  We report here preliminary results from a survey of nearby Seyfert galaxies
using the EPIC CCDs on board XMM-Newton. The total sample consists of 28
Seyfert galaxies, and constitute a well-defined, complete (B<12.5 mag), and
volume-limited (D<22 Mpc) sample of Seyfert galaxies in the northern (Delta > 0
deg.) hemisphere. The survey has been initiated in June, 2001, and we report
here the results for the 6 objects analyzed so far, namely: NGC3185, NGC3486,
NGC3941, NGC4138, NGC4565, and NGC5033. The main goal of this survey is to
obtain a better and unbiased understanding of the ``typical'' Seyfert X-ray
spectrum (e.g. the distribution of their absorption column density) in the
local Universe. This is crucial to verify the predictions and, thus, to
validate unified models, and is a fundamental parameter of synthesis models for
the X-ray background. A companion poster (paper II: L. Foschini et al., these
proceedings) illustrates how this survey will also allow a comprehensive
spectral study of the brightest (highest-luminosity) off-nuclear sources in the
galaxies.
