Aby Warburg and the postage stamp. From a collector's passion to a visual theory

Based on the analysis of numerous unpublished sources (letters and lecture notes), the article first outlines the genesis and scope of Aby Warburg's passion for stamps. In fact, philately, along with antiquity, was one of Warburg's interests that occupied him for the longest period of his life and was an essential part of his visual socialization. The main section of the article deals with the visual culture of philately as well as its classification systems, which were an important starting point for Warburg's scientific thought. Finally, it deals with his stamp lecture from 1927 and its pictorial didactics. The focus here is on Warburg's typical bi-polar patterns of interpretation as well as questions about his theory of images, which can be understood much better in the example of the iconology of the postage stamp than in his other projects.