Libro d'Oro

The Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana (Italian: Golden Book of Italian nobility), once the formal directory of nobles in the Republic of Venice (including the Ionian Islands), is now a privately published directory of the nobility of Italy. The book lists some of Italy's noble families and their cadet branches.

In 1896 the "Golden Book of Italian nobility", was founded, in which members were families who had obtained decrees granting, renewal or confirmation of a title of nobility by the king or royal decrees or ministerial recognition of his noble title. It was intended to avoid abuses and usurpations in the maintenance of existing titles in the pre-unification states and was responsible for keeping a "record of noble titles" in which membership was compulsory for the public use the titles. In 1889 a list of families who had obtained decrees granting or recognition of titles of nobility after the unification of Italy was drawn up, as were 14 regional lists, where families were already recorded in the official lists of states pre-unification.

It was initially an official register kept in the State Central State in Rome compiled by the heraldry consultants of the Kingdom of Italy, a government body established in 1869 at the Ministry of the Interior.

First published in its current form in 1910, it includes some 2,500 families, and may not be considered exhaustive. Included are those listed in the earlier register of the Libro d’Oro della Consulta Araldica del Regno d’Italia and the later Elenchi Ufficiali Nobiliari of 1921 and of 1933.

In 1921 it was approved '"Official list of noble and titled families of the Kingdom of Italy": the list included all family members already in the regional registers, but it marked with an asterisk those who had obtained title by royal or ministerial decree. In 1933 it was approved a second '"Official List of the Italian nobility", to which was attached a list of requirements to establish nobility. Those enrolled in the Italian Official lists of nobility (1921–1933 and SUPL. 1934-36) had three years to provide documentation for inclusion in the Golden Book of 1933, so this is much shorter than the 1921 edition.

Following the Second World War and the decision by a referendum to abolish its monarchy, democratic Italy officially ended its recognition of titles and hereditary honours in its new Constitution, so ceased to maintain the Consulta Araldica, an official government body regulating the nobility which had been a department of the Ministry of the Interior. All titles are now not recognized. Only those families bearing titles before 28 October 1922 (i.e. before the rise to power of Fascism) were permitted to use predicates of such titles as a part of their names. These laws did not apply to the nobility of Rome, insofar as their titles had been created by the Pope, when he was a sovereign head of state (i.e. until 20 September 1870). After a period of uncertainty, the Italian continued to use their titles in the same way as they had in previous centuries. This behaviour was cemented by the continued publication of Il Libro d'Oro della Nobiltà Italiana, published as much to prevent self-styled aristocrats from social climbing as to list the established nobility.

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