Manzoni & Preaching

One of the most famous Italian novels is The Betrothed (i.e., I Promessi Sposi) by Alessandro Manzoni. It’s a classic for Italian: the equivalent of Mark Twain for Americans. Unfortunately, because they had to read it when they were children in school and because of its length – the Penguin Classics paperback is 720 pages – Italians often tell me they hated it. Perhaps they should take it off the required reading list and trust in the writing itself will attrack adult readers. I read it in English when I was about 30 years old. I enjoyed it very much and thought it one of best novels ever.

The stamps on the first two rows on this album page are related to Manzoni and his novel, The Betrothed. The first four show scenes from the novel, including the heroine of the story, Lucia Mondella. The last two show Manzoni’s home and an image of him. Incidentally, there’s a great statue of Manzoni in Milan near where I live.

Preaching

These stamps of Jesus amongst several people were issued in 1923 in Italy. You can see them on the Mazzini & Missions page – there’s an explanation of them there. They’re unusual stamps; I have mixed feelings about them. I don’t like large stamps and I don’t think stamps should depict Jesus, other than in navity scenes on Christmas stamps. They’re kind of nice looking in that they’re colorful and well designed, but the color combinations are disturbing.

Most of all, I don’t like that the Italian post office issued these to be used in Muslim colonies. It’s culturally insensitive. Did they expect these stamps to convert the colonists to Christianity and Catholicism? It’s pointless and probably did no good for Italy and its relations with the colonists. It was a bad idea.

Note

This set of Manzoni stamps are expensive, as with most issues of them for other colonies and for the Italian peninsula. It’s mostly the last one of Manzoni that’s expensive. The others aren’t too bad. But they’re usually sold in a complete set.

Contains 10 spots: own 10 – 10 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 15, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot

own

catalog

subject

description

comment

Alessandro Manzoni

1.1	✓	11	View of Pescarenico	10c (apr 1924) comm., black & carmine
1.2	✓	12	Lecco & Mt. Resegone	15c (apr 1924) comm., green & black
1.3	✓	13	Departure Lucia Mondella	30c (apr 1924) comm., black & slate
2.1	✓	14	Lake Como	50c (apr 1924) comm., orange & black
2.2	✓	15	Manzoni House in Milan	1₤ (apr 1924) comm., blue & black
2.3	✓	16	Alessandro Manzoni	5₤ (apr 1924) comm., violet & black

Missionary Office: 300 Years

3.1	✓	1	Jesus Preaching	20c (oct 1923) comm., olive & orange brown
3.2	✓	2	Jesus Preaching	30c (oct 1923) comm., orange brown & red brown
4.1	✓	3	Jesus Preaching	50c (oct 1923) comm., violet & orange brown
4.2	✓	4	Jesus Preaching	1₤ (oct 1923) comm., blue & orange brown

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.