Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli

 

The new issue by Italian post represents a regular stamp in the “Il patrimonio artistico e culturale italiano” (Italian Artistic and Cultural Heritage) series dedicated to the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli.

The stamp depicts an aerial view of the Sacred Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli, nestling in the delightful forests of the Apennines between Tuscany and Romagna.

 

The Holy Hermitage and Monastery of Camaldoli is situated in an ancient forest in the Tuscan Apennines. It was founded about 1012 by Saint Romuald, a Benedictine monk, with the permission of Tedald, Bishop of Arezzo. In the monastery of Camaldoli there is a welcoming room, a great hall, and an old style pharmacy. The pharmacy was originally a laboratory where monks studied and worked with medicinal herbs. The precious walnut decor dates back to 1543. The church, meanwhile, was constructed in the Baroque style and contains works by Giorgio Vasari. It was established to deal with the ever-growing number of pilgrims – drawn by good reports of the monks, and for reflection in the middle of the forest.

A few kilometers farther up the mountain is the “Sacred Hermitage”, or Sacro Eremo which is the more ancient part of the foundation. It was personally established by St. Romuald and has served as the heart of both the community and the order, which bears the location’s name.

Club News

Stamp Exhibition in Germany on  “ Nature and Culture ”

From September 13th to September 15th 2013  a philatelic exhibition will be held in the community  Oepfershausen,Germany. Oepfershausen is situated in the rural region of the Nature Reserve Rhön.

The title of the exhibition is "Nature and Culture "  honoring the 20th anniversary  of the Culture Station at Oepfershausen. The exhibition will be held in cooperation between the Philatelic Collector Group Meaning(BSV),

The Staff of  the Nature Reserve Rhön and the community of Oepfershausen with participation of the German  Philatelic Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE. 24 exhibitors from Germany and Italy will be shown 26 exhibits in 45 frames. Two groups of philatelic friends of the Philatelic Collector Group Meiningen from Italy and Poland will be visiting exhibition as guests of the BSV Meiningen.

List of exhibits :

Matthias Reichel/Günter Wölfing(BSV Meiningen) " Viewcards of Oepfershausen" -3 frames, Kurt Gronwald(ARGE ZOOLOGIE) -" Sea cows-the friendly unknown animals"- 1 frame,Wolfgang Beyer(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)- A trip in the land of the birds of paradise"- 1 frame, Ekkehardt Peter(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-" European Butterflies on European Stamps"- 3 frames,Lothar Brehme(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-"Rare animals of the Nature Reserve Spreewald"-1 frame, Axel Brockmann(ARGE ZOOLOGIE)-" Pelican-the bird with the big mouth"-1 frame, Jürgen Holzhausen(BSV Meiningen)-"Sandpipers in the Nature Reserve Rhön"-3 frames, G.Schalling(BSV Suhl) " A trip through  the forests and fields" - 3 frames. Heinrich Simmerle(Italy)-" The vine grape and the wine"-1 frame,Maria Egger(Italy)-"The queen of flowers"-1 frame, Dieter Schellenberger(BSV Suhl)-" Orchids of the Nature Reserve Rhön"-1 frame, Anne Brandt(BSV Meiningen-Youth) -" A excerpt of the world of plants in the Nature Reserve Rhön"-3 frames.
Three special pictorial cancellation will be available with Common Snipe, Lady Orchid and 20 years of Culture Station.

Special covers with a cachet of a Ghoat will be delivered during the exhibition from the Culture Station to the post office at the exhibition by a Ghoat. The exhibition will be  interesting and attractive event and congratulations to the Philatelic Collector Group BSV Meiningen for this exhibition.

Copyright and Courtesy : Wolfgang Beyer,Vice Chairman of the German Philatelic Collector Group ARGE ZOOLOGIE, Mail: Wolfgang.beyer1@aol.de

 

Chasing the telegraph

Parth Shastri, TNN | Jul 21, 2013, 03.53 AM IST

AHMEDABAD: HG Wells famously said in the19th century that the cardinal fact in the history of the past fifty centuries has been the scope, pace and precision of inter-communication; everything else is subordinate. Nothing can be truer for the history of the telegraph in India. Started in 1851, the service breathed its last in the country one week ago.

While the SMS generation may be oblivious to how telegraphs shaped the world, right from India's sepoy mutiny in 1857 to World War II which ended in 1945, two philatelists from the city - DhananjayDesai and Ilyas Patel - were intrigued by the service's history. They compiled an encyclopaedic work 'Indian Telegraphs', meticulously tracing individual anecdotes and putting them together in a masterful book.

Desai is a retired businessman and Patel a retired government engineer. Their common passion for stamps and postal paraphernalia led them to telegraph. The book traces the journey of the service from 1851 to 1914 documenting its development into an individual service. The service later merged with the postal department.
"Diving into any hobby opens up many related subjects. The telegraph is hardwired in the history of the country. The British saw the opportunity this 'new' technology offered as an instrument to control a vast country with fewer officers. During the revolt of 1857, the telegraph helped the British mobilize and concentrate troops at crucial times at cantonments in Delhi, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow, ultimately suppressing the revolt. On later realizing that the first wired network had done them in, the rebels destroyed 913 miles of telegraph lines, but the damage was done," says Desai.

India's first experiment with an electric telegram took place in 1839 (see box) after which the service developed in leaps and bounds. Lord Dalhousie paved the way for the Imperial Telegraph Department in 1850. A year later, British India's first telegraph line and office was opened in October 1851, between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour along the busy shipping route on the Hooghly. By March 1854, there were 800 miles of telegraph lines between Calcutta and Agra and this was further connected to Bombay and Madras. Overseas telegraph communication was made possible in 1865 by running cables along the seabed.

Patel says it is difficult to imagine how instrumental these short messages were in shaping the commercial and military history of India. "We searched through 'The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce' and its successor 'The Times of India' for references and found plenty. The service romanced India for more than 160 years and set a number of landmarks in terms of the network, volume and services. It was heartening to see that the service did not die silently thanks to overwhelming public interest," he says.

From Our Readers…

Vipan Kumar Thakur of Chandigarh shares here Picture Postcard depicting a copy of Telegram Sent by Mahatma Gandhi to Tagore on his 80th Birthday.

: Vipan Kumat Thankur – Chandigarh -email : philavpnthakur@rediffmail.com