Rachel Midura, Masters of the Post: Northern Italy and European Communications Networks, 1530-1730
The committee for the Alan Reinerman Prize for Best Unpublished Manuscript has, with great enthusiasm and admiration, chosen Rachel Midura’s, Masters of the Post: Northern Italy and European Communications Networks, 1530-1730 for the 2021 award. The thesis rests on impressive archival and primary sources research, especially the geographically dispersed archives of the Tasso/Tassis/Taxis family (originally from Camerata Cornello, near Bergamo, which is now home to the Tasso Postal Museum), printed postal itineraries, and postal monopolies and networks in different parts of Italy, Spain, and Central Europe. Professor Midura combines this research with a wide ranging and comparative reading of secondary sources to craft a sophisticated, compelling, and original look at the development of postal and communication networks, and their implications for state formation and the development of bureaucracy in early modern Italy and Europe. The committee was deeply impressed by the scholarly dept and range of the thesis, its look at the spatial dimensions of postal networks, and its efforts to contextualize developments in Lombardy, the Papal States, and the Venetian Republic in light of the communications revolution throughout western Europe. It is impressive, mature scholarship and we look forward to the book that will emerge from this manuscript.