FOCUS ON PHILATELY: Early European mails (08/04/02)

FOCUS ON PHILATELY

by Ingert Kuzych

Early European mails

Life without the mails seems almost inconceivable to us today, but postal services took a long time to evolve. In ancient times, ties between peoples and countries were kept up by couriers, who would transmit messages either verbally or in written form. In the Middle Ages, royalty, universities, and large monasteries all set up their own messenger services. In the 12th and 13th centuries, punctual, dependable and speedy couriers operated between the Italian universities in Bologna, Salerno and Naples, and the French universities of Toulouse and the Sarbonne.

With the growth of towns and cities, urban courier services were set up, especially in the larger cities of Italy and Germany. The couriers, who were run by the town councils, delivered correspondences for the councils and for city inhabitants, and received payments according to a fixed price.

The word "post" ("poshta" in Ukrainian) comes from the Italian "posta" and is a shortened form of "statio posita," which means a place for the changing of horses. The first such specially organized equestrian postal stations were set up in Germany which, for a fixed price, would not only carry correspondence, but occasionally passengers as well.

Sometimes, with the concurrence of town magistrates and merchants, a separate post was set up through a tradesmen's syndicate (guild), as, for example, the butchers' guild in Germany. This so-called Metzger Post functioned until the 17th century.

Beginnings of regular postal service

The first regular postal service was established by the House of Thurn and Taxis in the mid-15th century, but delivery was limited to principalities within the Holy Roman Empire. A further expansion for international mails occurred in 1516 in Bergamo. The mail delivery men were known as coursers, a name given to professional couriers dating back to Roman times (Figure 1).

This postal system was initially limited to royal families and nobility, and often involved the transport of valuable jewels and treasures. Bandits were a constant threat. Nevertheless, the Thurn and Taxis standards were very high and the mail generally went through safely and quickly. Taxis coursers were able to travel from Brussels to Paris in 36 hours in the summer and in 40 hours during the winter.

Over time, mails were accepted from anyone who could pay the fees. At its peak in the 17th and 18th centuries, Thurn and Taxis had more than 20,000 employees and monopolized postal transport from the Baltic Sea southwards to the Straits of Gibraltar. With the rise of national mails in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, the Thurn and Taxis monopoly was steadily reduced, and the family sold its postal rights in 1867.

In addition to mounted couriers, the 17th and 18th centuries also saw the expansion of mail coaches, which carried passengers in addition to the mails. With the passing of time, loud blasts of the post horn became more familiar sounds and would signal passage through a village or the approach of rider or coach at a postal station (Figures 2 and 3). The post horn today remains a symbol for a number of European postal administrations, including Ukraine's (Figure 4).

The Lviv post

In Ukraine, the beginnings of regular postal service in the modern sense began in the late 16th through early 17th centuries in western Ukraine in the city of Lviv. At this time many expatriates from Italy lived in the city, which was then part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Among the Italians were merchants, architects, builders and artists.

Dominico Montellupi, a merchant who is credited with establishing the post in Krakow, began organizing such a service in Lviv in 1625. Improvements and further organization were carried out by another Italian merchant, Roberto Bandinelli. At the beginning of the 17th century he had become a citizen of Lviv and acquired a stone building on city's main square. He was the grandson of the renowned sculptor Bartolomeo Bandinelli, whose masterpieces include the well-known statue of Hercules and Cacus in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence.

In 1629, by edict of Polish King Sigismund III, Bandinelli was accepted into the royal retinue and at the same time acquired the privilege of conducting royal mails to Italy and other foreign cities. At that time the voivode (a provincial administrator, similar to a governor) S. Liubomyrsky and the Polish crown Hetman S. Konetspolsky issued a series of "universals" in which they accepted Bandinelli into their service and protection. These decrees further announced the significance of the new postal service to both the citizenry and the state, that no interference would be tolerated for this important service and that any necessary aid should be provided to Bandinelli.

In consultation with the magistrates of Lviv, Bandinelli proposed to the City Council an organizational plan for the post, the so-called Ordinatio Posthal. This document survives to this day in the city's historical archives. The text includes the statement that: "The postal ministry from Lviv to Lublin, to Warsaw, to Torun, Gdansk and also other countries, and ... from those cities back, is granted to the eminent Roberto Bandinelli." On May 12, 1629, the text of the Ordinatio was entered into the city records.

Mail from the city left once a week on Saturdays; it was sent in two directions. The first route went northwest to the Baltic Sea through Zamostia (Zamosc), Lublin, Warsaw and Torun to Gdansk. The other route went west to Yaroslav, Riashiv (Rzeszow), Tarnow and Krakow. Parcels could be sent out in other directions by special arrangement.

Seventeen couriers were employed, one of whom served as commander. The names of the original group have survived: Symon or Lomyvoda, Bartholomeo Kozel, Jan Mostsinsky, Martin Sokyrnyk, Martin Kapusta, Jan Surovka, Martin Opryshko, Stanislav Volovets, Yakiv Kamensky, Andrii Opryshko or Plakhta, Voitekh Shvets from Bashty, Martin who comes from the Jews, Valentyn the tall, who goes to the Jews, Vorona Sharpanyi, Beniek formerly Tsipak, Jan Volokh from Pidhiria and Hresko Sokyrnyk.

The couriers were formally sworn in, and their duties were clearly spelled out. For example, the courier to and from Warsaw was to return in two weeks. If it was not possible to fulfill this timetable for some reason, he was to inform of his delay in writing. If this was not done, he would be fined 5 hryvni (hrv) and imprisoned. Couriers were not allowed to accept letters on their own. Doing so could entail a fine of up to 8 hrv, imprisonment and the loss of right to serve as a courier (Figure 5).

If a letter was lost, withheld, or delivered with a broken seal, the courser was supposed to explain and apologize to the correspondent. If the mishap occurred through inattention or carelessness, the courier would be severely punished.

Couriers were to take only the prescribed fees from the senders (who were responsible for paying for delivery). These fees depended on the distance the mail was carried and the size of the letter (number of sheets). If some urgent dispatch needed to be sent that could not wait until Saturday, then the postmaster was obligated to arrange for delivery by a separate courier. In this case, however, the citizen was supposed to provide his own courser. In order to prevent any infringement to the established postal service, the courser was not allowed to take any other correspondence en route. If this rule was broken, a severe fine of 30 hrv was levied. Monies accumulated from fines went toward the needs of the post.

Remembering Roberto

History has not only preserved the names of Lviv's first mail carriers, but also the building where Bandinelli lived and from where the post was sent. It is one of the lovelier Renaissance buildings on the Rynok Square complex (today No. 2 Rynok Square, Figure 6).

Although Bandinelli had received the title of "Royal Postmagister" and had invested 1,500 gold crowns (a considerable sum) in this new venture, he apparently had some enemies in the local administration unimpressed with neither his status nor his investment. The City Council decided to circumvent his private initiative and establish its own official post with its own coursers. Not surprisingly, the royal post suffered severe losses. Sometime after 1639 Bandinelli was forced to liquidate his business, and in 1639 he began legal actions against the City Council. These proceedings were dragged on and eventually Bandinelli was accused of all sorts of (apparently trumped-up) charges.

In a way, though, Bandinelli had the last laugh. Even though he may have been unjustly driven from the postal service he founded, he has not been forgotten. Today his former home is still remembered as the place where Ukraine's first regular postal service was established. Local tour guides refer to the domicile as "Budynok Bandinelli" - the Bandinelli Building.

Ingert Kuzych may be contacted at P.O. Box 3, Springfield, VA 22150 or at his e-mail address: [email protected].

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