Virgil

These stamps page showing ancient scenes are related in some way to Publius Vergilius Maro, better known as Virgil. He was from Ancient Rome, from what is now Mantua, Italy. He lived from 70 to 19 b.c.e. and was a famous writer, a poet of his time – and still famous, although I’ve never read anything he wrote. One of his best works, written in Latin, was the Aeneid. It’s an epic poem about the legendary Aeneas, a Trojan who left Troy when it fell and went to Rome. He was the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.

There are a few standard postage stamps, but there are also a couple of semi-postal stamps and some air mail stamps, two of which are semi-post air mail stamps. All of these stamps depict scenes from the Aenid. The semi-postal and semi-postal air mail stamps cost more than the normal price to raise funds for the restoration of Virgil monuments around the country – which was a big thing the Fascists like to do, restore and herald key places and figures of the old empire. This also seemed to have been a common thing for the Italian post office, to raise money for something or other.

Note

This page is complete. It’s kind of nice having finished pages after the struggle to figure out which stamps I need and have, designing the album pages, and putting together the data and all. My Italian colonies album is looking good and coming together nicely.

Contains 17 spots: own 17 – 17 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 4, 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

Virgil

1.1	✓	179	Helenus greets Aeneas	15c (dec 1930) comm., violet black
1.2	✓	180	Aeneas’ Mandate to Govern	20c (dec 1930) comm., brownish orange
1.3	✓	181	Aeneas Lands on Tiber	25c (dec 1930) comm., green
2.1	✓	182	Greetings to Italia	30c (dec 1930) comm., dark brown
2.2	✓	183	The Wealth of Farmers	50c (dec 1930) comm., violet
2.3	✓	184	The Family	75c (dec 1930) comm., carmine
3.1	✓	185	Anchises approaches Italy	1.25₤ (dec 1930) comm., greyish blue
3.2	✓	186	Pastoral Life	5+1.50₤ (dec 1930) semi-postal, dark lilac
3.3	✓	187	Turn Encourages Men	10+2.50₤ (dec 1930) semi-postal, brown

Parmeggiani Design

4.1	✓	195	Vittorio Emanuele III	7½c (jul 1931) definitive, brown
4.2	✓	196	Vittorio Emanuele III	20c (jul 1931) definitive, blue & carmine
4.3	✓	197	Vittorio Emanuele III	30c (jul 1931) definitive, lilac & olive green
4.4	✓	198	Vittorio Emanuele III	40c (jul 1931) definitive, green blue
5.1	✓	199	Vittorio Emanuele III	50c (may 1931) definitive, brown & olive
5.2	✓	200	Vittorio Emanuele III	75c (may 1931) definitive, carmine pink
5.3	✓	201	Vittorio Emanuele III	1.25₤ (jul 1931) definitive, violet & dark blue
5.4	✓	202	Vittorio Emanuele III	2.50₤ (jul 1931) definitive, green & olive

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.