Ceva

The Ceva were a branch of the Aleramici, the Frankish-descended marquises of Piedmont and Liguria, named after the town of Ceva at the foot of the Apennines. When Bonifacio del Vasto's lands were divided among his sons, Ceva passed to Anselmo, whose son Guglielmo is the first marquis clearly attested in the documents.

Guglielmo I pursued an expansionist policy between the rival communes of Alba and Asti, but after his death the marquisate was split into shares held jointly by his many sons, which weakened it and led to frequent changes of allegiance. In 1257 Alba forced the marquises under its hegemony, and in 1260 they transferred their homage to Charles I of Anjou.

From 1295 they were repeatedly vassals of Asti, and for two centuries the marquisate passed back and forth between the Visconti, the House of Orléans and the dukes of Savoy. In 1531 the Emperor Charles V assigned it definitively to the Duchy of Savoy.