page_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Italy
section_title: Pre-unification
hierarchical_section_title: Postage stamps and postal history of Italy / Pre-unification
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Первая почтовая марка Сардинского королевства
context_page_description: This is an introduction to the postal and philatelic history of Italy.
  As Italy was not unified until 1861, its early postal history is tied to the various kingdoms and smaller realms that ruled in the peninsula.
context_section_description: The Cavallini ("little horses") of Sardinia was an early private mail service, notable for the introduction of prepaid stamped lettersheets in 1819.
  The first postage stamps in Italy were also issued by the Sardinian kingdom. In 1850, Count Camillo Cavour drafted a report to the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia proposing postal reform along the lines of that which had been adopted in several European states, and providing for the introduction of postage stamps, for which a new word - francobollo - was coined. The reform became law in November, and went into effect 1 January 1851.
  After some casting around for expertise in the newfangled art of stamp printing, the government settled on the house of Francesco Matraire in Turin. Postage stamps of the Sardinian kingdom with the embossed profile of Victor Emmanuel II without indicating the name of the state were printed by Matraire and issued on January 1, 1851.
  Following Sardinia, other Italian states also issued stamps. These include Tuscany (April 1851), the Papal States (January 1852), Modena (June 1852), Parma (June 1852), Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples - January 1858; Sicily - January 1859), Romagna (September 1859) . In the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom under the Austrian Empire, stamps were also issued with denominations in the local currency.
caption: Stamp of the Kingdom of Sardinia, 1851
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