Marseilles, a city of Greek origin, always in extensive commercial
relations with the Mediterranean countries using the Arabic system of
weights and measures, had an almost perfect system of its own, entirely
sexdecimal, and dating from about the tenth century. This system is
still extant, so far as the French law can be evaded (see Chap. XXI: Old
Weights and Measures of France). Wine and corn measures were in the
usual Southern water-wheat ratio of 1 to 1·22, and the principal of
these was the Escandau for wine and oil, and the Panau for corn. Now
Escandau means ‘standard’; and this measure was 1/4 of the Mieirolo, the
half wine-load or ‘wey’ which corresponded in water-wheat ratio to the
half-load or wey of wheat. The load of wheat, the _cargo_, was the cubic
cubit of Al-Mamūn, brought from Egypt by the corn-trade. The unit of
length was the Pan (pronounced páng), a word apparently similar to the
palmo of Italy and Spain, but really different. Palmo becomes _paume_ in
Provençal, while Pan is from L. _pannus_, a side, pane or panel;[11] and
the Marseilles Pan = 9·9 inches is exactly the measure of the side or
pan of an Escandau of cubical form. The filiation of the Escandau is
evident, while the Pan is not derived from any antecedent measure. That
the Pan was the measure of the pan or panel of a cubical Escandau is
supported by the name of the corn-standard, the Panau, corresponding to
the fluid standard of the Escandau, and of the land-measure, L.
_Panalata_, the peck-land, originally the extent usually sown with a
Panau of wheat.
Footnote 11:
The French word _pan_ has the same meaning, while Fr. _empan_, a span,
is a corruption of _espan_.
Escandau = 16·096 litres = 3·54 gallons.
∛16096 = 25·24 centimetres, the Pan = 9·9 inches.
The evidence of the Pan seems to me to remove any doubt as to the
medieval evolution of linear measures from imported standards of weight
or capacity. The meaning of Pan as ‘side, panel’ is conclusive,
especially when supported by the Panau measure and by other Provençal
derivatives:
_Panard_, a limping man, leaning to one side as he walks.
_Lou Panard_, the star Antares which, rising late and setting early, not
appearing much above the horizon, is visible only on one side of it.
4. THE FILIATION OF THE ENGLISH FOOT, OF THE
RHINELAND FOOT, AND OF THE MARSEILLES PAN
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