Palm (unit)

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Template:Short description

File:Hand Units of Measurement.PNG
A diagram of various units derived from the human hand. The palm (3) was originally the width of the palm but was standardized as the somewhat smaller width of four digits (6). The related shaftment (1) and hand (2) were the width of the palm plus an open or closed thumb. The other units are the span (4) and finger (5).

The palm is an obsolete anthropic unit of length, originally based on the width of the human palm and then variously standardized. The same name is also used for a second, rather larger unit based on the length of the human hand.[1]

The width of the palm was a traditional unit in Ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, and Rome and in medieval England, where it was also known as the hand,[2]Template:Efn handbreadth,[3] or handsbreadth.[3]Template:Efn

The length of the hand—originally the Roman "greater palm"—formed the palm of medieval Italy and France. In Spanish customary units Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". was the palm, while Script error: No such module "Lang". was the span, the distance between an outstretched thumb and little finger. In Portuguese Script error: No such module "Lang". or Script error: No such module "Lang". was the span.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".

History

Ancient Egypt

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote".

Template:Trim
PalmTemplate:Nbsp(D48)
in hieroglyphs
Template:Hiero/era | Era: Template:Hiero/era
File:Coudée-turin detail.jpg
Detail of the cubit rod in the Museo Egizio of Turin, showing digit, palm, hand and fist lengths

The Ancient Egyptian palm (Template:Langx) has been reconstructed as about Template:Convert.Template:Efn The unit is attested as early as the reign of Djer, third pharaoh of the First Dynasty,[4] and appears on many surviving cubit-rods.[5]

The palm was subdivided into four digits (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert.

Three palms made up the span (Script error: No such module "Lang".) or lesser span (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert. Four palms made up the foot (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert. Five made up the Script error: No such module "Lang". of about Template:Convert. Six made up the "Greek cubit" (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert. Seven made up the "royal cubit" (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert. Eight made up the pole (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert.

Ancient Israel

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The palm was not a major unit in ancient Mesopotamia but appeared in ancient Israel as the Script error: No such module "Lang".,[6] Script error: No such module "Lang".,[7] or Script error: No such module "Lang".[7] (Template:Langx, lit.Template:Nbsp"a spread").[8] Scholars were long uncertain as to whether this was reckoned using the Egyptian or Babylonian cubit,[6] but now believe it to have approximated the Egyptian "Greek cubit", giving a value for the palm of about Template:Convert.[7]

As in Egypt, the palm was divided into four digits (Script error: No such module "Lang".[6] or Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert and three palms made up a span (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert.[7] Six made up the Hebrew cubit (Script error: No such module "Lang".[6] or Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert, although the cubits mentioned in Ezekiel[9] follow the royal cubit in consisting of seven palms comprising about Template:Convert.[7]

Ancient Greece

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Ancient Greek palm (Template:Langx, palaistḗ, Script error: No such module "Lang"., dō̂ron, or Script error: No such module "Lang"., daktylodókhmē)[10] made up ¼ of the Greek foot (poûs), which varied by region between Template:Convert.[11] This gives values for the palm between Template:Convert, with the Attic palm around Template:Convert.[12]

These various palms were divided into four digits (dáktylos) or two "middle phalanges" (kóndylos).[12] Two palms made a half-foot (hēmipódion or dikhás); three, a span (spithamḗ); four, a foot (poûs);[12] five, a short cubit (pygōn);[13] and six, a cubit (pē̂khys).[12]

The Greeks also had a less common "greater palm" of five digits.[14]

Ancient Rome

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The Roman palm (Template:Langx) or lesser palm (Script error: No such module "Lang".) made up ¼ of the Roman foot (Script error: No such module "Lang".), which varied in practice between Template:Convert[15] but is thought to have been officially Template:Convert.[13] This would have given the palm a notional value of Template:Convert within a range of a few millimeters.[16]

The palm was divided into four digits (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert or three inches (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert. Three made a span (Script error: No such module "Lang". or "greater palm") of about Template:Convert;Template:Efn four, a Roman foot; five, a hand-and-a-foot (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert; six, a cubit (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert.[17]

Continental Europe

File:Pernes - Mesures anciennes.JPG
Sign giving the metric equivalents of the units in use in the 17th century in the covered market of Pernes-les-Fontaines in the Vaucluse

Script error: No such module "Hatnote". The palms of medieval (Template:Langx)[18] and early modern Europe—the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Script error: No such module "Lang". and French Script error: No such module "Lang".—were based upon the Roman "greater palm", reckoned as a hand's span or length.

