Book on Simon Taxis Receives Major Italian Philatelic Journalist Award

Italy's Philatelic Journalists Guild has awarded the book Simon Taxis and the Posts of the State of Milan During the Renaissance by Giorgio Migliavacca and Tarcisio Bottani the prestigious "Fulvio Apollonio Prize" for the best postal history book published in 2008 according to a report on the BVI News website.

Last August the book won a gold medal in Pittsburgh at the APS Stampshow.

According to the article, Dr. Migliavacca is quoted as saying, "Italy has her own Rowland Hill: he is Simon Taxis the creator of an unprecedented postal speed that remained unchallenged until the advent of the train over 300 hundred years later. Simon Taxis was instrumental in modernizing the European posts in the 1500s and making them accessible for the first time to the general public. In turn this led to the creation of a state monopoly of the postal service."

Dr. Migliavacca is the president of the British Virgin Islands Philatelic Society. His book was published last year by the by the Taxis Museum at Cornello, Bergamo, Italy.

Shown above, Professor Tarcisio Bottani (left) and Dr. Giorgio Migliavacca receiving the Apollonio Prize from the President of the Philatelic Journalists Guild, Mr. Danilo Bogoni (far right)

To read the entire article, click here.