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setier [French]

1

In France, at least as early as the 13ᵗʰ century – 19ᵗʰ century, a unit of dry capacity with many regional variations. It comes from the Latin sextarius, meaning a sixth (of a conge). Also spelled cestier, sester, setiere, sextiere, sextier, sextere, sestier, sestiere, sestaire, sesterot, sesterium, septier, septarius, septerium.

In the Système Usuel, early 19ᵗʰ century, the setier = 100 liters.

Several sources from the mid-19ᵗʰ century list Parisian values that differed by commodity :

Joseph Petit and Gavrilovitch, Maury and Teodoru.
Essai de restitution de plus anciens mèmoriaux de la Chambre des comptes de Paris.
Paris: F. Alcan, 1899.

sources

1

Sestieri uno di grano di Mompolieri fa in Firenze staia due di grano.

One setier of grain of Montpellier makes 2 Florentine staia of grain.

Chiarini, 1481.

2

Sextièr ou setier, sextarius. Cette dernière mesure ne correspond, comme sixième partie, à aucune de celles dont nous nous servons pour les grains, & l'on peut observer la même disconvenance à l'égard de nos mesures pour les liquides. Si nous n'avons pas de sextier pour la pinte, nous avons le demi-sextier, qui, à la vérité, n'est pas la moitié du sixième de la pinte, mais qui a pris évidemment son nom du sextarius des Romains, sixième partie de leur conge, congius. Budé, qui l'avoit remarqué, dit a l'occasion de nos mots sextier, demi-sextier, vulgus sextarios nulla ratione vocat.

Sextier or setier, sextarius. This last measure does not correspond, as the sixth part, to any of those we use for grain, and the same disagreement can be observed with regard to our measures for liquids. If we do not have sextier for the pint, we have the demi-sextier, which, indeed, is not half of the sixth of the pint, but obviously took its name from the sextarius of the Romans, a sixth part of their conge, congius. Bude, who had noticed, said in regard to our words sextier and demi-sextier, vulgus sextarios nulla ratione vocat. [people call them sextarios without any reason]

[Mathieu] Tillet and Abeille.
Observations de la Société Royale d'Agriculture sur l'uniformité des Poids et des Mesures. Paris: l'Imprimerie de Philippe-Denys Pierres, 1790.
Footnote 2, page 40.

2

In France, ? – 19ᵗʰ centuries, a unit of land area. Originally it was a seed measure of land, the amount of land that would be sown with 1 setier of seed. In the 18ᵗʰ century it transitioned to a geometric unit, having a variety of values in different locations:

* The boisseau as a unit of land area, of course.

3

In France, various units of liquid capacity, principally (only?) used for wine:

• In Paris, the setier of wine = 1/36 muid = 4 quarts = 8 pintes = 16 chopines = 32 demi-setiers = 64 poissons = 256 roquilles, about 7.45 liters. 
• The chopine was sometimes called a setier, in which case a setier was about 466 milliliters.
• The setier in some other cities was a much larger unit. According to Doursther, the setier of wine in Montpellier (= 1/18 muid = 32 pots) was about 33.80 liters, and Toulouse had two setiers, one of 3 barals (34.93 liters) and one of 4 barals (46.658 liters). 

In Switzerland the setier was identified with the eimer and had values comparable to the larger French values.

The demi-setier, despite its name, = ¼ pinte. It is a single serving, a unit of liquid capacity applied to wine and other spirits at the retail level, at least as early as the 17ᵗʰ century.

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Last revised: 11 September 2005.