Since the Venetians divide the bes into eleven hundred and fifty-two siliquae,
or two hundred and eighty-eight units of 4 siliquae each, into which number
our people also divide the bes, they thus make the same number of siliquae,
and both agree, even though the Venetians divide the bes into smaller
divisions.
This, then, is the system of weights, both of the greater and the lesser kinds,
which metallurgists employ, and likewise the system of the lesser weights
which coiners and merchants employ, when they are assaying metals and
coined money. The bes of the larger weight with which they provide themselves when they weigh large masses of these things, I have explained in my
work De Mensuris et Ponderibus, and in another book, De Predo Metallorum
et Monetis.
There are three small balances by which we weigh ore, metals, and
fluxes. The first, by which we weigh lead and fluxes, is the largest among these
smaller balances, and when eight unciae (of the greater weights) are placed in
one of its pans, and the same number in the other, it sustains no damage.
The second is more delicate, and by this we weigh the ore or the metal, which
is to be assayed ; this is well able to carry one centumpondium of the lesser
