alto palmo uno ed once nove

[TheChabon]

This 1839 description of a 'Vaso cilindrico di piombo' found in Pompei gives its dimensions as

Alto palmo uno ed once nove, per palmo uno e once otto di diametro. ​

It seems that at some point the palmo was standardized in Naples at 26,4 cm (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmo). Anybody knows what once nove and once otto would be?

Thanks very much in advance.

 

[rainbowizard]

Hi,
I cannot say for sure but one "oncia", when directly referred to a prime unit (as "palmo" in your excerpt) should be intended as 1/12 part of that prime misure.
So, in your example "palmo uno ed once nove" should be "1.75 palmi" that is 1 palmo + 9/12 palmo. "palmo uno ed once otto" should be approx "1.67 palmi" that's 1 palmo + 8/12 palmo.

Anyway these are pretty old standards and are now completely substituted by the MKS system.

 

[london calling]

TheChabon, see this Wiki article, I quote:


Ancient Roman units of length

Name	Latin name	Equivalent Roman value	Metric equivalent
Digit	Inch	Palm	Foot
Digit	digitus	1	3⁄4	1⁄4	1⁄16	18.5 mm
Inch	uncia orpollex	11⁄3	1	1⁄3	1⁄12	24.6 mm
Palm	palmus minor	4	3	1	1⁄4	74 mm
Great palm	palmus major	12	9	3	3⁄4	222 mm
Foot	pes	16	12	4	1	296 mm
Foot + palm	palmipes	20	15	5	11⁄4	370 mm
Cubit	cubitus	24	18	6	1 1⁄2	444 mm
Metric equivalents are based on the estimated value 1 pes = 296 mm[4]

 

[TheChabon]

Thanks very much for both replies. I discovered a whole world I was not remotely aware of.

With nine inch 'great palms' he would not have said palmo uno ed once nove but two palms. Soperhaps '1/12 palmo' is what the author was meaning here --or alternatively, the 26,4 cm palm is a 10 inch palm --sometimes engineers and technicians went decimal.

If I ever get to any certainty I'll post back.