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Abstract: During the second half of the nineteenth century, the social equilibrium that placed the old nobility at the summit of the Umbrian urban centers underwent a progressive erosion. The abolition of the fedelcommissum and the primogenitures represented a crucial step in the slow process of decline of the aristocratic dynasties. In order to combat this process they strategically used the position of the family and land ownership. At the same time, the same tools were employed by members of the middle class for social elevation that, during the nineteenth century, ogten resulted in obtaining titles. In this marginal Umbrian context of that time, the old arostocracies represent an obstacle for the middle class and also, at the end of the century, they merge with the new nobility creating only one ruling class. A group of family cases, chosen on the basis of their different social typologies, have been used to describe this development.