COLONNA is the name of one of the oldest and most illustrious families of Italy. About 1050 it became possessed of the feudal estate of La Colonise ots the Tusculau mount. l'ietro, lord of Colonise, who lived in the 12th century, ie one of the earliest of the family recorded in history. His son Giovanni was made cardinal by Honorius III. in 1216. The family afterwards divided into several branches, one of which became princes of Palestriva ; another dukes of Zagarolo ; while others were made dukes of Traietto and counts of Fondi, dukes of Penile° and Tagliacozzo, and princes of Sonniuo and Stigliano, in the kingdom of Naples. Moreri, art. Colomat,' given their respective genealogies. At one time they were possessed of a great portion of the Campagna of Rome, besides large estate. in Abruzzo. The Colonna were of the Ghibeline party : their rivalry with the Orsini and other Roman barons, and their quarrels with several popes, especially with Boniface VIiL, are recorded in the history of the middle ages. In the early part of the 15th coitury,
one of tbe (Manna family was made pope under the name of Martin V.
A century later, two cousins of the same family, Fabrizio and Prospero Colouua, distinguished themselves in the service of Ferdinand of Aragon, and afterwards of Charles V., against the French in Italy.
Several of the same family attained high honours in the kingdom of Naples and in Spain, and others are numbered among the cardinals of the Roman church. Some branches of the family have become extinct, but the Stigliano of Naples and the Sclarra Colouua at Rome coutinue to exist. The Colonna have an extensive palace with gardens on the slope of the Quirinal at Rome.