[Sca-cooks] Source review - Charles Potter's translation of Messisbugo

[Susan Lin]

When I was in Germany - a long time ago - I saw white lines on the church in
the town square and I was told that those were the measures of length that
had been used when the town square had a market.  If such markings were used
and they were based upon some person (as we often measure a yard as from
your nose to your fingers) then it is likely that these differed in
different places.  The same may be true for the measurements you are
currently looking at.  Just a thought.

-S

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 1:39 PM, Louise Smithson <helewyse at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> Raffaella wrote:
> In addition to the menus there is also a page of Italian weights and
> measures from the middle ages to the nineteenth century.
> I haven't had a chance yet to compare these to the ones listed in the new
> translation of Scappi,
> but I have some question about the measurements as translated from Scappi
> anyway. :)
>
> Interestingly although the weights and measures of Messisbugo (located in
> Ferrara) and those of Scappi
> (located in Rome) are very close and can be approximated they aren't
> actually the same.
> The whole Italian peninsula was a mess with each city state and sometimes
> village having their own
> measurements.  Basilius gave me my copy of the book Italian Weights and
> Measures (http://tinyurl.com/lz5lhp)
> which frankly is invaluable for trying to work out whether a boccale in
> Rome in the 16th century is the
> same as one in Naples in the 14th.  And other esoterica, interestingly the
> Libro Novo libra (pound) and the
> Scappi libra are slightly different sizes being 0.345 at Ferrara and 0.339
> at Rome, but each consisting of
> 12 ounces.  OK so that is only 6g difference but I'm a geek so shoot me.
> Helewyse
>
>
>
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