Reprint of the work first published in Turin in 1929 and based on a wide range of documentations, dealing with the origins and the illustrious men of as many as 220 families from Biella, whose coats of arms are represented in full colour in nine cromolithographic plates, displaying also the armorial bearings of Biella and other twelwe surrounding communities: along with the coats of arms of ancient and most noble families from the Middle Ages are displayed those of others coming from a less chivalric backgroud, whose fortunes deepens their roots in protoindustrial activities as in the trade and in the banking, sometimes still existing nowadays.