Corpo della Nobiltà Italiana

The Corpo della nobiltà italiana (English: Body of the Italian Nobility), sometimes indicated with the acronym CNI, is a private association established in 1957 in order to protect heraldic and nobility rights of Italian nobles after the republican constitution (in force since 1948) ended the public recognition and safeguard of nobility titles (including the condition of noble without title).

Italy became a single State only in 1861, when during the Risorgimento the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia – elected for the first time with representatives of all territories already conquered or otherwise annexed – adopted its first law stating: <<The king Victor Emmanuel adopts for himself and his successors the title of King of Italy>>. Sardinian constitution, the so-called Albertine Statute, remained in force for the whole Italy stating that “Nobility titles are maintained to those who have right to them. Thus unified Italy had several Nobility laws, one for each pre-unitarian State: that is why its College of Arms, called Consulta araldica (heraldic council) was organised in several “regional” commissions, each corresponding – more or less – to a pre-unitarian State in order to apply the latter nobility law. A single nobility law started only in 1926 when the female succession, still valid up to then in the former kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Sardinia (only the island of Sardinia), was abolished. Titles could be granted to the eldest male (as in Frankish tradition), to all males (as in Langobard tradition) or to all family members; in all cases, all family members are noble, the condition of “Noble” being the title which pertained to all members of families with or without other titles. Members of family where only the eldest male hold titles are indicated with <<Noble of the [title of the eldest male] (plural)>>: for example, if Mr Rossi is granted with the title Baron of Nothing whose succession is for the eldest male, all his issue will be Mr Antonio Rossi Noble of the Barons of Nothing and Miss Valentina Rossi Noble of the Barons of Nothing, and the same will apply to all of his descent by male line. Official lists of all Italian families and noble people were published in 1921 and 1933.

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Wikipedia