he Italian Heraldic Council - Marquis Vittorio Spreti Institute cultivates fertile and ancient relations with my family, heir of the Marquis Vittorio Spreti, curator of the Italian Historic and Noble Encyclopaedia.

Today as head of the marquisate, I have succeeded my dear brother, Arardo Maria, as Vice-President of the Institute.

At this point I must pay due homage to the expertise and untiring work of my father, whose care and dedication allowed the publication, in the Nineteen-thirties, of a work that is unsurpassed for the quality and richness of its historic, civic, heraldic, genealogical and noble references, and which represents a milestone and a sure point of reference for all enthusiasts and followers of this subject which irretrievably fascinates us.

The prestige and authoritativeness of our family and its link with the Italian Heraldic Council are therefore a qualified acknowledgement of its efforts, setting the seal on the seriousness and professionalism of the activity carried out by its researchers.
One of the objectives of the H.C. – Spreti Foundation, as well as that of honouring my father’s memory, is the updating of the Italian Historic and Noble Encyclopaedia, a venture which the Italian Heraldic Council - Marquis Vittorio Spreti Institute is planning to carry out and is now at an advanced stage of development, and which I propose as the ideal continuation of my father’s activity.

It is an ambitious undertaking – almost a challenge – which we are preparing to tackle with a pinch of madness, even though we are aware that will be extremely difficult just to maintain the level of perfection attained by the Encyclopaedia, a highly up to date work that it will perhaps be impossible to match.

However, this project does not account for all the activity of the H.C. – Spreti Foundation, which also has the task of keeping the imposing Spreti Fund, an immense and inestimable historic and heraldic heritage that embodies many centuries of history; on the one hand it is a mine of documents, notions and noble and genealogical data, on the other, a most precious and irreplaceable tool of recognition of the scientific method and efficient organisation which enabled my father and his collaborators to complete the incomparable editorial achievement that culminated in the publishing of the Encyclopaedia.

The choice of the juridical form of the H.C. Foundation – that is as a non-profit private institution – was not arrived at by chance; it actually intends to signify, in symbolic and evocative terms, that the Spreti Foundation is not a temporary association, destined by nature to be exhausted or to fade away with the passing of time, but an intrinsic professional creation with deep roots, like the traditional values that it aims to preserve, guard and pass on to the coming generations.