Italy’s first postage stamps

Kingdom of Sardinia adopts pre-paid labels for letters

Italy's equivalent of the 'Penny Black' -
the 1850 Cinque Centesimi stamp

The first postage stamps to be used in Italy were issued by the Kingdom of Sardinia on this day in 1850.

It followed proposals drawn up by the statesman Count Camillo Cavour, whose various positions in the Sardinian government at the time included Minister of Commerce, to reform the postal service.

Following the example of other European states, Cavour suggested that these pre-paid labels, which became known as francobolli as the Italian language acquired a new word, would make for a fairer system for delivering mail.

Before stamps were invented, the cost of posting a letter was demanded of the recipient rather than the sender. The cost depended on distance and the number of sheets.

But the charges were inconsistent and confusing and people often refused to pay, leaving letters undelivered, or delivery workers were delayed in their rounds s they negotiated payment at the door. It discouraged ordinary people from sending mail.

The idea of the postage stamp came from Sir Rowland Hill, a British reformer, in 1837. He proposed that the sender pay a simple, low, uniform rate. The postage stamp would be issued as proof of payment.

As a result, the Penny Black - the first postage stamp in history - came into being in 1840.

Following Sardinia, other Italian states followed suit, with stamps issued in Tuscany from April 1851, the Papal States (January 1852), Modena (June 1852), Parma (June 1852), the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Naples - January 1858; Sicily - January 1859), and Romagna (September 1859).

The first Sardinian stamps, which carried an embossed profile picture of King Victor Emmanuel II, had values from five centesimi to 40 centesimi. Like the British Penny Black, the five centesimi Sardinian stamp was also black.

The Kingdom of Sardinia, ruled by the Savoy family, at the time included what are today the Piemonte, Ligure and Valle d’Aosta regions, as well as the island of Sardinia. The Savoys were based in Turin and the early stamps were printed on the Turin presses of printer Francesco Matraire.

The Marzocco - the Lion of
Florence - on a Tuscan stamp

The stamps of the Duchy of Tuscany, featured the Lion of Florence - the Marzocco - while the Papal States displayed the Papal coat of arms.

Sardinia, who had the idea for pre-paid postage some years before stamps when they printed pre-paid letter sheets, continued to print stamps after the unification of Italy in 1860, when stamps issued by other states and territories in the peninsula were withdrawn.

Italy joined the Universal Postal Union in 1875. Stamps at first displayed the profile of the monarch but a change came in April 1910 when a series of commemorative stamps was issued to mark the 50th anniversary of Giuseppe Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand.

Italy broke new ground again in 1917 by issuing the first airmail stamp. Poste italiane overprinted their existing special delivery stamps to mark an experimental airmail flight between Turin and Rome.

The magnificent Basilica of Superga stands on
a hill overlooking the Savoy capital, Turin

Travel tip:

By 1850, Turin had become the nerve centre of the Kingdom of Sardinia, the state ruled by the House of Savoy that would soon lead the unification of Italy. Although the kingdom’s name referenced the island of Sardinia, the real power base was always Piemonte, and Turin was its capital and administrative engine. The House of Savoy had ruled the region since the Middle Ages, gradually expanding from their Alpine homeland. Turin was the dynastic capital, filled with palaces, military academies, and administrative buildings that expressed Savoy authority. The city housed the royal court, the ministries, and the bureaucracy that contemporary observers described as unusually efficient and ambitious compared to other Italian states. Architecturally, the city still reflected the Baroque redesign initiated when it became the Savoy capital in the 1500s: straight avenues, monumental squares, and grand palaces intended to project dynastic prestige. Some say its architecture and layout made it feel more French than Italian. Two of the most striking reminders of the Baroque age are the Palazzo Reale, the Royal Palace of Turin, which was once the Savoys’ principal royal residence and is now a major museum, and the majestic Basilica of Superga, which Filippo Juvara built on a hill overlooking the city.

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A copy of Donatello's Marzocco
in Florence's Piazza della Signoria

Travel tip:

The Marzocco, which appeared on the first stamps issued by the Duchy of Tuscany, is the heraldic lion of Florence, the city’s secular symbol and one of its oldest civic emblems. It is said to represent strength, justice, independence, and republican liberty. The city adopted the lion as its totemic animal for a number of reasons, one legend being that the lion was chosen because it could “tear apart the eagle” - the symbol of the Holy Roman Empire. The origin of the name is uncertain, possibly deriving from Mars, the ancient pagan protector of Florence, or from St Mark, whose symbol is also a lion. The best‑known version of the Marzocco in art is Donatello’s Marzocco, sculpted between 1418 and 1420 in fine Tuscan sandstone. The sculpture, which shows a seated lion with one paw resting on the Florentine lily shield, originally stood in Piazza della Signoria from 1812 until it was moved to the Bargello Museum in 1885 and replaced by a replica. The lion’s symbolic power was so strong that Florentine soldiers were sometimes called marzoccheschi – “sons of the Marzocco”.