The well know heraldic artist Marco Foppoli reveals himself in this publication, which illustrates in full colour as many as 45 coats of arms belonging to families of lords of the Northern part of Italy, to be not only a fine heraldist, but a real historian in his own right, in the introduction preceding this collection of armorial bearings, when possible enriched with the oldest crests documented by every kind of sources, of these - as the author witty call them - "collectors of towns".