of Philatelic Journalists (AIJP) has released an eight-page brochure outlining the Heinrich Köhler & AIJP Summit on Philatelic Literature and the Auction of Tomas Bjäringer’s PARIS Library of Philatelic Literature. The four-day event will be held in Wiesbaden, with the Summit taking place on 13–14 November, followed by the auction on 15–16 November.
The summit will feature 20 distinguished speakers, each delivering a 30-minute presentation on topics related to philatelic literature. The presentations will be given in English or German, with translation support available.
On 14 November, following the conclusion of the summit, the AIJP will hold its Annual Congress, which will include the election of the successor of Wolfgang Maassen, who has led the association for the past 20 years.
The auction catalogue—a valuable reference in itself—will include detailed descriptions of 1,300 from Bjäringer’s collection and will be available in late August from Heinrich Köhler.
Read or download the programme here:
https://fepanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Koehler_aijp.pdf
…
Postal Intelligence
Postal Intelligence connects and situates histories of the post and government intelligence alongside print technology and state power in the wider context of the early modern communications revolution. In the sixteenth century, postal services became central to domestic governance and foreign policy enterprises, extended government reach and surveillance, and offered new control over the public sphere.
Rachel Midura focuses on the Tassis family, members of which served as official postmasters to the dukes of Milan, the pope, Spanish kings, and Holy Roman emperors. Using administrative records and family correspondence, she follows the Tassis family, their agents, and their rivals as their influence expanded from northern Italy across Europe. Postal Intelligence shows how postmasters and postmistresses were key players in early modern diplomacy, commerce, and journalism, whose ultimate success depended on both administrative ingenuity and strategic ambiguity.
The book is available from the publisher, Cornell University Press.
…
Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter
For as long as people have been communicating through writing, they have found ways to keep their messages private. Before the invention of the gummed envelope in 1830, securing correspondence involved letterlocking, an ingenious process of folding a flat sheet of paper to become its own envelope, often using a combination of folds, tucks, slits, or adhesives such as sealing wax. Letter writers from Erasmus to Catherine de’ Medici to Emily Dickinson employed these techniques, which Jana Dambrogio, the MIT Libraries’ Thomas F. Peterson (1957) Conservator, has named “letterlocking.”
Published by MIT Press, the 528-page book contains more than 300 images and diagrams, and explores the practice’s history through real examples from all over the world. It includes a dictionary of 60 technical terms and concepts, systems the authors developed while studying more than 250,000 historic letters.
…