BIBLIOPHILATELY: (bibliophilately: gr. biblios, biblion - written sheet of paper, later: a book; fr. philatelie - word used in Poland in older times to denote nowadays; philately)

Usage of stamps and other philately - related items whose content is book-related - in the broadest sense - in order to create a topical philately collection, which covers the history of books, institutions and people who are famous for developing them; it also represents books educational inspirations and their role in the fight against illiteracy and in the propagation of education at schools, as well as knowledge at colleges and universities. The topical collection consists of 13 subtopics:

Jerzy Duda, the Grand Master of the Knightly Bibliophilic Order with Chapter of Rara Avis

1. The book as a stamp's main motive,
2. The beginning and history of manuscript (handwritten texts),
3. The writing, its history, writing materials and tools,
4. The print, printing houses, printers,
5. Libraries, librarians, library founders,
6. Illustrations, bindings, exlibrises,
7. Book's promotion (festivals and exhibitions of books as well as book trading),
8. Book science, bibliophily, people famous for book's development,
9. Books of books (Bible, Koran, Torah),
10. Education and fight against illiteracy,
11. Schools, teachers and great educators and educational organizations,
12. Colleges and universities,
13. The art of contemporary book.

Bibliophilately is symbolized by a cresset i.e. a burning oil lamp, which is an international symbol of the fight against illiteracy.

A short history of book as a motive being present on stamps: In 1977 Leona Rostenberg coined a word bibliately, referring to the collection of book-related stamps. Articles on this subject were published in The American Philatelist magazine. In 1982, George Eberhard created a neologism bibliophilately in order to denote a collection of stamps referring to libraries. This neologism was first used in an article that appeared in the American Libraries. In 2000, Larry T. Nix suggested that a new name for a collection of library-related stamps could be used - Postal Librariana. In 2000, Jerzy Duda presented in Cracow's Jagiellonian Library a collection of book-related stamps and used the word bibliophilatelia for the first time.

The Seal of the Knightly Bibliophilic Order of Cracow

Famous and active philatelists who specialize in the motive of a book on their stamps (year 2004):

• Larry T. Nix - USA
• Zhigang Wang - China
• Ernesto Lopez Arcos - Chile
• Jacqueline Villa - France
• Hans Krol - Netherlands
• Jerzy Duda - Poland

The website www.bibliofilatelia.org.pl was first registered on 18.06.2002 at the Research and Academic Computer Network (NASK) in Warsaw at the request of Mr. Jerzy Duda. The authors of the main website (in five languages) were Mr. Jerzy Duda, Dr Sc. and Mr. Krzysztof Kochański, MSc. In year 2004, the website was extended with news and updates on publications referring to the philatelic collection (in three languages). Since June, 2004, a Chinese language version is also available: www.meruige.com/index-cn.html. In October, 2005 the definition of bibliophilately appeared in the Encyclopedia of Philately, together with a link referring to the website www.filatelistyka.org. Bibliophilately's initial website is still available under the address: www.bibliofilatelia.org.pl/2002.