Istituto di studi storici postali “Aldo Cecchi”
Postal history takes as its subject the exploration of a distinctive mode of organized communications, with a focus on its material dimension.
This approach to the history of communications is new and promising. It connects several different modes of inquiry that are often considered in isolation. These include social history; cultural history; diplomatic history; the history of management, entrepreneurship, and commerce; the history of journalism; historical geography; epistolography; paleography; and philately.
Since 1982 the Istituto di Studi Storici Postali “Aldo Cecchi” in Prato (Tuscany, Italy) has been an international center for research in postal history.
The Institute is committed to the preservation, increase, and sharing of knowledge on postal-historical topics through publications, workshops, courses, exhibitions, and other related projects that promote our core goals.
We are especially interested in encouraging the sustained involvement of universities in postal history research, and in proposing new lines of research to postal history collectors.
Postal History between Multidisciplinary and Diachronic Glances
3rd International Congress organized by the Institute,Prato, Italy, June 20-22, 2024
Postal history is a mature discipline, having its own instruments thanks to some important research centres in Italy, Europe and United States (including our Institute), and studying what we have shown above with a fruitful approach, using different disciplines and instruments, and offering a wide array of perspectives.
Post leads a central role in society – its wide and different interests make postal history a clearly multidisciplinary research field.
For this reason, the title of this congress considers all aspects of postal history multidisciplinarity, from classical antiquity to the present days, and allows us to examine all subjects connected with postal history, regardless of chronology and geography.
Previous edition (2022)
Since 1982 the Istituto di Studi Storici Postali “Aldo Cecchi” in Prato
has been an international center for research in postal history.
The Institute is located in the medieval Palazzo Datini, which houses the letters of Francesco Datini (1335-1410),
the celebrated early modern Italian business leader who is known as the “merchant of Prato.”
Latest publications
