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Re: Dr. Gentile's request on measurements of cloth. An earlier, but very helpful source for terms in business, shipping, commerce etc. is F. Melis, _Documenti per la storia economica_ (or a very similar title) which has facsimiles of medieval accounts with modern transcriptions & useful glossaries of such terms. Measurements /prices of course change through the centuries, but other terms could be found there. It would be a good starting point. G. Allaire At 07:08 PM 9/19/00 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Colleagues, > >I am taking the liberty of calling upon you for some information. > >In some research that I am doing I come across Italian measurements of >the 1660s and find that at Faenza un braccio "da panno" of 12 once >was 0.638 m., "da tela" of 12 once was 0.720 m. > >What is the meaning of "da panno" and of "da tela"? > >Also, is the word "once" derived from the Latin "unus" from which the English >words "ounce" (28.4 g) and "inch" (0.254 m) are derived? > >Can it be that the Italian word "once" and the English word "inch" both >designate a unit of length of about 2.5 cm? > >Notice also that in French the word "pouce" means not only "thumb"-- >which can be considered a "finger" corresponding to the Italian >"dito"--but also "pouce" means "inch." > >If it is not inconvenient, I would appreciate your help in answering these >questions. > >Thanks, > >Nicola M. Gentili > >-- >Mr. NICOLA M. GENTILI >Administrative Coordinator > Center for Italian Studies > Film Studies Program >Lecturer in Italian > Department of Romance Languages >University of Pennsylvania >549 Williams Hall >36th & Spruce Streets >Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 >Phone: (215) 898-6040 >Fax: (215) 898-0933 >e-mail: [log in to unmask] >http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~ngentili/ > > _______________________ Gloria Allaire Italian Studies Gettysburg College Campus Box 394 Gettysburg, PA 17325 (717) 337-6558 (office) (717) 642-5167 (home) %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%