1. Camillo Golgi and his Nobel Prize in philately Plinio RICHELMI 1, Paolo ANGELINI 2, Roberto PIZZALA 3, Giovanna RUBERTO 1 and Paolo MAZZARELLO 3 1 Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Therapy, University of Pavia, Italy. 2 http://www.filateliaefrancobolli.it/ 3 Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Pavia, Italy Thematic stamps A thematic collection develops a theme following a plan, which defines the structure of the collection, as well its subsets and covers all principal aspects connected to the title. Plan and development represent two aspects of an interconnected process, based on the studies and personal research of the collector, related both to the theme and the material. Intra-erythrocytic forms of Plasmodium We are urged, however, to make a reflection about the philatelic policy of the Italian postal service. It is sad to note that very few Italian issues are dedicated to distinguished Italian scientist and issues representing foreign researchers are even more scarce. Most countries, instead, are more prone to represent scientific themes and most often celebrate illustrious persons who gave their contribute to the whole humanity. It to stress out, moreover, that although Italian series number is huge, most of issued stamps are neither aesthetically noteworthy, nor printed with state of the art methods, giving privilege to economicity and speed of realization, in spite of quality of graphics. plinio@botta.unipv.it 1962 - Cuba - Scott #757 It is only in 1962, that the first stamp commemorating the achievements of Golgi was issued by Cuba. The red Cuban stamp depicts the intra-erythrocytic forms of Plasmodium, showing that malarial paroxysms coincide with the release of parasites from red cells. Golgi’s corpuscles Under this aspect, it is of much interest the discovery, unknown by most philatelic enthusiasts, of the special cancel issued by the University of Pavia in 1973 to celebrate the Black Reaction centennial. This special cancel is enriched for erinnophil collectors (private sketches with no postal value printed to celebrate particular events) by the label which, besides nervous cells, shows also Golgi’s corpuscles. The envelope represents the Golgi classroom in the Institute of General Pathology Nobel stamps collection The great majority of the 200 Countries of the UPU (Universal Postal Union) issued several series to celebrate illustrious researchers who were Nobel laureate. Therefore, more than a thousand stamps representing Nobel laureates exist. Italy as well, during several decades, issued stamps to represent its own Nobel laureates: Luigi Pirandello, Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Guglielmo Marconi, Grazia Deledda, Salvatore Quasimodo, Giulio Natta, Eugenio Montale, Giosuè Carducci, Enrico Fermi and Camillo Golgi. 1966 - Sweden - Scott #711 Black Reaction It is only in 1994 that Italy issued the stamp “Portrait of Camillo Golgi and cerebral cells”. This stamp is interesting, since it represents one of the major scientific achievements of Camillo Golgi, the black reaction, i.e. the histological technique that allowed Golgi to describe the structure of cells in the nervous system. This is, however the only Italian stamp dedicated to Camillo Golgi. 1994 - Italy - Scott #1976 1973 – Italy - Special Cancel Golgi in World Wide stamps More recently, Togo issued “100° Nobel Prize Laureates” in 1995, Dominica issued “Nobel Prize Laureates” in 1997, finally Buthan issued “100 Years of Modern Medical Discoveries” in 2000. It is to stress out, however, that it was not Italy, i.e. Golgi’s country, to issue the first stamp dedicated to Camillo Golgi stamp. In fact stamps featuring the 1906 Nobel Laureate were issued by Sweden in 40 øre value in 1966 and Comore Islands in 1977. 1977 - Comore Islands - Scott #A5 1995 - Togo - Scott #A361 1997 - Dominica - Scott #2003 2000 - Buthan - Scott #A171 The Golgi apparatus The other major finding by Camillo Golgi, the discovery of the Golgi apparatus in mammalian cells was never featured in any stamp. This is going to be represented this year in a Special Cancel issued at Pavia for the commemorations of the Golgi Nobel prize centennial in September 19, 2006. Special Cancel by Maurizio Misinato Acknowledgements: We thank Mr. Maurizio Misinato for the Special Cancel, Alessandro Zeni for philatelic research and filateliaefrancobolli.it Forum for bibliographic and iconographic support.