The Court of Cassation offers no protection to the count, who has been downgraded to ‘noble’ in the Golden Book

He had been listed in the Golden Book simply as a ‘noble’ rather than as a ‘count’. This was an affront to his honour and a denial of the family’s historical origins, so serious as to suggest defamation in the press. The downgraded claimant has thus gone through three levels of jurisdiction to seek the correction of this unforgivable error in all editions of the ‘Golden Book of the Nobility’.

The Court of Cassation, however, does not view the vulnus as being so serious. And, patiently, it explains that in Italia titles of nobility are not protected by the courts. Except for those acquired before 28 October 1922, the date of the March on Rome, and only with regard to the limited protection afforded to the predicate ‘cognomizzato’. That is, the addition to one’s surname of a noble predicate linked to a fief or estate, without the recognition of any privileges or titles. However, the aggrieved appellant does not meet the conditions required for such ‘surname adoption’.

The Supreme Court is not swayed by the accounts in the Archdiocese’s archives, which recount the investiture of an ancestor by Archbishop Federico Visconti, who held office from 1254 to 1277, by means of the ring, a symbol of loyalty and feudal bond. Unmoved by tales of knights and paladins, the judges of the Court of Cassation remain firmly anchored to the Constitution, which enshrined the legal abolition of noble titles – with effect from 1 January 1948 – understood as privileges deriving from birth or social class. Except for the right to retain the name in the case of titles conferred before 28 October 1922. However, for ‘Libro d’oro’ Srl, which relies solely on two sources – the Register of the Heraldic Council and the Official Lists of the Nobility – there was no evidence of an older title.