The civic coat of arms of Martignano represents a marten; according to a tale the inhabitants of this small town recognize themselves in this animal for astuteness and shrewdness. There are different hypotheses about the origin of this toponym: for some historians it comes from "marten" while for others it comes from the name of a near village: Martano. Another hypothesis is that this name was given by a Roman centurion, Martius. So probably it was founded by the Romans, but its culture and habits were influenced above all by the Greek ( IX century), and this is one of reasons for which the Greek rite disappeared only in the XVI century. Later Martignano was governed by the Angevins: in fact, in 1269 the king Charles I gave the feud of Martano to Simone di Belvedere. He died in 1290 and he was succeeded first by his brother William and then by his nephews Richard and Teobald. In the XIV century Martano passed under the control of the Stendardos, the Earls of Lecce and the Queen Maria D'Enghien, in the XV century there were the Effrems, the Pignatellis, the Del Balzos and the King Ferdinand of Aragona. In 1512 the first mayor of Martignano, Solomno Petracha, was elected. In 1577 the feud was sold to Giovanni Bonori, a merchant from Florence, who governed it until 1611. In 1612 Martignano was bought by Mario Palmieri. The Palmieri ruled it until 1736, later it was given to the Pisanellis and to Giovanni and Giuseppe Granafei until 1806. The most important native people are Giuseppe Palmieri. He was born on May 5th 1721, he studied beside the Jesuits of Lecce and, in succession, by [valenti] Neapolitan teachers. He/she/it/you became a brave soldier and an appreciated lieutenant, but he/she/it/you abandoned the military life for devote with appointment and passion to the study of the economic sciences, so much that in the 1791 covered the loads of manager of the finances of the Kingdom from Naples. He/she/it/you was promoter of the agricultural progress and [combatté] for the abolition of the feudalism. He/she/it/you wrote varied work between which we remember: "critical Reflections on the art of the war" of the 1761, and "economic Thoughts" of the 1789. He/she/it/you died to Naples in the 1793.