Fascists & Manzoni

Benito Mussolini and his followers, the Fascists or rather the National Fascist Party took control of the Italian Parliament and he thereby became prime minister. This led to goal of expansion of Italy, to include colonies like this one. Because of this, you’ll see plenty of stamps with the fasces symbol – like those on the top two rows here. For more on the fascism and the fasces symbol, see the Black Shirts & Manzoni page in my Kingdom of Italy album.

The Betrothed

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 third and fourth row 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.

Note

I’m missing all but one of the Manzoni stamps on this page. I’m not sure how I acquired the one I have – it was many years ago. Normally, a set of stamps are sold together. It is possible to buy this set without the last one, which is a portrait of the writer, Alessandro Manzoni. It’s that last stamp that’s expensive in the set. The others cost only a few euros, while the last one can cost one to two hundred euros. I’m hoping to find the set at an auction for a lower price, but it may be a while before I complete this page.

Contains 12 spots: own 12 – 12 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed Feb 5, 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

Fascist March on Rome

1.1	✓	49	Fasces	3b (oct 1923) comm., dark green
1.2	✓	50	Fasces	13b (oct 1923) comm., purple
1.3	✓	51	Fasces	20b (oct 1923) comm., red
2.1	✓	52	Eagle & Fasces	30b (oct 1923) comm., blue
2.2	✓	54	Fasces	3r (oct 1923) comm., blue & black
2.3	✓	53	Eagle & Fasces	1r (oct 1923) comm., brownish

Alessandro Manzoni

3.1	✓	55	Pescarenico	6b (apr 1924) comm., black & carmine
3.2	✓	56	Lecco & Mt. Resegone	9b (apr 1924) comm., green & black
3.3	✓	57	Lucia Mondella Departs	13b (apr 1924) comm., black & slate
4.1	✓	58	Lake Como	20b (apr 1924) comm., black & orange brown
4.2	✓	59	House of Alessandro Manzoni	30b (apr 1924) comm., blue & black
4.3	✓	60	Alessandro Manzoni	3r (apr 1924) comm., black & purple

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.