In Provençal, the principal idiom of the Occitanian language, nouns
take no plural form; so pán, cáno, &c., do not change. The Provençal
words in this chapter are pronounced—páng, cánn, saomádd, eymīnn,
escandáo, panáo, cárrg, miyeyròl.
The basis of the Southern system, typically that of Marseilles, was then
the Cargo, a corn-measure = 34·73 gallons (the equivalent of 154·79
litres, the official metric value), which was the cubic cubit of
Al-Mamūn:
21·28 inches cubed = 9639 c.i. = 34·73 gallons.
Now what water or wine measure would be produced from the Cargo,
decreased in wheat-water ratio?
Dividing the measure of the cargo by 1·22 we have:
34·73/1·22 = 28·46 gallons.
A fluid measure of this capacity is not in use at Marseilles, but we
find its half, almost exactly, in the Mieirolo = 14·19 gallons, a wine
and oil measure used extensively in Mediterranean ports.
The word Mieirolo, in which _mié_ means half, corresponds to the name of
the first in an Italian series of wine-measures:
Mezzaruola, Terzaruola, Quartaruola, fractions of a 28-gallon measure
now apparently obsolete.
The standard of the Mieirolo is now at—
Marseilles, 64·384 litres = 14·19 gallons.
Tripoli, 64·386 „ „ „
Tunis, 63·347 „ 13·97 „
Spain, 64·55 „ 14·23 „
One-fourth of the Mieirolo, or one-eighth of the obsolete wine-cargo, is
the Escandau, equal to the Spanish arroba (a word meaning ‘quarter’),
and containing, at the present Marseilles standard, 16·096 litres = 3·54
gallons. To this Escandau or standard corresponds, in water-wheat ratio,
the Panau = 4·34 gallons, 1/8 of the Cargo = 4·34 bushels or 34·73
gallons.
The correspondence of this series of wine and corn measures, in southern
water-wheat ratio, is perfect, even after many centuries, probably since
the tenth century. The Escandau and the Panau or Eimino correspond then
to about 4 wine-gallons and 4 corn-gallons.
The Escandau has always been understood to be a cubic pán. Escandau[48]
means a standard; Pán means a side, pane or panel, and it is the measure
of the side of a ‘quadrantal’ containing an Escandau of water, as our
foot is the measure of one containing an English talent of 1000 Roman
ounces of water. The cube root of 16·096 litres is 25·24 centimetres, a
length differing by less than a millimetre from the standard of the
Marseilles pán = 25·16 centimetres or 9·9 inches.
Footnote 48:
Escandau is to gauge, to sound depths, to standardise. This word is
from the same root as ‘scandalise’ applied to moral tripping, and then
to the use of the ‘stiliard,’ the lever-balance that trips with any
inequality of weight.
_Land-measures_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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