one of the four ancient families of "high nobility" of Genoa. The lordship of Monaco, afterwards elevated to the rank of a principality, belonged to the Grimaldi from A.D. 980 for more than 600 years. With the Fieschi they always acted an important part in the history of Genoa, especially in the disputes between the Ghibelines and the Guelphs, to which latter family both parties belonged. The influence of the Grimaldi was much increased by their large estates in France and Italy. Of this family there were several eminent men, of whom the principal are: 1. Ranieri Grimaldi, the first Genoese who conducted the naval forces of the republic beyond the straits of Gibraltar. He sailed to Zealand, in the service of Philip (the Fair) of France, in 1304, with sixteen Genoese galleys and twenty French ships under his command; and there he defeated and made prisoner the Count Guy of Flanders, who commanded the enemy's fleet of eighty sail.—2. Antonio Grimaldi, likewise was distinguished in the naval service of his country in the early part of the fourteenth century. His victories over the Catalonians and Aragonese, who had committed aggressions on the Genoese, gave the latter a decided maritime ascendency for a long time; but at length, in 1353, the Catalonians, assisted by the Venetians, under the command of Nicholas Pisani, gave him battle, and nearly destroyed his whole fleet.—3. Giovanni Grimaldi is celebrated for the victory he gained over the Venetian admiral Trevesani, on the Po, in 1431, when, in sight of Carnagno's army, he succeeded in taking twenty-eight galleys and a great number of transports, with immense spoil.—4. Domenico Grimaldi, cardinal, archbishop, and vice-legate of Avignon, was famous as a naval commander, and eminent as a zealous Grimm, extirpator of heresy from the Romish Church. Though a bishop at the time, he distinguished himself by his skill and courage at the battle of Lepanto in 1571.—5. GERONIMO GRIMALDI, born in 1597, was sent by Urban VIII, as nuncio to Germany and France, and the services he rendered the Roman hierarchy were rewarded by a cardinal's hat in 1643. His whole career was highly honourable. He was bishop of Aix, and strenuously endeavoured to reform the manners of the clergy in the diocese by establishing an ecclesiastical seminary. He also founded an hospital for the poor, and annually distributed 100,000 livres in alms alone. He died at the advanced age of eighty-nine, in the year 1685.