Nice
18^th century – 1859

Units of mass

During this period Nice was sometimes governed by the French, and sometimes by Italians. In the chart, the first unit name is French and the second Italian.

						quintal or cantaro
					rubbio or rubbo		6
					rotolo	10	60
			livre or libbra		2½	25	150
		once or oncia		12	30	300	1800
huitième? or ottavo			8	96	240	2400	14,400
denier or denaro		3	25	300	750	7500	45,000
grano	24	72	576	6912	17,280	172,800	1,036,800
45 mg	1.082 g	3.246 g	25.969 g	311.628 g	779.0712 g	7.791 kg	46.744 kg

Units of dry capacity

				charge or carica
					sacco	1 1/3
	setier or sestiere, or staro				3	4
			emina	2	6	8
	quartiere		2	4	12	16
motureau or moturale		4	8	16	48	64
Usually the dry capacity units of Nice were taken to equal those of Marseille, in which case:	2½	10	20	40	120	160
	2.527 L	10.109 L	20.219 L	40.438 L	L	161.750 L

Units of liquid capacity

		carica
	barile	2
pinta	60	120
0.786 L	47.175 L	94.350 L

In fact, most liquids (oil, always) were sold by weight, not volume.

Unit of capacity	Actually sold by this weight	kilograms
carica	2 cantara	93.489
barile	1 cantaro	46.744
pinta	1 rotolo (2½ libbre)	7.790

The rubbo of wine contained 10 pinte. Oil was commonly sold by the 25-libbre rubbo.

Units of length

						rango pei tessitori
						trabacco		1½
						canna	1½	2¼
					auna
				raso	2.165
		pan or palmo		2.08*		8	12	18
	oncia or pollice		12			96	144	216
	linea	12	144			1152	1728	2592
Gattey	—	—	261.5	—	—	2.096	3.144	—
Doursther	—	21.833	262.0	548.84	1.18845	2.0960	3.1440	—
Martini	1.819 mm	21.833 mm	262.00 mm		1.188446 m	2.0960 m	3.1440 m	4.716 m

*According to Kruse (1781).

The auna is the old, pre-metric aune of Paris. It and the raso, both cloth measures, appear to have no integral relationships with the other units or with each other. Rasos are also found in Sardinia, Savoy and Turin.

According to Doursther (page 84) and Gattey (page 103, 3rd ed), Nice had also a second canna, “la canne dite de France = 2 mètres = 8 pans.” That alternative value would, of course, ripple through the whole system. Doursther lists two pans in Nice (page 375), one of them = 1/8 of the French canne, = 250.00 mm. Gattey, for the Alpes Maritimes department, also lists a canne of 2.002 meters.

Units of land area

				séterée or starata
				eminata	2
			montural	8	16
		ottava	8	64	128
	trabuc superficiel	—	—	78 1/8	156¼
Gattey (1812)	98.85*	—	96.5	—	1544.5
Doursther (1840)	9.8847	—	96.53	—	1544.49
Martini (1883)	—	12.0663 sq. m	96.5306 sq. m	772.2450 sq. m	1544.490 sq. m

*On page 103. Gattey seems to have misplaced the decimal point.