The Voltaggio family has done considerable research on the etymology of the Voltaggio name and the search for the original home of the Vultaggio clan.
First, the name Voltaggio and Vultaggio are interchangable. In translating from latin, these vowels are often interchanged. The derivation of the name has been revealed in a book which my father obtained during his research. The town was NOT named after Allesandro Volta. It predated Count Volta by many years. This book on the history of Voltaggio was written in Voltaggio and is entirely in Italian. According to this book, the ancient Ligurians which inhabited the area prior to the Romans used huts to create shelters from the elements. These huts were called Ooltabio. It was changed over the years to Ooltabio... Ooltabium... Vultabium.... Voltaggio.
Below is a "logo" of the castle, found in the history book
referred
to above. This is the only characterization of the castle
from such
an early time. It shows the latin name for Voltaggio as
Vultabium
and, more importantly, shows the interchangeability of the "o"
and "u"
in the name.
There are two good links to web pages about Voltaggio. They are:
La Perla Immersa Nel Verde Piemonte
Much more will come,
