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braza [Spanish]

1

A unit of length in Spain and many Spanish-speaking South American nations, ? – 20ᵗʰ century. In original concept the braza, like the English fathom, is the distance from tip to tip of outstretched arms.

Country	Length	Source
Argentina	= 2 vara, 1.7332 meters (about 5.682 feet)	1
Spain, Chile and Costa Rica	about 1.672 meters (about 5.48 feet)	1
province of Valencia, Spain 19th century	braza = 2 varas = 6 pies = 8 palmos = 32 quartos about 1.860 m, (but Altès says 1.814 meters) The braza real (royal braza) = 9 palmos about 2.041 meters	2
Colombia	1.60 meters (about 1.750 yards)	1

1. United Nations, 1966.

2. Doursther (1840), page 73, whose values are from Kelly and Altès.

2

A unit of land area in Spain. In most cases it is simply a square braza.

Country	Nomenclature	Area in square meters	Source
province of Valencia, Spain 19ᵗʰ century	braza	3.462	2
province of Valencia, Spain 19ᵗʰ century	braza real	4.165² 4.1554³	2, 3
province of Canarias, Spain	braza	3.2801	3
province of Castellón, Spain	braza real	4.1554	3
Colombia, Panama and the Philippines	braza	2.79 (3.34 square yards)	1

1. United Nations, 1966.

2. Doursther (1840), page 73.

3. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico.
Equivalencias entre las Pesas y Medidas Usadas Antiguamente en las Diversas Provincias de España y las Legales del Sistema Métrico-Decimal.
Publicadas de Real Orden.
Madrid: Imprenta de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfica y Estadístico, 1886.

3

The braza de cuidad, in the city of Manila in the Philippines, a unit of length used in surveying land, = 8 piés, 7 pulgadas, and 6 líneas of the standard of Burgos = 3 varas less 1/8 of a vara = about 2.4012 meters. Also called a realenga or realengo. See quiñón.

sources

Para representar las extenciones de las superficies de un terreno ó sementera toman los Manilos por unidad la Braza de Ciudad (Realenga), que es una longitud de 8 piès, 7 pulgadas, y 6 líneas de Burgos.

To represent distances in [measuring] the area of a piece of land or sown field, the people of Manila take as the unit the Braza de Cuidad (Realenga) which is a length of 8 piés, 7 pulgadas, and 6 líneas of Burgos.

Eduardo Sanchez Pita.
El Consultor del Sistema mètrico o Tablas de reducción de las pesas y medidas….
Published by the author, 1868.
as quoted in
S. Martin.
Tablas de las pesas y medidas que se usan en Filipinas.
Manila: Philippine Publishing Co., 1901.

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