‘It is as landowners that they first appear and landowners they all remained’. This, written of the Malatesta of Rimini, could be applied to most of the signori of late medieval Italy. Indeed, so far were the signori identified with the land and landed society, that it is possible to speak of their rise as the victory of the countryside over the city. Yet the landed resources of these families have not attracted much scholarly attention, largely because signorie have continued to be considered primarily as urban lordships. However, the recent trends in Italian medieval historiography examined above, in conducting a re-evaluation of the relationship between town and country, have pointed the way towards analysis of this dimension of urban signorie.

Tracing the origin of Este possessions in the Ferrarese contado and the Polesine would take us back to the tenth century, but we need go back no further than the late twelfth, when Este political involvement in Ferrara intensified following their succession to the Adelardi as landowners and leaders of faction. The story of this major acquisition has been frequently told: the death of the Adelardi brothers, Guglielmo and Adelardo, without male heirs; the seizure of Adelardo's young daughter from her appointed husband; her delivery and possible marriage to Obizzo d'Este and his resulting entry into possession of the inheritance.