So how'd you like my snazzy subject line?  ;DOk, on to the story: it appears that historical evidence has been found which points to a real person as being the basis for Quasimodo, or the Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Memoirs of a sculptor who worked on the famed cathedral in the early 19th century, at the same time that author Victor Hugo was living in Paris, point to a certain hunchbacked "Mons. Trajan" who went by the nickname of "the hunchback" ("le bossu").  I find it interesting that this was not known until only recently when the memoirs in question were finally read by an archivist.