The Consulta Araldica was a college instituted by royal decree on 10 October 1869 to advise the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 government on noble titles

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

, coats of arms and related matters. It was part of the Ministry of the Interior. As such it combined the roles of the various heraldic

Heraldry

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...

 colleges which had existed in pre-unification Italy, including the Tribunale Araldico of Lombardy

Lombardy

Lombardy is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The capital is Milan. One-sixth of Italy's population lives in Lombardy and about one fifth of Italy's GDP is produced in this region, making it the most populous and richest region in the country and one of the richest in the whole of Europe...

, the Commissione Araldica of Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 and the Congregazione Araldica Capitolina of Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

The Consulta Araldica had to be dissolved following the adoption of the Constitution of the Italian Republic

Constitution of Italy

The Constitution of the Italian Republic was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended 13 times, was promulgated in the extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 298 on 27 December 1947...

 in 1947 and the abolition of state recognition and regulation of noble titles. Although today no governmental official or office can grant noble titles, some of the Consulta Araldica's functions are still performed by the Heraldic Office within the Office of the Prime Minister.

For italian titles please refer to the Consulta Araldica's official directories approved by the Council of Ministers and by Royal Decree – Libro d'Oro

Libro d'Oro

The Libro d'Oro , once the formal directory of nobles in the Republic of Venice, is now a respected, privately-published directory of the nobility of Italy ....

della Nobiltà Italiana The Corpo della Nobiltà Italiana and other nobiliary societies are merely private organisations whose lists of noble families are incomplete.