Postal Intelligence - by Rachel Midura (Paperback)

About the Book

"Families from around Bergamo, Italy, became official postmasters as well as intelligence agents for the Duke of Milan, the Pope, Habsburg Spanish kings, and Holy Roman emperors. This book follows the Tassis family, their collaborators, and their rivals in post offices across Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Postal Intelligence connects and situates histories of the post and government intelligence alongside print technology and state power in the wider context of the early modern communications revolution. In the sixteenth century, postal services became central to domestic governance and foreign policy enterprises, extended government reach and surveillance, and offered new control over the public sphere.

Rachel Midura focuses on the Tassis family, members of which served as official postmasters to the dukes of Milan, the pope, Spanish kings, and Holy Roman emperors. Using administrative records and family correspondence, she follows the Tassis family, their agents, and their rivals as their influence expanded from northern Italy across Europe. Postal Intelligence shows how postmasters and postmistresses were key players in early modern diplomacy, commerce, and journalism, whose ultimate success depended on both administrative ingenuity and strategic ambiguity.

Review Quotes

This book has many strengths. It is based on significant archival work, especially in Italy but also in Germany and Spain, and deep familiarity with a scholarship that is largely in German and Italian. Its analysis is careful and critical, and there are useful observations sprinkled throughout.

-- "History"

About the Author

Rachel Midura is Assistant Professor of Early Modern European and Digital History at Virginia Tech. She researches the history of intelligence, travel, and statecraft in the information age of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.