Lombardy (''Lombardia'', ''Lombardia storega'' or ''Granda Lombardia'' in Lombard), also called ''Historical Lombardy'' or ''Great Lombardy'', is a toponym referring to the historical region, greater than the modern Italian administrative region, which culturally, linguistically and politically has been historically considered Lombard. Lombardy was once used to indicate the whole Gallo-Romance speaking area in nowadays Northern Italy, deriving from the word ''Langobardia'' (''

Langobardia Maior Langobardia Major was the name that, in the Early Middle Ages, was given to the domains of the Lombard Kingdom in Northern Italy. It comprised Lombardy proper with its capital Pavia, the Duchies of Friuli and Trent as well as the Tuscany region. ...

'' in the case of the North), the Latin name for the Italian territories conquered by the ancient Lombards. Over time, the definition of Lombardy shrank: Dante Alighieri, in his De vulgari eloquentia, recognised the autonomy of

Romagna Romagna ( rgn, Rumâgna) is an Italian historical region that approximately corresponds to the south-eastern portion of present-day Emilia-Romagna, North Italy. Traditionally, it is limited by the Apennines to the south-west, the Adriatic to t ...

and Genoa from Lombardy. Since the 1400s Piedmont became more and more culturally autonomous from the rest of Lombardy, and by the 1600s there was basically the partition between Lombardy and Piedmont, owned by the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy ( it, Casa Savoia) was a royal dynasty that was established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region. Through gradual expansion, the family grew in power from ruling a small Alpine county north-west of Italy to absolute rule of ...

.La storia del Piemonte tra dispute e crisi d’identità
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References

History of Lombardy {{Lombardy-geo-stub