TITLES OF DIGNITY. — These are verbal designations capable of completing a person’s identity, and thus serving a function that is at once identificatory and honorific. The prefixing, or addition, of the t. to the name, by avoiding homonymy, is useful for distinguishing the person, while at the same time eliciting the respect of others.
The t. are of various kinds (academic and professional, chivalric, etc.); their legal importance increases when they have a public origin, that is, when they emanate from public bodies. The right to a t. is not an innate right, since it presupposes an act of grant. Moreover, in order to preserve the honorific distinction in which the t. consists, one must remain worthy of it: consequently, since the t. may be lost for the causes provided by law, it cannot even be regarded as an essential right, or a right of
personality. Whereas a person’s surname, indicating family membership, may extend to other persons who become part of the same family, the t. — except for a noble title — is granted intuitu personae, and consequently cannot pass to members of the family.
As regards noble t., the Italian Constitution, in its Transitional and Final Provisions (XIV), has denied them recognition, adding that “the predicates of those existing before 28 Oct. 1922 shall be deemed part of the name.” The current regulation of noble t. constitutes the final phase of a historical development whereby these, from expressions of feudal lordship, were reduced to a mere honorific distinction. They expressed and perpetuated the distinction of the family, recalling its ancient glories; they therefore had a familial character. Indeed, they did not expire upon the death of the person to whom they had been granted, but extended, according to certain legal rules, to other members of his family. The preservation of such honorific distinctions, capable of reinforcing the privileges of birth, did not appear compatible with the demands of a true democracy. Thus, the preservation of noble t., proclaimed by the Albertine Statute (art. 79), was not matched in the new Constitution by an analogous provision: on the contrary, while not going so far as to prohibit them, it expressly refused them its recognition. Having lost their legal value, noble t. may retain only a certain social value, by virtue of continuing custom.
The “predicates” were those attributes added to noble t. in order to specify or complete them. At present, by virtue of the aforementioned provision, they are deemed part of the name, provided that they are predicates of noble t. existing before 28 Oct. 1922. The legal rules relating to the name will apply to predicates that have become part of II.
As regards noble t. conferred by the Supreme Pontiff, authoritative scholars hold that the possibility of their recognition by decree of the President of the Republic still exists today, in accordance with the provisions of art. 42 of the Concordat between the Holy See and Italy.
The use of civil t. in the titles and coats of arms of bishops was abolished by a conciliar decree of 12 May 1951 (ASS, 48 [1951], p. 480).