In this collective work, dedicated to the European nobility of the 16th-17th centuries, the following range of issues was chosen for research: Definition of nobility and noble status: self-esteem, legal practice, public opinion. The relationship between economic, political, ethnosocial, religious and other factors in determining the boundaries of the class. The number and “share” of the nobility, their dynamics. Regional differences. Areas of high concentration of nobility. Evidence of belonging to the nobility, their evolution. Correlation of oral and written traditions. Genealogy and its role. Annotation, its forms and legal registration, scale and rhythms. The process of loss of noble status, its causes and consequences. Inter-class and intra-class boundaries. The border between the nobility and the clergy.