Europe early pre-stamp postal history collection of 40 entire folded letters, mostly of the 15th to 17th centuries with only three in the early 1700s of the 18th century, all are meticulously written up on pages explaining the various markings and ratings on the covers which are often difficult for the uninitiated to decipher, there are eight covers of the various Venetian posts, the earliest being a 1401 letter from Venice to Beirut, the latest being 1574 from Padua to Venice with "Subito/Subito" marking meaning quick or hurry up, this is similar but less common than "Cito/Cito" which is found on another, a third has three "Cito"s, others show the way prepayment is marked with crossed lines and an abbreviation for "pagato per tutto" meaning paid for everything, a couple include a symbol that looks like a whip implying to be carried by horse, there are a couple 1563 to 1616 letters carried by the Thurn and Taxis post that are Imperial in nature of Ferdinand I and his court, another 27 covers are of the French post of the 1600s or early 1700s, most show different routes and rates and are before town postmarks were placed on at the point of origin, but there are six covers with handstamped markings which are very scarce in this early period including a 1695 "DE VALENCE", 1695 Bishop receiving mark, 1699 "DE.S.MALO" and 1700 cover from Marseilles with "DE PROVINCE" h.s., the latest cover is a 1717 cover of Paris with circular Crown and Fluer-di-lis indicating Port Paye, condition is very presentable and fine-very fine for letters that are as much as 600 years old; a very interesting and well written up collection of early mail transit in Europe.

Est. $1,500-2,000