In Italy, the palm (Template:Langx) varied regionally. The Genovese palm was about Template:Convert;[14][10]Template:Efn in the Papal States, the Roman palm about Template:Convert according to Hutton but divided into the Roman "architect's palm" (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert and "merchant's palm" (Script error: No such module "Lang".) of about Template:Convert according to Greaves;[10]Template:Efn and the Neapolitan palm reported as Template:Convert by Riccioli but Template:Convert by Hutton's other sources.[14] On Sicily and Malta, it was Template:Convert.[19]

In France, the palm (Template:Langx or Script error: No such module "Lang".) was about Template:Convert in Pernes-les-Fontaines, Vaucluse,[19] and about Template:Convert in Languedoc.[14]

Palaiseau gave metric equivalents for the palme or palmo in 1816,[19] and Rose provided English equivalents in 1900:

Length of a palm in European cities
City Lignes Metric equivalent Inches [20]
Florence (for silk, Palaiseau p.146) 131.63 [297] mm
Florence (for wool, Palaiseau p.146) 128.38 289.6 mm
Genoa (cloth measure, Palaiseau p.148) 106.9 241.1 mm
Genoa (linear measure, Palaiseau p.91) 107.43 242.3 mm
Genoa (Rose) 247 mm 9.72
Livorno (for silk, Palaiseau p.157) 128.41 289.7 mm
Livorno (for wool, Palaiseau p.157) 130.08 293.4 mm
Malta (cloth measure, Palaiseau p.160) 114.49 258.3 mm
Malta (linear measure, Palaiseau p.98) 115.28 260.0 mm
Naples (Rose) 263.6 mm 10.38
Palermo (cloth measure, Palaiseau p.168) 107.16 241.7 mm 9.53
Portugal (Palaiseau p.109) 96.36 217.4 mm 8.64
Rome (cloth measure, Palaiseau p.173) 109.52 247.1 mm
Rome (linear measure, Palaiseau p.111) 99 [223] mm
Sardinia (Rose) 248 mm 9.78
Spain (Rose) 219 mm 8.64
Metric equivalents from Palaiseau here rounded to 0.1 mm

From 19th C. Italian sources[21][22][23][24] emerges that :

- the ancient Venetian palm, five of which made a passo (pace), was equivalent to 0.3774 metres.

- the Neapolitan palm = 0.26333670 metres (from 1480 to 1840)

- the Neapolitan palm = 0.26455026455 metres (according to the law of 6 April 1840)

which differs from previously cited palm measure equivalents in metres above.

England

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote".

File:Cun3.gif
The English palm as the width of four fingers.

The English palm, handbreadth, or handsbreadth is three inches[25][26][27][28] (7.62Template:Nbspcm)Template:Efn or, equivalently, four digits.[28] The measurement was, however, not always well distinguished from the hand or handful,[25] which became equal to four inches by a 1541 statute of Henry VIII.[26]Template:Efn The palm was excluded from the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 that established the imperial system and is not a standard US customary unit.

Elsewhere

The Moroccan palm is given by Hutton as about Template:Convert.[14]

Notes

Template:Noteslist

References

Template:Reflist

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  3. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  5. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named clagett
  6. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  7. ↑ a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "Bibleverse"., Script error: No such module "Bibleverse"..
  10. ↑ a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named greaves
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  12. ↑ a b c d Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  13. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  14. ↑ a b c d e Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named hutton
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  16. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named brit
  17. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named smith
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1"..
  19. ↑ a b c Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named palaiseau
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Antonio Pasquale Favaro. Metrologia o sia Trattato Generale delle Misure, de' Pesi e delle Monete - (in Italian) - [Metrology or General Treatise on Measures, Weights and Coins] - Gabinetto Bibliografico e Tipografico (Napoli 1826)
  23. ↑ Carlo Afan de Rivera. Tavole di riduzione de' Pesi e delle misure della Sicilia Citeriore in quelli statuiti dalla legge de' 6 aprile del 1840 - (in Italian) - [Tables of Reductions of Weights and Measures of Sicilia Citeriore in those established by the Law of 6 April 1840] - Stamperia e Cartiere del Fibreno (Napoli 1840)
  24. ↑ Angelo Martini. Manuale di metrologia ossia Misure, Pesi e Monete in uso attualmente e anticamente presso tutti i popoli antichi - (in Italian) - [Handbook of Metrology i.e. Measures, Weights and Coins in Current and Ancient Use by All Ancient Peoples] - Editrice E.C.A. (Roma 1976), facsimile reprint of the original Turin edition of 1883
  25. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named phil
  26. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named mort
  27. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named perth
  28. ↑ a b Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named buffon
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