Archduke Leopold-Willem of Habsbourg, emperor Ferdinand III's brother, lived from 1647 to 1656 in Brussels, where he was general governor of the Low Countries. He was a great collector of paintings; he bought no less than 1400 paintings of, among others, Holbein, Bruegel the Elder, Van Eyck, Mantegna,Giorgione, Veronese.
On May 6th, 1656, Léopold-Willem goes back from Antwerp to Vienna, bringing with him his collection of paintings, which he made install in 1657, partly in the Stallburg, in the Hofburg palace, partly in the Neue Burg. He makes the Flemish painter Jan Anton van den Baren his manager of his collection. In this collection, stands the Tower of Babel, as testifies the inventory written in 1659.
In this inventory, the painting is described as follows : «581. Ein grosses Stückh von Öhlfarb auf Holz, warin der babilonische Thurn. In einer alter Ramen mit verguldten Leisten, 6 Spann 4 Finger hoch, vnndt 8 ½ Spann braith. Original vom älten Brögel.» (f° 255)
My question is : which was the value (in cm) of a Spann in this time ? I didn't find a more recent book about the ancient measures than this (a bit old) one : Horace DOURSTHER : Dictionnaire universel des poids et mesures anciens et modernes, contenant des tables des monnaies de tous les pays, Bruxelles : M. Hayez, 1840. But the author says nothing about the Spann. Can anyone help me ? I would be very glad, and thankful.
(Please, forgive me my bad english; I do my best, but it is not my mother language.)
Xavier de COSTER
Dear Xavier de Coster
Span is the measure of the width of an open hand. Corresponds to 1/8 of the man's height, or 1/2 of the cubit. Therefore it has 3 palms = 12 digits (fingers) = 9 inches.
With the reference of the English foot its value would be 22.86 cm. I do not know its value in 1659.
I hope it is useful, and also forgives my bad english.
Dear Francisco,
Thank you for your answer. But my question is precisely related to the historical context of the Habsbourg's collection. I guess the dimensions of the Tower of Babel were not the same in that time as nowadays. But I would like to base my hypothesis on something precise.
Kind regards,
Xavier
You can know the exact measurement by analyzing some representative architecture of that time. See my project
https://www.researchgate.net/project/Anthropometric-Architecture
Dear Francisco,
Your project is very interesting, but that is not what I am looking for.
Anyway, thank you very much for your contribution.
Xavier
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiguas_medidas_espa%C3%B1olas
http://cyt-ar.com.ar/cyt-ar/index.php/Pesos_y_medidas_en_la_Am%C3%A9rica_colonial
Muchas gracias, Judith. Pero no veo lo que estoy buscando (el Spann en el Empirio germanico) en las paginas web que me recomendas.
Un saludo cordial !
Xavier
Xavier, en el libro que comentas dice que el pie legal del imperio en Viena era 316.1 mm. Entonces el Spann (Span en inglés o Cuarta en español), que se corresponde con 3 palmos = 3/4 pie, vale 23.71 cm.
Saludos
Dear Xavier,
it is difficult to specify the historical measures accurately. But the Spann should be about 20,8 cm = 10 Fingers (2,08 cm).
Please cf. some of the results of the search in Google Books:
https://www.google.cz/search?q=%22spann%22+%22finger%22+%22cm%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Bkg-WYz6H-Tf8geps7qYCQ#q=%22spann%22+%22finger%22+%22cm%22&tbm=bks
Jakub
I do not know if this is an answer you can work with.
The Wikipedia page about old Austrian units for measuring states that a "Spanne" is equivalent to two "Fists" and measured 210,72 mm. According to that page units of measurement were standardized in 1756 by Maria Theresia for Austria and Hungary.
I hope that is useful information?
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alte_Ma%C3%9Fe_und_Gewichte_%28%C3%96sterreich%29#L.C3.A4ngenma.C3.9Fe
Jakub, I already did that, of course, but without finding what I am looking for.
Any way, thanks for your advice.
Xavier
Dear Francisco Javier,
El pie legal es más reciente. No existía todavía en 1659.
Pero gracias por insistir,
Xavier
Thanks for your contribution, Harald, but this is more recent. I am looking for this value in the middle of 17th Century.
Xavier
Xavier,
maybe the link, that I used in my last comment, does not work right in your computer without the cookies saved in my computer.
One of the searched citations is the book Palma Vechchio by Annemarie Spahn (1932). She also mentions the inventory of the collections of archduke Leopold Wilhelm from 1659 and she supposes the length of the Spann 20,8 cm (see page 110). The same length mention also other publications (e. g. Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 1911-1912 - page 70, footnote 4 - see http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/jbksak1911_1912/0082 - I hope that this link will work better).
I cannot be sure that the authors are certainly right, but I suppose that they have some good reasons for their statements.
Good luck with your research!
Jakub
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology