[Sca-cooks] Measurement Questions

[Les Shelton]

Greetings:

Can anyone on this list recommend a source that explains Medieval systems of
measurement {and hopefully equates them to modern measurements}?  I'm way
behind on reading the digests, so if this has already been discussed
recently I apologize.

Specifically, I'm looking at Chiquart's shopping list in "Du Fait de
Cuisine."  Scully gives modern equivalents for most of the measurements,
like aunes and quintals, but not everything.  There are a few I'd like to
find out more about:

1)  Charge -  "2 charges white ginger, 2 charges Mecca ginger ..."

 2)  Cabas - "12 cabas of candied raisins ..."

3)  Boce - I assume this is some sort of large container of variable size.
A "somme" is approximately 120 lbs as a dry measurement.  Chiquart refers to
a 20-somme boce of verjuice, a 10-somme boce of oil, and an 8-somme boce of
vinegar, so obviously these are fairly large measurements.

Any help you can provide would be appreciated.  For those of you heading to
Pennsic, have fun!  Some of us have inconsiderate School Boards who've moved
the start of school to the middle of War week {no sense of priorities!}

John le Burguillun