A unit of liquid capacity, mostly used for wine. Also spelled botta. The Italian form of the butt or pipe.
Source code key for table
K Kelly, 1821.
B Bofondi, 1855.
M Martini, 1883.
Vino si vende per tucta l'isola [Sicily], cioè alla marina, a bocte, e bocte una torna in Vinegia bighonce tre.
Wine is sold throughout the island, that is to say, along the coast, by the botte, and one botte comes to three Venetian biconcia.
Chiarini, 1481.
El tonello del vino di Bruggia è octantocto rasche e ogni rascha è quattro bocte, fa in Firenze cogna uno e quattordici quindecimi.
The tonello of wine in Bruge is 88 rasch and each rasch is 4 botte, making 1 14/15 Florentine cogna.
Chiarini, 1481.
In Naples, it was used both for oil and wine, and called the botte di mena.
Una bocte di mena [in Naples] torna in Firenze cogno uno.
One Neapolitan botte di mena is one Florentine cogno.
Chiarini, 1481.
A Butte of oile or wine of Pulia hold heere twelve barrels, which have beene found to make in Florence 10. barrels, and is in England ( ) [sic] gallons.
Roberts, 1639. Apulia, Chapter CXLI, page 55.
In Apulia, Montpellier, Constantinople, a unit of liquid capacity used for oil. In Apulia it was known as the botte di mezzo migliaio, “butt of half a thousand”.
1
La botte di mezzo migliaio di Puglia è saine 57 [of oil in Constantinople], e la botte di mena di Napoli dee tenere saine 76 [of oil].
The botte di mezzo migiaio of Apulia is 58 saina [of oil in Constantinople], and the botte di mena of Naples must contain 76 saina.
Pegolotti, 1340.
2
Bocte una d'olio di Mompolieri fa in Firenze orcia 13 e mezo.
One botte of oil in Montpellier is the equivalent of 13½ Florentine orcia.
Chiarini, 1481.
3
Quasi tutto [of the oil] si vende a botte [in Constantinople] spezialmente chi vende in grosso, ma chi vende a minuto vende a saine a pregio di tanti kar. la saina.
Almost all [of the oil sold in Constantinople] is sold by the botte, especially oil sold wholesale, but that sold in small quantities is sold by the saina at so many ?kar? per saina.
Pegolotti, 1340.
A unit of mass used for butter, = 8 skaalpund = 16 marks, about 3.96 kilograms.
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Last revised: 3 October 2016.