Carmen de ponderibus

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Carmen de ponderibus (also Carmen de ponderibus et mensuris = poem about units of weight and measurement , De ponderibus ) is a didactic poem about weights, volumes and related calculations of substances, written between the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 5th century in Latin Hexameters was written. Instruments and calculations that were seldom presented in ancient literature are of particular interest : a hydrometer for determining the specific gravity of liquids and instructions for determining the mixing ratio of gold and silver in an alloy . Since the little work appears in several manuscripts together with the writings of the grammarist Priscian , this was initially accepted as the author. This has been discarded for a number of reasons, most notably because the content and style are inconsistent with the grammarian Priscian. A Remmius Favinus is now assumed to be the author, whose name is given in several manuscripts like this, but about whom nothing else is known.

Content and sources

The poem contains the definition of individual weights (vv. 8–55) and measurements (vv. 56–83) of the Romans and Greeks, the description of a hydrometer (vv. 91–121) and instructions for determining the mixing ratio in a gold / Silver alloy (vv. 124–208).

Weights and dimensions

A large number of Roman and some Greek weight units are described. The obolus is followed by scripulum , dragma (drachma), sicilicus , sextula etc. in a confusing sequence and relations up to the largest unit libra . Some of the definitions go back a long way in the past to Marcus Terentius Varro ( De linqua Latina ). Scattered information can also be found in Pliny the Elder ( Naturalis historia XXI, 185), Horace and Virgil .

The dimensions of the cochlear (0.011 liter) to the amphora (26.26 liter) are similarly described

Hydrometers

A hydrometer in ancient times is an instrument used to determine the specific gravity of liquids. Our author does not name the term, but describes the function of the device, a thin ore cylinder with a weight at the lower end, which is lowered into the liquid to be determined: hoc cuiusque potes pondus spectare liquoris (with this you can see the weight of each liquid) .

It is doubtful whether the device actually goes back to Archimedes , especially because it was not mentioned by the numerous ancient scientists before the 4th century. There are only two other mentions in antiquity, on the one hand a letter from Synesius of Cyrene to the philosopher Hypatia at the beginning of the 5th century ( Jacques Paul Migne : Patrologia Graeca , LXVI, Epistula XV). He asks her to arrange for one of the devices he describes to be manufactured and sent because he is doing very badly. Apparently it was used in the manufacture of medicines . The second exact description can be found in al-Chazini in the first half of the 12th century, who gives the Greek mathematician Pappos (4th century) as the designer .

Gold / silver alloy

From v. 124 the author deals with the gold and silver content of alloys. He is referring to the alta mens Syracusi magister , the profound understanding of the master from Syracuse, i.e. Archimedes . Remmius Favinus tells the anecdotal story of the fraudulently not made of pure gold crown, the exact composition of which Hieron II of Syracuse wants to know, also reproduced by Vitruvius ( Ten Books on Architecture , IX, Preface, 9-12). Both texts use Archimedes' principle for the solution , but proceed differently. In the text of Vitruvius it is used that materials with the same weight but different specific gravity take up different volumes, which can easily be demonstrated by immersion in water and displacement of different amounts of water. In contrast, Remmius Flavinus places equal amounts of gold or silver on a beam balance . If the weighing pans are immersed in a liquid, the balance becomes inclined. With small weights on the balance beam you can restore the balance and at the same time quantify the process. A description of the scales with an illustration can be found in al-Chazini, who most likely drew from Greek sources.

In the following verses vv. 165–189 the author offers (not necessarily with complete clarity) a second method of calculation by constructing auxiliary bodies from pure silver and gold and largely follows the Greek mathematician Menelaus (1st century).

Lore

Isidore of Seville seems to have known and used the work ( Etymologiae , XVI, 25). It has been included in over a dozen manuscripts (the oldest dating from the 8th century), so it can be expected to be of greater interest. The work was first edited in 1470 as part of the editio princeps des Priscian. Friedrich Hultsch published it in the Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae in 1866 and Alexander Riese included it in the Anthologica latina in 1906 . In 2007 an edition with a German translation and detailed commentary by Klaus Geus was published .

Text editions, translations and literature

  • Heinrich Bauerreiß: On the history of the specific weight in antiquity and the Middle Ages , Erlangen 1914
  • Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus] poem about units of measure and weight, Oberhaid 2007
  • Friedrich Hultsch: Greek and Roman Metrology , Berlin 1882
  • Friedrich Hultsch: Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae , Volume II, Leipzig 1866
  • Alexander Riese: Anthologica latina sive poesis latinae supplementum , Pars prior, Fasciculus II, Leipzig 1906

Single receipts

  1. ^ Friedrich Hultsch: Carmen de ponderibus. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Sp. 1593 f.
  2. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], p. 9f
  3. ^ Friedrich Hultsch: Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae , p. 25
  4. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], p. 10
  5. ^ Friedrich Hultsch: Greek and Roman Metrology , p. 144f notes
  6. ↑ Friedrich Hultsch: Greek and Roman Metrology , p. 44 notes
  7. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], p. 67
  8. ^ Fritz Krafft in Lexicon of the Old World
  9. ^ Ferdinand Rosenberger : The history of physics I , 1965, Hypathia
  10. ^ Heinrich Bauerreiß: To the history of the specific weight in antiquity and the Middle Ages , p. 97ff
  11. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], p. 58
  12. ^ Heinrich Bauerreiß: On the history of the specific weight in antiquity and the Middle Ages , p. 48
  13. ↑ Heinrich Bauerreiß: On the history of the specific weight in antiquity and the Middle Ages , p. 68
  14. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], explanations p. 39ff
  15. ^ Klaus Geus: [Remmius Favinus], p. 10f