heraldic help

[Dottie Elliott]

>does anybody know where I can find documentation for the name "Katerina"?
>I know this is a period name, and a fairly common one at that, but I need
>to document it to 16th century Italy.  (I believe "katerina" was an italian
>derivation of "catherine" -- I could be mistaken.)
>
>Thank you very much!
>Kat

I don't know if this will help much but this is from Withycombe's Oxford
Dictionary of English Christian Names

"Katharine, Katherine, Catharine, Catherine (f.): the name of a virgin
martyr of Alexandria, died 307. ...The latin form was Katerina, later
Katharina, with the spelling assimilated to that of (a greek word) 'pure',
the suppose origin of the name.  Another fancied etymology was from Greek
(a greek word) 'torture'. The original from is preserved in the Russian
Ekaterina (with pet-forms Katya, Katinka) and the earlier Latin form in the
Italian Caterina. ..."

When I get a chance later tomorrow, I will look through my books on the
Italian Rennaisance to see if anyone shows up with that name and spelling.

Clarissa