The Badger and Postal History Museum is a civic museum run by the Municipality of Camerata Cornello. The museum is located in the medieval village of Cornello dei Tasso and was founded in 1991.
Cornello was the birthplace of the Tasso family, world-renowned for the literary work of Torquato Tasso and for the entrepreneurial skills of some of its members, who founded and operated the European postal service for centuries.
The museum is divided into six exhibition spaces, each of which develops and deepens the history of the mail and the history of the Tasso family. Here, in fact, are preserved numerous documents related to their activities in the management of postal services and, in general, to the history of information transmission, including a letter from 1840 franked with the world's first postage stamp issued, the famous Penny Black.
The museum tour
The museum tour takes place in three buildings in the village.
BUILDING 1
first hall
The first room, located on the second floor of the building where the reception, library and educational services are located, is dedicated to the area and the relationship with the Tasso family.
BUILDING 2
second, third and fourth rooms
The second room develops Tasso's postal activity in the Peninsula and Europe with an in-depth study of the literary figures Bernard and Torquato Tasso.
The third and fourth rooms deal with a number of themes related to the world of mail, such as travel, the meanings of the signs and symbols found on the overprints and overcovers of letters, epidemics, and disinfection.
BUILDING 3
fifth and sixth rooms
The fifth and sixth rooms recount the changes that have taken place since the nineteenth century in the area of information transmission.
The sixth room also features a section devoted to mail art and collecting in the philatelic field.
At the moment, the museum collection is partially visitable due to the rearrangement following the museum renovations. Part of the museum collection is on display in the museum's first exhibition hall (Building 1, where the entrance and reception space is also located), the other rooms are temporarily closed.
