A number of families still own portions of their traditional feudal holdings, but feudal rights and prerogatives of any kind were finally abrogated by the time that Italy was united in 1870. That is to say that, like an idea, name or copyright, the titles constitute a form of intangible property, but property nonetheless. The principle that the person of a peer was inviolable was not applied in nineteenth-centuruy Italian law, for it did not exist. Titles and Ranks Principe, Principessa. From the Latin princeps, meaning first, this is the highest Italian title of nobility, and also the title accorded members of the royal families.
Some southern princes descend from the most ancient medieval feudatories.
In most cases, the holder of a princely title in Italy is the descendant of forebears who in antiquity were barons or counts, the family having been elevated through the nobiliary ranks over the centuries. The wife of a prince is a princess. Princes and their consorts are most formally addressed verbally by title and territorial designation. The heraldic coronet of a noble prince is a jewelled circlet of gold surmounted by four visible pearls between five visible strawberry leaves. In most representations, the deep red tasselled cap is not rendered within the coronet.