Editing Count (section)

====Northern Italian states====<!-- This section is linked from [[Giulio Masetti]] -->
The title of ''Conte'' is very prolific on the peninsula. In the eleventh century, ''Conti'' like the Count of Savoy or the Norman Count of Apulia, were virtually sovereign lords of broad territories. Even apparently "lower"-sounding titles, like [[Viscount]], could describe powerful dynasts, such as the [[Visconti of Milan|House of Visconti]] which ruled a major city such as [[Milan]]. The essential title of a feudatory, introduced by the Normans, was ''signore'', modeled on the French ''seigneur'', used with the name of the [[fief]]. By the fourteenth century, ''conte'' and the Imperial title ''barone'' were virtually synonymous.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

Some titles of a count, according to the particulars of the patent, might be inherited by the eldest son of a Count. Younger brothers might be distinguished as "X dei conti di Y" ("X of the counts of Y"). However, if there is no male to inherit the title and the count has a daughter, in some regions she could inherit the title.

Many Italian counts left their mark on Italian history as individuals, yet only a few ''contadi'' (countships; the word ''contadini'' for inhabitants of a "county" remains the Italian word for "peasant") were politically significant principalities, notably:
* Norman Count of [[Apulia]]
* [[House of Savoy|Count of Savoy, later Duke]] (also partly in France and in Switzerland)
* [[Asti|Count of Asti]]
* [[Montferrat|Count of Montferrat (Monferrato)]]
* [[Montefeltro|Count of Montefeltro]]
* [[Tusculum|Count of Tusculum]]