COL49 - Chap 2: Strip Botticelli, leprechaun's, etc.

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Wow, that's a great find, Janos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postage_stamps_and_postal_history_of_Germany

Metzger Post

The Metzger Post is credited to be perhaps the first international post of the Middle Ages[1] The guild of butchers (German: Metzger) organized courier mail services with horses; when the mail arrived they used a horn to announce it and thus created a commonly recognized emblem for postal services. The Metzger Post was established in the twelfth century and survived until 1637, when Thurn and Taxis's monopoly took over.[1]

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/86433/Butcher-Post

LK

-----Original Message-----
>From: János Székely <miksaapja at gmail.com>
>Sent: May 14, 2009 4:30 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: COL49 - Chap 2: Strip Botticelli, leprechaun's, etc.
>
>He's the portal to the new world Oedipa's about to enter, guarding the
>hidden treasure therein.
>
>Or the precursor of the Tristero System as a world-organizing principle.
>Metzgerpost was an obscure real-life alternative and (erased possible)
>competition for the Thurn und Taxis-dominated imperial postal service.
>
>See this, e.g.
>http://www.sammlerstube.net/aliashistorisches/83-die-metzgerpost-in-wuerttemberg.html