Famiglia nobile di Castelvetro. Figurano nel libro d’oro antico e moderno della Nobiltà Modenese. Essendosi estinta nel XVIII secolo in questa famiglia quella dei Castelvetro, i Cantuti ne assunsero il nome e l’arma. Il Tiraboschi cita con lode il conte Francesco Cantuti Castelvetri che fiorì nel XVIII secolo e lo dice uno dei più colti e leggiadri poeti modenesi di quest’età. Numerosi autori della famiglia descrissero eventi e personaggi, attribuirono ad essa varie origini senza alcuna valida attestazione. La moderna critica storica ha, sulla scorta sicura dei documenti, fatto ragione delle artificiose ricostruzioni genealogiche di quegli scrittori che, per compiacente spirito d’adulazione, pretesero far discendere questa famiglia da nobili e antiche prosapie come quella di altre famiglie. Il commendatore G.B. di Crollalanza, nella sua opera ” il Dizionario Storico-Blasonico, opera che in vari decenni e con l’aiuto di altri storici ne ha rintracciato l’esistenza veritiera sulla scorta di documenti e ricerche effettuate nei secoli passati.. Riguardo a questo cognome abbiamo ritrovato ulteriori informazioni storiche in altri archivi. Purtroppo in lingua originale Inglese. : This Spanish and Portugese topographic name of CANTU meant ‘one who dwelt on a patch of stoney ground, or near a quarrey’. It was also a metonymic occupational name for a quarry man or mason, primarily rendered in the Latin form CANTUS (the rim or edge of a wheel). Many of the modern family names throughout Europe reflect the profession or occupation of their forbears in the Middle Ages and derive from the position held by their ancestors in the village, noble household or religious community in which they lived and worked. The addition of their profession to their birth name made it easier to identify individual tradesmen and craftsmen. As generations passed and families moved around, so the original identifying names developed into the corrupted but simpler versions that we recognise today. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their Last Name as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the Last Name, they were stuck with it, and people infrequently modified them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. In the 8th century, Spain fell under the control of the Moors, and this influence, which lasted into the 12th century, has also left its mark on Hispanic last names. A few names are based directly on Arabic personal names. The majority of Spanish occupational and nickname last names, however, are based on ordinary Spanish derivatives. In Spain identifying patronymics are to be found as early as the mid-9th century, but these modified with each generation, and hereditary last names seem to have come in slightly later in Spain than in England and France. As well as the names of the traditional major saints of the Christian Church, many of the most common Spanish last names are extrapolated from personal name of Germanic origin. For the most part these names are characteristically Hispanic. They derive from the language of the Visigoths, who controlled Spain between the mid-5th and early 8th centuries….
Noble title: Nobili
Coat of arms: Partito; nel primo d’argento e di rosso, a due cani rampanti affrontati dell’uno nell’altro, accompagnati in capo da una stella d’oro; nel secondo d’azzurro, alla fascia d’argento accompagnata in capo da tre nocciuole d’oro fogliate dello stesso, 1 e 2, ed in punta dal castello aperto, finestrato e torricellato di tre pezzi di mattonato movente dalla pianura erbosa; ciascuna torre à una bandierola di rosso volta a sini…