palmo

Various units of length that take their name from the Roman palm, although mostly about four times larger. The word “palmo” occurs in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. Many different local values occurred in each language, and they changed with time.

1

In Spain the palmo was generally 1/8th estado or 1/4th vara, in the 20^th century, 23.2 centimeters.

19th century (Doursther, 1840, pg 374)
Region or City		Value, millimeters
Alicante		226.250
Aragon	1/4 vara of Saragosse	192.750
Barcelona		about 194
Cadiz		208.75
Castille	palmo mayor	about 208.75
Castille	palmo menor or palmo de ribera	about 69.5833
Saragossa		192.750
Valencia		226.7500 (Kelly, 232.5760)

2

In Portugal, at least as early as 1575 – 20^th century, the palmo de craveira, = 1/10 braça, exactly 22 centimeters¹ (about 8.66 inches).

Another unit, the palmo de craveira avantejado (palmo of good measure), used for cloth, was about 226.875 millimeters, an additional ¼ pollegada for each palmo.

The palmo da Junta, 1756 – ?, established by the Junta de Commercio, a committee of merchants, for the purpose of standardizing measures used in trade with Portugal's colonies, was about 20.0200 centimeters.

In Brazil , the palmo was about 21.740 centimeters.

1. Mappas das Medidas do Novo Systema Legal comparadas com as Antigas nos Diversos Concelhos do Reino e Ilhas.
Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional, 1868.
Page 298.

3

In Rome:

palmo of commerce, = 1/8 canne, about 249.00 millimeters.
palmo of the cloth sellers, = 1/4 brasse, about 212.00 mm.
palmo of architects and builders = 1/10th canne, about 223.4250 mm.
palmo sacree (palmo de ara) = 1/9 canne sacree, about 125.00 mm.

4

La canna del pano di Napoli si è palmi viij che palmi viij fanno una canna di Firenze.

The canna of cloth of Naples is 8 palmi, which 8 palmi make 1 Florentine canna.

Chiarini, 1481.

In Naples, 1838, the palmo had the same value, which corresponded to an old standard kept at the Castel Capuano, but 8 palmi = 1 canna. Abolition of the canna was proposed, but instead it was decimalized, 10 palmi = 1 canna. In the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, by an ordinance of 6 April 1840, 1/7000 of the average distance subtended by 1 minute of arc on the Earth's meridian, = 1/7000th of a miglio. 100 meters = 378 palmi, making the palmo 26.455 centimeters. .

Naples 262.0145

In Sicily, Palermo, 242.7836 cm, Messina 264.1576 mm

Carrara (for measuring marble) = 9 ?/? inches, 243.8336

Florence, 291.800

Livorno, 291.800

Pisa 291.800

In 1803, Milan and the entire Kingdom of Lombardy-Venice adopted the name palmo for the decimeter (about 3.94 inches).

Majorca 195.500

5

In Ecuador, 20^th century, approximately 21 centimeters.

6

In Libya, 20^th century, a unit of length used for textiles = 25 centimeters¹. In the 19th century, it was 1/3rd of a dra or Turkish pic, 223.6853 mm.

1. United Nations, 1966.

7

In Corsica, 250.1714 millimeters.

8

In Costa Rica, 19th century, a unit of length = ¼ vara, = 20.9 centimeters. A synonym for the cuarta.

[Costa Rica. Ministerio de formento.]
Medidas y pesas del sistema métrico, y tablas de equivalencia con las antiguas.
San José de Costa Rica: Imprenta nacional, 1885.

9

In Mexico, a unit of length = ¼ vara, about 209.5 millimeters. A synonym for the cuarta. According to Galván Riviera, this division was modeled on the division of the vara of Toledo.

Galván Riviera, 1844. Excerpt in Spanish with English translation.

Sources

...lungha palmi 1040, cioè canne 104, e larga palmi 360, che sono canne 36...

...1040 palmi long, that is, 104 canne, and 360 palmi wide, which is 36 canne...

Giorgio Vasari.
Antonio da Sangallo architetto fiorentino.
in Le vite dé piu èccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori...
Florence, 1550.