QUATTROMANI CONNECTION

["robin quarterman" <robinquarterman@hotmail.com>]

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Victoria,John.

So there is a place in Italy called Quattromani? That's very interesting.

No, i do not live in Southern Italy Victoria. I wish i did!
I actually live in Manchester.

However, my Sister lives in Milan. She works for EMI there and first brought 
my attention to the Quattromani connection. For even though her surname was 
slightly different, Italians recognised it!!

Initially as a well known family that resided in Palermo, Sicily.This family 
are reputed to be all brown haired with blue eyes! So very distinctive for 
Sicily.
Most Italians who know the name are also aware that they are a NORMAN 
family, as opposed to French, even today.

The fact of the Italian Normans being used in the invasion of England is 
chronicled in one of John Julius Norwich's books about the Normans. The 
boats that were used were of a special design that could carry heavy cargo 
such as Horses, and were based on the ones used in Robert Guiscard's 
invasion of Sicily some years before.

My sister however cannot find any history or background info on this family 
in Italy. It is strange that this name pops up in various locations around 
Europe and no one knows anything about them or their origins!
Although my Sister thinks personally that the family is descended from some 
sort of infamously ferocious order of knights who were bodyguards employed 
by the Church.

I have read a number of references to the name QUATREMAYNE which do state 
that the name is more descriptive in the active sense and not only about 
'mail-fisted'. That is, the name signifies aggression and agility in combat.
(Maybe they fought with two swords, Saracen fashion!)
The name in this context does sound like the sort of thing connected with 
the Norman Robert Guiscard, who conquered Southern Italy. He was, by all 
accounts a ruthless, aggressive but clever person who used the Saracen's 
(then occupying Sicily) own techniques of fighting to defeat them.

Lastly, and most mysteriously, i have a vague memory of an article in a 
newspaper that i saw as a child. Though i have to say it is very likely to 
be completely inaccurate and probably half imagined.But the idea still 
persists even though no one else in my family really remembers it!
It was an article about the surname Quarterman and its origins. It said, as 
i remember it, all the usual things but with one odd exception.
That of some sort of connection with a Norse? legend of a sea monster!
Many many years later i happend to be in a bookshop thumbing through a book 
about the French naval air arm (Aeronavale) when i spotted the insigia of 
one of the squadrons, based in the NORTH of France.
It was a sea monster or Kraken called a MOLOCH?
It only had FOUR tenticles, could it be the same monster that i think i 
recall?
I have to say it's pretty odd, and i cannot confirm it. It may just be  a 
trick played by the memory and nothing more.

That's given you something to chew on!!!!!

Bye,Robin.




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